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Holocaust Study Resources
Overview
YIVO's Holocaust collections can be found in two separate departments—the Library and the Archives—according to type of material. Books, periodicals, and newspapers are kept in the Library; while manuscripts, organizational files, and photographs are held by the Archives.
Holocaust Study Resources in the Library
ID card issued in Mainz by the Nazis in 1939. The bearer of the card is identified as a Jew by the large Gothic letter "J" and by the addition of the middle name "Sarah" to her original name. (Records of the Institut der NSDAP zur Erforschung der Judenfrage‚ Frankfurt am Main) YIVO Archives
The YIVO Library has a wide range of publications, in many languages, that relate to the Holocaust. These include:
Bibliographies
Among these are the 13-volume series published jointly by YIVO and Yad Vashem (Jerusalem), covering sources in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Hungarian. French sources are covered in bibliographies published by the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (Paris), and German sources in the Wiener Library's Catalogue Series (London). Abraham J. and Hershel Edelheit's Bibliography on Holocaust Literature (3 vols.) is the most extensive guide to books and articles in English.
Reference books
These include the Encyclopaedia Judaica (16 vols.), the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (4 vols.), and comprehensive surveys, such as the following:
- The Destruction of the European Jews, by Raul Hilberg (Chicago, 1967)
- The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War, by Martin Gilbert (New York, 1985)
- The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, by Leni Yahil (Oxford, 1990)
- The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945, by Lucy S. Dawidowicz (New York, 1975)
Published sets of original documents
These include:
- America and the Holocaust, edited by David S. Wyman (New York, 1989-1991, 13 vols.)
- The Holocaust, edited by John Mendelsohn (New York, 1982, 18 vols.)
- The Nazi Holocaust, edited by Michael R. Marrus (Westport, 1989, 15 vols.)
The above books provide a basic introduction to the Holocaust and are widely available in many public and university libraries. More specialized materials include:
- Monographs on specific topics related to the Holocaust
- Photographic albums
- Nuremberg War Crimes Trial transcripts (published excerpts)
- Memoirs and eyewitness accounts
- Books published in Nazi Germany
- Memorial volumes (yizker-bikher) commemorating Jewish communities in Eastern Europe
- Lists of Jewish deportees compiled in western Germany (including west Berlin), France, and Belgium
- Lists of Jewish deportees to Terezin (Theresienstadt)
- Lists of Jewish Holocaust survivors in postwar Europe
- Postwar publications by Holocaust survivors in German, Austrian, and Italian displaced persons camps
- The Holocaust in fiction, drama, and poetry
Note: Much of this material is not in English.
Holocaust Study Resources in the Archives
The YIVO Archives also has large collections on the Holocaust. These include:
- Fragmentary records of Nazi government agencies (Berlin Collection, RG 215)
- Records of the French Jewish community under German occupation (Records of UGIF, RG 210, and other collections)
- Documents on Dutch Jewry during the Holocaust
- Documents from the Lodz, Warsaw, and Vilna Ghettos
- Records of HICEM, on the relief activities of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in Europe during World War II
- Personal testimonies
- Photographs
- Maps
- Records of Holocaust survivors in the postwar displaced persons camps
Links to Other Sources of Information About the Holocaust
Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine
Paris, France
Centre for Holocaust Studies at Jagiellonian University
Kraków, Poland
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
New Haven, CT
Foundation Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense
Lodz, Poland
Leo Baeck Institute
New York, NY. A constituent of the Center for Jewish History.
Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938
Vienna, Austria
Poetry in Hell
The complete collection of poems (in Yiddish and English) from the Warsaw Ghetto's Ringelblum Archives
Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History
A project of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. In Polish and English
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Los Angeles, CA
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, DC
Consult the USHMM also for information about local Holocaust resource centers.
University of Michigan Holocaust Survivor Oral Histories
Dearborn, MI
The Wiener Library, Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv, Israel
Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
Jerusalem, Israel