Stanislav Zámečník Research Award of the Comité International de Dachau

The Comité International de Dachau (CID) will again award the Stanislav Zámečník Study Prize in 2021. The CID's mission is to preserve the memory of the crimes committed in the Dachau concentration camp; it is an international association and consists of the organisations of former Dachau concentration camp inmates from 25 countries and their families. The Comité International de Dachau endows the study prize in memory of the victims of the National Socialist concentration and extermination camps, especially Dachau concentration camp. The prize has been awarded every two years since 2017; 6,000 euros are available for it.

Stanislav Zámečník (1922-2011) was a Czech survivor of Dachau concentration camp and historian. During his imprisonment in Dachau from 1941 to 1944, he was involved in activities of the camp's internal resistance. After liberation and his training as a historian, he worked on the first exhibition of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, which opened in 1965. After the suppression of the Prague Spring, he was banned from his profession for supporting it. It was not until 1989 that he was able to work unhindered as a scientist again. Zámečník published important articles in the "Dachauer Heften". In 2002, his monograph "Das war Dachau" (That was Dachau), which is still authoritative today, was published; it is a standard work and has been translated into many languages. As a member of the scientific advisory board, he exerted a formative influence on the redesign of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial.