‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
‫‪15.12.11‬‬
‫לכבוד‬
‫פרופ' אלחנן אדלר‬
‫יו"ר וועדת "זכרון עולם"‬
‫הנדון‪ :‬הגשת מועמדות להכרה באוספי יד ושם במסגרת תוכנית "זכרון עולם"‬
‫יד ושם מתכנן להגיש את אחד מאוספיו כמועמד להכרה בתוכנית "זכרון עולם" של אונסק"ו‬
‫במועד ההגשה הקרוב‪ .‬אנחנו מתלבטים בין שני אוספים (אם כי מעדיפים את הראשון)‪ :‬אוסף‬
‫דפי העד )‪ ,(Pages of Testimony‬ואוסף הועדה ההיסטורית של הועד המרכזי של היהודים‬
‫המשוחררים באזור הכיבוש האמריקני‪ ,‬מינכן ‪(The Central Historical Commission of the‬‬
‫)‪.Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the US Zone, Munich‬‬
‫‪" .1‬דפי עד"‪ :‬האוסף הייחודי של דפי העד שמור ב"היכל השמות" ביד ושם‪ .‬האוסף הוא מן‬
‫החשובים שבאוספי יד ושם והוא הבסיס למאגר המקוון של שמות קרבנות השואה‪ .‬איסוף דפי‬
‫העד החל באמצע שנות החמישים ונמשך למעשה עד היום‪ .‬עם זאת בשיחה שלי עם מנהלת‬
‫פרויקט "זכרון עולם" באונסק"ו היא הבהירה שיש דרכים להגדיר "קו גבול" התוחם חלק מתוך‬
‫אוסף‪ ,‬ומאפשר להגישו למועמדות למרות שהוא ממשיך להיאסף‪ .‬במקרה שלנו ‪ -‬אוסף דפי העד‬
‫מחולק לחמשה תתי‪-‬אוספים‪ .‬ארבעת הראשונים הם אוספים סגורים‪ .‬האוסף הרביעי נסגר‬
‫בנובמבר ‪ ,2004‬עם העלאת מאגר השמות לראשונה לאינטרנט‪ .‬רק תת‪-‬האוסף החמישי הוא אוסף‬
‫פתוח ואליו מצורפים דפי העד שהתקבלו מ‪ 2005-‬ואילך‪ .‬ל"זכרון עולם" בכוונתנו להגיש רק את‬
‫ארבעת תתי‪-‬האוספים הראשונים‪ ,‬הסגורים‪.‬‬
‫‪ .2‬אוסף הועדה ההיסטורית של הועד המרכזי של היהודים המשוחררים באזור הכיבוש‬
‫האמריקני‪ ,‬מינכן‪ :‬זהו אחד מן האוספים הראשונים שהגיעו לארכיון יד ושם‪ ,‬והוא מן החשובים‬
‫ומן המרתקים שבאוספים שלנו‪ .‬הוועדה הוקמה בדצמבר ‪ 1945‬ופעלה במשך כשלוש שנים‪ .‬האוסף‬
‫הועבר כולו עוד בראשית שנות החמישים ליד ושם והוא בבעלות יד ושם‪ .‬האוסף הוא "אוסף‬
‫שואה" רחב היקף‪ ,‬בעל חשיבות בינלאומית‪ ,‬והוא חוצה גבולות‪ :‬הוא נוגע לגורלם של קרבנות‬
‫השואה מכל רחבי אירופה‪ ,‬בעיקר יהודים‪ ,‬אך גם לא יהודים‪ ,‬מתעד את מאמצי השיקום של‬
‫שרידי השואה מכל אירופה‪ ,‬ואף מתעד את פעולותיהם של הרוצחים‪ .‬הוא מגוון מאוד מבחינת‬
‫אופי החומרים שבו וסוגיהם ומכיל כמעט כל סוג אפשרי של תיעוד על השואה‪ :‬עדויות‪ ,‬תיעוד‬
‫משפטי‪ ,‬שאלונים‪ ,‬כרטסות‪ ,‬מסמכים אישיים‪ ,‬תצלומים ועוד‪.‬‬
‫מצ"ב תקציר של תיאור האוספים וכן פרטים מתומצתים על מצב השימור וההנגשה של‬
‫האוספים‪.‬‬
‫בכבוד רב‪,‬‬
‫ד"ר חיים גרטנר‬
‫מנהל אגף הארכיונים‬
‫יד ושם‬
‫העתק‪ :‬אבנר שלו‪ ,‬יו"ר הנהלת יד ושם‬
‫נתן איתן‪ ,‬מנכ"ל יד ושם‬
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
‫ אוסף דפי עד‬:1 ‫נספח‬
Item Nominated: Pages of Testimony Collection, Jerusalem, 1954-2004
Nomination for: MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER
Nominator: Yad Vashem
Introduction
The Pages of Testimony are special forms designed by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, to commemorate the
names and biographic details of the Jews assassinated during the Holocaust. On
these special forms filled out by relatives and friends of the victims, the martyred
dead are remembered not as cold, anonymous numbers, but as individual human
beings.
