UpFront with NGS: Holocaust

Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts

20 June 2017

History Unfolded -- US Newspapers and the Holocaust

History Unfolded -- US Newspapers and the Holocaust

From our friends at Newspapers.com … Learn about this newspaper-related project run by the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Make a Difference with History Unfolded!

Looking for an easy way to make a big difference? Newspapers.com invites you to participate in the History Unfolded project run by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum!

What is History Unfolded? History Unfolded is a project that seeks to expand our knowledge of how American newspapers reported on Nazi persecution during the 1930s and '40s so we can better understand what Americans knew about the Holocaust as it was happening.

To help achieve this, the History Unfolded project asks people like you to search local newspapers from the 1930s and '40s for Holocaust-related news and opinions and then submit them online to the museum. The newspaper articles you submit will be used to help shape the museum’s 2018 exhibit on Americans and the Holocaust and related educational materials. The articles will also be made available to scholars, historians, and the public.

Who Can Contribute? Everyone! History buffs, students, teachers . . . All you need is an interest in the Holocaust and access to a newspaper from the 1930s or '40s, either online (using Newspapers.com, for example) or through a physical archive, such as a library. Simply create an account with History Unfolded, and away you go!

How Do I Contribute? History Unfolded has created a list of more than 30 Holocaust-related events to focus on. Choose one of these events to research, then search for content related to that topic in an American newspaper of your choice from the 1930s or '40s. After you find an article related to one of the events, submit it online to the museum through the project's website.

Newspapers.com and History Unfolded You can contribute to this important project whether or not you use Newspapers.com to do so. But using Newspapers.com makes it even easier to submit the articles you find. Simply use Newspapers.com to create a clipping of an article you've found, then submit that clipping through the submission form on the History Unfolded website. The submission form has a special tool created specifically for Newspapers.com users that makes submitting your clipping a snap.

Your help with this project will help shape our understanding of the Holocaust and the lessons it holds for us today. For more information on how to get involved, visit the History Unfolded website.

What projects are you aware of involving a concerted and narrowly defined effort to cull news published in newspapers to learn more about a particular aspect of history?

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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16 March 2017

International Tracing Service Expands Online Archive

International Tracing Service Expands Online Archive

From the International Tracing Service (ITS), we learn …

The International Tracing Service (ITS) has published two further resources in its online archive. They include the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany and material on death marches from concentration camps.

What is left of the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland) comprises 32,264 registration cards, primarily those of Jewish school pupils, emigrants and deceased persons. Now interested persons all over the world have access to these cards. The ITS has moreover placed an additional 15,000 documents pertaining to the death marches online, thus supplementing the first group of documents on that subject published on its internet portal last year. “We chose two sets of documents that, while they are small, are of especial interest to the public. They conclude the successful test phase of the online archive,” ITS director Floriane Hohenberg explained. “More extensive holdings will follow, with which we aim to make documents on deportations, the Holocaust and forced labor available to people all over the world.”

The archive of the ITS in Bad Arolsen is one of the largest collections of documents on Nazi persecution and the aftermath of those crimes. In order to provide as many interested persons as possible access to this material, which holds the status of UNESCO world documentary heritage, the ITS set up an online archive in 2015. It offers direct access to the documents along with descriptions of the various holdings. The work of indexing the archives goes hand in hand with the continual expansion of the portal. With the new online placement a central search function has been expanded, allowing comprehensive research on names of people and places throughout the available collections. The ITS has placed a total of some 170,000 images (80,000 documents) in its Online-Archive.

A card index full of stories about Jewish victims of persecution

Only a small proportion of the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany has come down to us. In addition to names, the cards contain such information as dates of birth, professions, and addresses from the period before the mass deportations of the Jewish population, which began in 1941. Hermann Göring ordered the founding of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany in 1939. All persons classified as Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws were obligated to register. The card index aided the Gestapo in organizing the deportations. Between 1947 and 1950, 32,264 cards from this index made their way into the ITS archive. They include, for example, the “Berlin school pupils index” testifying to the lives of Jewish children during persecution and containing biographical data on the children themselves and their parents as well as information on the schools they attended.

Before publishing the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany in its online portal, the ITS carried out a pilot project to prepare the cards for use for research purposes.

