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What kind of information do Yad Vashem’s Archives
currently hold?
With some 75 million pages of documentation, Yad Vashem’s archives
comprise the largest collection of information on the Holocaust, as well
as photographs, testimonies, Pages of Testimony and more. Sources
of this information include documents microfilmed by Israel in the
mid-1950s at Bad Arolsen, Germany, in the central repository of the
International Tracing Service (ITS) established at the end of World War II
to help survivors trace missing relatives and friends.
When did Yad Vashem first acquire documents from
the ITS? Why?
In charging the ITS with its enormous task to help reunite families “torn
apart by war,” the Allies gathered all the documentation possible that
pertained to individuals during the war – including its victims,
deportations, concentration camps, forced labor and displaced persons.
Since a large proportion of the ITS documentation included first-hand
evidence of the fate of Jewish victims of Nazism, the Israeli government
requested permission in the early 1950s to photograph the sections of the
ITS collection relating to Jewish suffering during World War II. Permission
was granted, and from June 1955-November 1957 a project was run by a team
of experts at Yad Vashem to microfilm some 20 million pages of documents
with information about Jewish victims, as well as items of specific Jewish
interest, which were then placed for permanent storage in its archives.
Thus Yad Vashem became the only place in the world other than Bad Arolsen
to hold copies of ITS documentation. Over the years, Yad Vashem also
provided the ITS with copies of various collections in its archives.
How has Yad Vashem helped with searches for
information on Holocaust victims?
Over the past half century, Yad Vashem has amassed unrivaled research and
technical skills answering some 25,000 annual requests for information
about Holocaust victims. As Yad Vashem held a copy of much of the ITS
Holocaust-period documents, many people turned to Yad Vashem for
information even if they knew the original source was in the ITS. Over the
decades, experts at Yad Vashem have helped thousands of members of the
public in the complicated search for information from the many sources in
its vast archives, including that stored on these microfilms. Our online
Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names also holds much information
on Holocaust victims.
How is the ITS material now being released
different from what Yad Vashem already has?
Due to mounting public pressure to allow easier access to the vital
documentation housed at Bad Arolsen, the International Commission of the
ITS recently signed a new agreement whereby scanned copies of the entire
collection will be transferred to its 11 member states – Israel, Belgium,
France Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, the United States,
Germany, Greece and Poland – over the next three years. Israel’s
representative to receive the documentation remains Yad Vashem; the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the repository
in the US; and in Poland, the IPN (Institute of National Memory) will
receive the documents. Part of this material duplicates what Yad Vashem
already has, but it also includes new material collected in the last 50
years by the ITS as well as documents not copied at that time.
What is the Central Names Index?
Among the ITS documents microfilmed by Yad Vashem in the 1950s were the
reference cards that made up the so-called “Central Names Index” (CNI –
previously known as the “Master Index”), one card for every appearance of
a person on any original document in the ITS. Over the years the
number of these cards increased, and Yad Vashem has recently received
the complete collection – over 50 million cards. The cards provide a
concise version of the essential facts as understood from the ITS
documentation, and thus allow Yad Vashem to convey to members of the
public at least an outline of the fate of many individual Holocaust
victims. In some cases the original documents that the CNI cards were
based on had been microfilmed in the 1950s and are thus also available at
Yad Vashem.
Among the new material Yad Vashem will receive from the ITS is an updated
scanned and partially indexed version of the CNI. It is important to note
that until Yad Vashem receives a full copy of all ITS material (expected
by 2010) there will still be instances, mostly in cases of post-war
documentation, where the original document a CNI card refers to will not
be available at Yad Vashem.
How has Yad Vashem prepared for this new influx
of material?
Even before all 11 member states had ratified the treaty, expert staff in
the Yad Vashem archives began the groundwork to prepare for the transfer
of the material, including working with ITS staff to understand the
systems and expertise required to ensure that members of the public
receive the information they request in a timely and efficient manner. In
August 2007, the first portion of digital material from the ITS arrived at
Yad Vashem. The documents primarily include material describing
concentration camp prisoners: personal records of various prisoners in the
Nazi camps, as well as lists prepared within the camps themselves,
including transfer records, personal prisoner accounts, and details of the
sick and the dead.
Yad Vashem is currently using its decades of expertise to assess these
documents to discover which material supplements or complements what it
already received from the ITS five decades ago, and to make the
information in the digitized documents available in the most efficient way
possible. Staff at Yad Vashem is also being bolstered to attend to the
influx of queries expected to be generated in the coming months, so that
it can continue to respond to each public enquiry with as comprehensive an
answer as possible, using the different sources in its archives.
How can the ITS information help in Names
Recovery?
Yad Vashem continues its mission to memorialize each individual Jew who
perished in the Holocaust by recording their names, biographical details
and photographs on Pages of Testimony. To date some 3.3 million names
are digitized and documented in the Central Database of Shoah Victims’
Names, but millions are still unknown. Archival experts at Yad Vashem are
working to glean more names from the wealth of information contained in
the ITS documents.
While the addition of the ITS information to Yad Vashem’s archives will
create an unrivaled Holocaust repository, many victims who were never
listed in any archival source will remain unnamed, unless those who
remember them submit Pages of Testimony on their behalf. Yad Vashem
therefore continues to call for the submission of
these unique personal testimonies, which serve as an invaluable resource
for commemorating and restoring the individual identities of the victims
of the Holocaust.
How can members of the public search for
information at Yad Vashem?
As has always been the case, the public is welcome to come to Yad Vashem
to search all of our archival material, including information we have from
the ITS. Our reading room is open 8:30-17:00 Sunday-Thursday.
Yad Vashem’s Reference and Information unit will also continue to answer
queries sent by mail, fax (+972 2 644 3669) or
e-mail, free of charge. Click here to search
for information via a
downloadable form or an
online form.
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