The collection of Pages of Testimony began in 1954. Until the end of 2004 some
2,228,790 names of Holocaust victims were registered on them, among these the
names of 292,000 children victims. These pages, organized in four distinct subunits (I
– 1954-1985, II – 1986-1991, III – 1992-1998 and IV – 1999-2004), are presented here
as one comprehensive and unique closed collection. Pages of Testimony received
since the beginning of 2005 - many of them in various digital formats - are
incorporated into a new different collection.
The biographic data registered on the pages includes a great deal of information
about each person before and during the Holocaust: family and given names,
parents' and spouses' names, birth date and place, gender, family status and
occupation, permanent residence, places during WWII and death date and place
when known. In addition, names and addresses of those who submitted the
information. Photographs are also attached to the pages when available.
The Pages of Testimony Collection constitutes a unique, unprecedented large scale
collective memorial to Holocaust victims, based on invaluable personal testimony by
relatives and friends. At the same time, the wealth of onomastic, demographic and
socio-economic data pertinent to those who would become victims sums up in a
detailed overall description of Jewish life prior to the Holocaust.
Creator
Hall of Names Department, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
Quantity of material
1,936,791 Pages of Testimony (one page registration forms) filed in 7649 file boxes.
Owner
Yad Vashem (Jerusalem) is the owner of the fond.
Preservation
The Pages of Testimony collection is hosted in the new Hall of Names building
equipped with advanced systems that provide and constantly monitor the particular
levels of temperature and humidity based on recommendations given by the Paper
Conservation Lab at Yad Vashem and other experts in the field of archival
preservation. The Pages of Testimony are stored within special black files handmade
of acid free cardboard coated in a special anti fire treated fabric. The Hall of Names
building is protected against fire by a number of emergency systems, among them a
network of sprinklers. All the Pages of Testimony were carefully scanned and
microfilm copies thereof have also been made. (In cases where pages, especially
from the 1950s, suffered physical damage, they were sent to the Yad Vashem
Archives Conservation Lab for restoration treatment.) In addition, any photos
attached to Pages of Testimony are scanned separately at high, printing quality
resolution.
Accessibility
The entire fond was digitized and is accessible to the public on the Internet within
the frame of the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names www.yadvashem.org.
Bibliography
Avraham, Alexander. "Die elektronische Erschliessung der Namen von
Holocaustopfern in Yad Vashem." In Elektronische Erschliessung archivalischer
Quellen in Gedenkstaetten. Beitraege des internationalen Workshops in der
Gedenkstaette und dem Museum Sachsenhausen am 23/24 Maerz 2001 edited by
Hans Coppi, Winfried Meyer and Iris Schwarz, 1-28. Muenster: Lit, 2002.
Fond Description
The Pages of Testimony Collection consists of four sub-units, totaling 1,936,791
pages of documentation stored in 7649 special boxes.
