Archives Unbound: Holocaust Studies

Deep and broad in its coverage, this collection incorporates anti-Semitic propaganda, correspondence from prisoners, documents from resistance groups, bank records from Nazi financiers, eyewitness accounts from concentration camps, and much more.

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  • Holocaust Studies

    Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons - Items originating from prisoners held in German concentration camps, internment and transit camps, Gestapo prisons, and POW camps, during and just before World War II. Most of the collection consists of letters written or received by prisoners, but also includes receipts for parcels, money orders and personal effects; paper currency; and realia, including Star of David badges that Jews were forced to wear. Letters sent to camps: Auschwitz; Buchenwald; Dachau; Flossenburg; Lublin/Majdanek; Mauthausen; Mittelbau; Neuengamme; Ravensbruck; and Sachsenhausen. Letters sent by prisoners from: Auschwitz; Bergen Belsen; Buchenwald; Dachau; Esterwegen; Flossenburg; Fort VII; Gross-Rosen; Herzogenbush; Lublin-Majdanek; Mauthausen-Gusen; Mittelbau-Dora; Natzweiler; Neuengamme; Ravensbruck; Sachsenhausen and Stutthof.

    German Anti-Semitic Propaganda, 1909-1941 - This collection comprises 170 German-language titles of books and pamphlets. The collection presents anti-Semitism as an issue in politics, economics, religion, and education. Most of the writings date from the 1920s and 1930s and many are directly connected with Nazi groups. The works are principally anti-Semitic, but include writings on other groups as well, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesuits, and the Freemasons. Also included are history, pseudo-history, and fiction.

    Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes - This collection provides unique documents on the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi concentration camp commandants and camp personnel. Documents include correspondence; trial records and transcripts; investigatory material, such as interrogation reports and trial exhibits; clemency petitions and reviews; photographs of atrocities; newspaper clippings; and pamphlets. Many concentration (and later extermination) camps and sub-camps are represented in this collection, including Mauthausen, Dachau, Belsen-Bergen, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Sobibor, sub-camp Gros-Raming, sub-camp Gusen I, sub-camp Ebensee, and others.

    Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration - The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR) was organized in London in August 1938 as a result of the Evian Conference of July 1938, which had been called by President Roosevelt to consider the problem of racial, religious, and political refugees from central Europe.

    Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant Collection - David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich, a Jewish communist and committed member of the underground resistance during World War II. This collection consists of original documents collected by Diamant for approximately 30 years dealing primarily with the Jewish segment of the French underground resistance; many of the documents originate with communist groups and some deal with Polish groups. Most of the documents are in French, while some are in Yiddish.

    Nuremberg Laws and Nazi Annulment of German Jewish Nationality - This collection consists of index cards listing the name, date, and place of birth, occupation, and last address of Jews whose German citizenship was revoked by the "Nuremberg Laws" of 1935, including Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czech Bohemia. The cards are generally in alphabetical order. Suffix names "Israel" for men and "Sara" for women were added by law in 1936 to readily identify persons of Jewish descent.

    Reports of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry Palestine, 1944–1946 - The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (AACI), formed in 1945, was created to study the situation of Jewish survivors in Europe and the problems connected with their resettlement in Palestine.  The committee was charged with gathering information and making recommendations on 1) the effect of Jewish immigration and resettlement on the political, economic, and social conditions in Palestine; and (2) the position of surviving Jews in Europe and the possibility of relieving the problem by repatriation or resettlement of the survivors in Palestine and other non-European countries.  The committee called for a unitary state rather than partition based on ethnicity or religious profession. The records include AACI reference files, evidence submitted to the committee, transcripts of hearings, AACI reports, and papers of the Anglo-American Cabinet Committee. 

    Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London - Testaments to the Holocaust is the online publication of the archives of the Wiener Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party. It contains documentary evidence collected in several different programs: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during, and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of ‘educational’ children’s books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins, and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included. 75% of the content is written in German.

    The British Mandate in Palestine, Arab-Jewish Relations, and the U.S. Consulate at Jerusalem, 1920-1944 - This collection consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by the American consular post in Jerusalem. The topics covered by these records include the protection of interests of American citizens, foreign trade, shipping, and immigration. But there is more to these records than traditional consular activities – the Jerusalem post provides a unique look into the British Mandate in Palestine. Consular officials reported on the administration of the Mandate, Jewish immigration, terrorism, and Arab rebellion. There are unique materials on the relationship of Palestinians to other Arab countries, British policies, the Zionist movement in Palestine and abroad, Communist influence in Palestine, reports on Islamic conferences, racial and religious disturbances and riots, the “holy places question,” partition of Palestine and the Arab Entente, Jewish-Arab relations and impact on Palestine, and Jewish and Arab national aspirations.

    The Jewish Question: Records from the Berlin Document Center - This collection comprises documents from a wide variety of sources, including the Gestapo, local police and government offices, Reich ministries, businesses, etc., about Jewish communities. These records are organized into various sub-collections, i.e., Archiv Schumacher, Streicher, Hans Frank, Hauptarchiv der NSDAP, Geschaedigte Juden, etc., and Ordner, or folders, and include newspaper clippings, letters, manuscripts, pamphlets, reports and other documents originating with the Sturmabteilung (SA), Schutzstaffel (SS), Gestapo, Reich Ministry of Justice, and Reichskulturkammer (RKK, Reich Chamber of Culture) from 1920- 1945.

    U.S. Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950 - Much has been published chronicling the role of Pope Pius XII regarding refugees, the Holocaust, and relations with America during the war years and the immediate post-war period. This publication provides a wealth of unique correspondence, reports, and analyses, memos of conversations, and personal interviews exploring such themes U.S.-Vatican relations, Vatican’s role in World War II, Jewish refugees, Italian anti-Jewish laws during the papacy of Pius XII, and the pope’s knowledge of the treatment of European Jews.

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