Founded in 1940-06-20
The Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit opened in German-occupied Kraków on 1940-06-20. The brainchild of Hans Frank, Governor General of the Generalgouvernement, the IDO was comprised of eleven sections: agriculture, art history, economics, forestry and woodworking, geology, history, landscaping and gardening, law, linguistics, prehistory, and Rassen- und Volkstumforschung (roughly “Racial and National Traditions Research” or IDO-SRV), whose three Referate (sections) also included one for Jewish studies. The Institute took over the offices in Kraków’s Jagiellonian University, much of whose pro...