The need to document the circumstances of the Jewish tragedy during WWII and to
preserve the memory of the victims was felt as early as 1944 and intensified as the
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
results of the Nazi “final solution” became clearer and clearer. In 1953 the Israeli
parliament sanctioned the establishment of Yad Vashem, which is at the same time a
center for commemoration, documentation, research and education. One of its first
important activities, beginning in 1954, was the registration of Holocaust victims’
names on “Pages of Testimony” which later were to be kept in the “Hall of Names”.
This is not an academic research project but a collective memorial coming to fulfill
the peoples’ basic, simple need for commemorating their lost relatives. This
expression of the urge to inscribe and preserve the victims’ names was based not so
much on lists, which were almost inexistent for Eastern Europe and at best
incomplete for Central-Western Europe, but rather on declarations by survivors and
family members: people who saw, or knew, how their relatives or friends perished,
came forward and registered the names on Pages of Testimony for everlasting
memory at Yad Vashem.
The Pages of Testimony are special forms designed by Yad Vashem to commemorate
the names and biographic details of the individual victims. The martyred dead are
remembered not as cold, anonymous numbers, but as individual human beings, in an
attempt to restore their personal identity, and dignity, which the Nazis and their
accomplices tried so hard to obliterate.
Yad Vashem, with the support of Jewish communities and organizations around the
world, has worked tirelessly to collect these one-page forms. A preliminary pilot
campaign was organized among Jewish communities in Argentina, Uruguay and
Brazil in 1954 yielding a few thousand pages. A first national campaign of collecting
Pages of Testimony took place in Israel in 1955-1957, when more than 800,000
names were gathered. Survivors and other family members were called upon to go
to registration centers and fill out Pages of Testimony with the names of their
beloved ones lost in the Holocaust. By the end of 1956 a house-to-house call
approach was adopted in order to insure that all, or most, relevant people became
aware of the need and importance of recording the names.
Following this first successful collection campaign that involved massive resources
and numerous staff, collection efforts continued throughout the years in Israel and
among Jewish communities worldwide, coordinated from Yad Vashem’s offices in
Jerusalem. Thousands of new Pages of Testimony in different languages continued to
arrive at Yad Vashem every year. By the end of 1983 about 1,030,000 original
handwritten Pages of Testimony were already preserved in special black "Yizkor"
files. A “Room of Names” was opened in 1968 on Yad Vashem’s campus on the
Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem to house the files and in 1977 the “Hall of
Names” was inaugurated in a specially designed building in the presence of then
Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
Between 1984 and 1985 Yad Vashem undertook to microfilm close to 1.1 million
Pages of Testimony that had been collected up to that time. It took almost two years
of painstaking and meticulous work to prepare the pages for filming and then to
perform quality checks on the reels. As a result, on the backdrop of a growing
number of public inquiries on the fate of Holocaust victims, the microfilm enabled
staff to search for victims' names more efficiently thereby improving their service. At
the same time it created a vital backup copy of the Pages of Testimony collection. It
also resulted in creating a first closed collection unit including all pages gathered
since 1954 until 1985 (files 1-3916).
During the 1980’s the average number of Pages of Testimony collected at Yad
Vashem was about 15,000 new pages per year. The fall of the "Iron Curtain"
separating the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc resulted in a dramatic
increase of new Pages of Testimony in the 1990's, raising the annual collection to
around 30,000. Most of the new pages were in Russian, filled out either by recent
immigrants to Israel or by Soviet Jews who remained in their countries but now had
the possibility to send the names to Jerusalem. All these pages came to fill, to some
extent, the very great void of missing names of Holocaust victims from the territories
of the former USSR.
At the time, the Pages of Testimony were catalogued first by family names and then
by given names according to the Hebrew alphabet. This method was very
problematic when it came to search for a specific name, taking in consideration
different possible spellings and variants in various languages, and was totally
ineffective with respect to names of places or dates. The computerization of the
names and biographic data from the Pages of Testimony began in late 1991 and
expanded until the end of 1998 when about 470,000 names had been computerized.
The possibility to locate a name on a page through advanced computer retrieval
methods made obsolete the need of time-consuming cataloguing by name, thus
leading to the closing of a second collection unit (files 4001-4850). The new incoming
pages were filed according to their arrival date in a third collection unit (files 50015986). All these Pages of Testimony were also duly microfilmed.