Documents on the death marches

In the late 1940s, the ITS undertook to reconstruct the death marches and compile eye-witness reports as well as maps showing the locations of graves. In 1950, the so-called “Identification Unit” was founded with the goal of giving the often unknown dead their names back. The documents on the frequently successful efforts to identify the victims of National Socialism now supplement the holdings on the death marches in the ITS’s online archive.

In the online archive of the ITS, the death marches are shown on a map with georeferenced documents. When users click the name of a town or village, the documents related to that place appear on the screen, for example the answers to questionnaires that were sent to the communities or – recently added – the material on the identification program.

Link to the online archive: digitalcollections.its-arolsen.org

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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22 October 2015

Online Archives Seeks to Reunite Holocaust Victims (or family members) with Heirlooms

A unique collection has been put online in the hopes that doing such will connect lost heirlooms with their former owners or their families. To genealogists heirlooms are invaluable and often the only physical link we may have with our ancestors.

Recently an article made the rounds on Facebook (FG) that caught my eye -- Do you recognize this item of a concentration camp prisoner?

New online archive aims to reunite Holocaust victims and their families with lost heirlooms

A gold-plated wrist watch with a red band, an engraved pocket watch, numerous jewelry items and wedding rings, and of course photos. Those are all items taken from prisoners in German concentration camps, which now can be viewed online, as part of the new archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS).

50,000 documents have been uploaded last week to the center's website, among them are photos of 3,300 personal items which lay in ITS's archive in Bad Arolsen, Germany, just waiting for someone to recognize them...

Do read the article for more details on what is (and is not) included in the archive with regard to heirlooms as well as document.

You can access the database here. Do check it out. Please assist the ITS and its goal of returning the effects to former prisoners and family members.

Editor’s Note: Upfront with NGS posts on related topics.

+ Are you properly preserving your family heirlooms? (2015)

+ "No longer saved for generations, family heirlooms are being shed" (2013)

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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03 February 2012

Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Victims’ Lists Online

Researching those “lost” during the Holocaust is very challenging. Fortunately, new resources continue to become available.

Though I am not of Jewish heritage, I can tell you that my visit to Dachau, over 30 years ago, is still etched in my memory as if it was yesterday.

The Buchenwald Memorial Foundation has placed a list of 38,000 confirmed victims of the Buchenwald concentration camp online at http://www.buchenwald.de/totenbuch. The website is in German.

There is also a link to a separate list of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp victims at http://totenbuch.dora.de.

Editor’s NOTE: The source for this information was Nu? What's New? The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy From Avotaynu, with Gary Mokotoff as the editor. This particular news items was published in Volume 13, Number 1 | January 1, 2012. Past issues of Nu? What's New? are archived at http://www.avotaynu.com/nu.htm. When it becomes available, please read the mentioned issue for more details on accessing and exploring these databases.

As mentioned, I personally do not have any Jewish Ancestry and yet value this newsletter for its timely and valuable information.

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22 November 2011

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collections Now at Ancestry.com

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com have teamed up to engage the public’s help in creating the largest free online resource of information on victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution during World War II. Through the World Memory Project, you can help make information from Museum records searchable online. Anyone, anywhere can contribute to the project, and even a few minutes can create family connections that transcend war and time. Join the project.

The Holocaust Records currently included are:

NOTE: These records as available through the World Memory Project are searchable online for FREE

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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05 May 2011

World Memory Project Launched

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND ANCESTRY.COM LAUNCH WORLD MEMORY PROJECT TO CREATE LARGEST ONLINE RESOURCE OF INFORMATION ON VICTIMS OF HOLOCAUST AND NAZI PERSECUTION

Millions of Pages of Museum Archives to Be Indexed and Made Free to All

WASHINGTON, D.C./PROVO, Utah – May 3, 2011 - The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com today announced the launch of the World Memory Project, http://www.worldmemoryproject.org/, which will recruit the public to help to build the world’s largest online resource for information on Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of non-Jews who were targeted for persecution by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. The project will dramatically expand the number of Museum documents relating to individual victims that can be searched online.

The Museum’s archives contain information on well over 17 million people targeted by Nazi racial and political policies, including Jews, Poles, Roma, Ukrainians, political prisoners, and many others. The Museum assists thousands of people worldwide every year that are searching for information about individuals in its collections. The World Memory Project will greatly expand the accessibility of the Museum’s archival collection and enable millions of people to search for their own answers online…

Read the full press release.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com.