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The Online Database:
Countdown to Launch
by Alexander Avraham
September 2004 will see one of the
greatest technological revolutions in Holocaust Remembrance: the
uploading of the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
to the Internet. With its leading-edge search, cross-reference and
display capabilities, the site will be a one-of-a-kind interactive
platform for commemoration and education.
This vital endeavor is being assisted
by businessman and hi-tech entrepreneur Yossi Hollander and other
individuals, and supported by Chief Judge Edward R. Korman—responsible
for the distribution of funds from the Holocaust Victim Assets
Litigation against Swiss Banks—as part of an extensive list of all
the victims of the Nazi regime.
Accessible through Yad Vashem’s
website, the Database will enable visitors to search for any of
the nearly three million names of Shoah victims Yad Vashem
has digitized to date, submit Pages of Testimony about victims not
yet recorded, and learn about the Holocaust through the “Stories
Behind the Names” feature. Developed by the International School
for Holocaust Studies and the Hall of Names, this online activity
uses Pages of Testimony as the starting point for a personalized
educational session. Through links on the Pages themselves, the
victim’s biographical data is augmented by historical,
geographical, and linguistic information. Additional
context-sensitive links open further resources on related issues.
On the site’s main screen, users will
be able to search the Database by the victim’s family name, first
name, and location before and during the Shoah. Results
will show all matches and near-matches, plus basic biographical
details. The search engine will take into account phonetics and
synonyms in both Latin and Hebrew characters at the same time.
Users will be able to perform advanced searches for common names
or numerous results, where the search may be narrowed using
additional search parameters such as dates, names of family
members, or the names of the people who submitted Pages of
Testimony.
Two-thirds of the names in the
Database were obtained from the more than two million Pages of
Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem over the past 50 years, nearly
all of which have now been digitized. Other names have been
gleaned from additional computerized lists, including deportation,
camp and ghetto records. With a click, users will be able to view
and print Pages of Testimony, or a screen containing a victim’s
personal story, based on information from documentary sources
available in the Database. Each such “mini-biography” will further
link to information about the particular victim, such as the
places he/she lived and died, related historical events and more.
A page listing the victim’s full record details will also be
available.
Through the site, users will be able
to submit new Pages of Testimony, add photographs or documents to
existing ones, or suggest corrections of data entry errors.
Submitters will be required
to fill out a special online Page of Testimony form with a
victim’s biographical information, print it out and mail it to Yad
Vashem for review. Correctly submitted Pages will then be placed
as symbolic tombstones in the Hall of Names. Before the
online-entered data can be added to the Database, Hall of Names
staff will conduct a sophisticated authentication process,
including cross-referencing for historical accuracy, proofreading
of the information and, if necessary contacting the submitter for
clarifications.
Based on experience from previous
campaigns to collect Pages of Testimony, a major wave of
submissions during the months following the launch of the online
Database is expected. Submissions will presumably decline somewhat
and steady as time passes. Yad Vashem expects to take six to eight
months to process each batch of new names during the initial peak,
and less following stabilization. Additional resources would
enable Yad Vashem to shorten response time, insert new features to
the site and add newly digitized lists of names at an accelerated
pace.
The author is Director of the Hall of
Names
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