A milestone in the history of the Pages of Testimony collection and the Hall of Names
was reached in 1999. Yad Vashem embarked on an impressive and intensive project
to computerize more than 1.1 million Pages of Testimony, including the scanning of
all 1.6 million paper forms collected up to that time. The project spanned from
February to June 1999, with the assistance of a staff of 1,000 as well as 100 IT and
content specialists working two shifts in two different locations, Jerusalem and Be'er
Sheba. The end result was a computerized database with over two million names of
Holocaust victims.
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
On May 8, 1999, under the auspices of President Ezer Weizman, Yad Vashem
initiated a well publicized worldwide media campaign to collect Pages of Testimony.
1.3 million Pages of Testimony were distributed with local newspapers in Israel
alone. Special ads were published in tens of newspapers in different languages, and
were aired on the radio and television channels. Pages of Testimony were handed
out in schools, and students were encouraged to take them to senior citizens homes
and absorption centers. The public response was overwhelming: a call center with 20
phone lines and 90 staff members working double shifts was established to handle
the large volume of incoming inquiries in real time.
During the months of April and May alone some 147,000 Pages of Testimony were
received, amounting to a total of about 380,000 by the end of 1999, including about
50,000 attached photographs. The aftermath of the campaign was felt in 2000 as
well: an additional 70,000 Pages of Testimony were collected. Although the names
collection campaign was targeted also to Jewish communities around the world,
around 88% of the Pages of Testimony collected were submitted in Israel.
Surprisingly, more than 80% of all incoming pages actually contained names of
victims that were not previously recorded at the Hall of Names. This statistic
reinforced the great significance of the campaign at that point in time.
By the year 2000, the intensive computerization project and media campaign
resulted in the creation of a database containing close to 2.5 million names of
Holocaust victims in the Hall of Names, including names extracted from archival
documentation. Founded on a sophisticated technological platform, the names
database was upgraded to include soundex and synonym searches developed to
enhance retrieval possibilities. On November 22nd 2004, the Central Database of
Shoah Victims’ Names was launched on the Yad Vashem website offering the public
free accessibility to close to three million victims' names in English and Hebrew (the
option to consult the names database in Russian [Cyrillic characters] was made
available In 2007).
November 2004 also marked the closing of the fourth collection unit of Pages of
Testimony (files 6001-7897). Beginning with this date the nature of the Pages of
Testimony forms began to change and diversify significantly: a special application on
the Yad Vashem website makes it possible to fill out "virtual" pages by filling out the
victims' personal data online. Genealogists are allowed to send digital pages on PDF
format, and many others send scanned copies rather than the original forms.
"Traditionally" hand filled pages are still coming in but it is already clear we are in a
new technological era.
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
The core collection of Pages of Testimony therefore includes hand filled and signed
original forms gathered between 1954 and 2004 and classified in four different units.
It consists of 1,936,791 physical forms each bearing the name of a victim and, in
many cases, more than one name. The layout of the forms circulated during the
1950s permitted, and people were requested, to register the names of children killed
under the age of 18 on one of the parents' pages. In all, some 292,000 children
names are registered on the pages, bringing the victims' names total to
approximately 2,228,790.
Throughout the years, Pages of Testimony forms were printed in 14 different
European languages but the personal items of biographic data were registered on
them in more than 30 languages, in four distinct alphabets: Hebrew, Latin, Cyrillic
and Greek. Most of the pages were filled out by hand (there are also some machine
typed ones) and deciphering the handwriting poses a variety of problems: beyond
the personal "touch" there used to be different styles of calligraphy that widely
varied from country to country. Moreover, it appears that writing styles and fashions
kept changing with every generation and the Pages of Testimony bear witness to it.
The biographic data registered on the pages includes a wealth of information beyond
the actual fate of the person during the Holocaust. Family and given names
registered in a number of fields regarding the victim, his/her parents and spouse as
well as the submitter, give us a lot of information about common Jewish naming
patterns, concentration of specific names in specific places, names fashions changes
according to generations, etc. Names places in different fields witness to Jewish
presence in small villages and big cities, as well as demographic trends and
movements prior to WWII and displacements during the war. Data about gender,
family status and number of children in the family offer other elements for
demographic research. Information about occupation gives a wide range of
professions and vocations that Jews were involved in as well as of their
entrepreneurial skills. All these together can give a broad perspective, and to some
extent reconstruction, of the prewar Jewry destroyed in the Holocaust.
In addition to that, the core collection of Pages of Testimony includes about 89,600
photographs attached to part of the forms. This means that only 4.6% of the pages
have a photograph, but when they have it, it gives the page another impact
altogether, putting a face to the name of the person. Together, the pages and
photographs give a visual image of prewar Jewish life. Passport size photos are
physically attached to the pages in the files. Larger photos are preserved in separate
files. All photos were scanned separately at high, print quality resolution, preserving
the original image while cleaning out the marks of time and adversities. When
containing valuable information, the back of the photo was scanned as well.
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
During the first decades, the Pages of Testimony were printed on regular white
paper that was preserved in a surprisingly good way. Beginning with the 1980s, Yad
Vashem-issued pages were printed on heavy weight acid-free paper designed to last
for a very long time period. However, there was no way to control every submission
and therefore pages filled out on photocopies of original forms, or printed on paper
of different qualities also had to be accepted. Poor quality paper forms, as well as
forms differing in size and color from the standard page were, nevertheless,
returned, in the intent to preserve the integrity and good preservation of the whole
collection. Photocopied Pages of Testimony as well as fax transmissions were not
accepted. In cases where pages, especially from the 1950s, suffered physical
damage, they were forwarded to Yad Vashem's preservation lab for restoration
treatment.
In order to ensure optimum preservation conditions, the Pages of Testimony
collection is hosted in the new Hall of Names building. This was especially designed
and built for this purpose in 2004 and is equipped with advanced systems that
provide and constantly monitor the particular levels of temperature and humidity as
dictated by experts in the field of archival preservation. Periodical manual
verifications are done in order to confirm the accuracy of the automatic systems.
As mentioned before, the Pages of Testimony are stored within special black files
handmade of acid-free cardboard coated in a special anti-fire treated fabric
produced by a highly specialized provider in the United Kingdom. The entire Hall of
Names building is protected against fire by a number of emergency systems, among
them a network of sprinklers.
To ensure that the entire collection is well protected against any adversity, all the
Pages of Testimony were carefully scanned, backup copies being kept in different
locations. Also, as mentioned above, microfilm copies have also been made.
The symbolic dimension of a collective memorial to the Holocaust victims, the
intrinsic value of personal testimony by relatives and friends, the wealth of
onomastic, demographic and socio-economic data, the depth of genealogical
information, the faces of the men, women and children, all together make the Pages
of Testimony collection at Yad Vashem a truly unique repository worthy of both
preservation and recognition. This repository documents and commemorates the
thriving Jewish world – mostly on European soil – that was lost and destroyed in the
Holocaust.
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
‫ אוסף הועדה ההיסטורית‬:2 ‫נספח‬
Item Nominated: M.1 - Central Historical Commission (CHC) of the Central
Committee of Liberated Jews in the US Zone, Munich, 1945-1948
Nomination for: MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER
Nominator: Yad Vashem
Introduction
After WW2 various Jewish organizations – so called documentation centres or historical
commissions – were set up in all over Europe to collect documentation. There aims were
both practical, to denounce the Nazi criminals and help bring them to justice, and historical,
to collect the wide range of documentation on the Holocaust. Additionally, their aim was to
establish a memorial to the victims.
The largest collection of these organizations consists of the collection of the Central
Historical Commission (CHC) of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the US Zone,
which began its work of collecting historical material from Nazi bodies, from Jewish
communities, and from surviving Jews in Germany in December 1945. The CHC opened
about 50 branches in the various Displaced Persons (DP) camps in the American Zone of
Germany, where about 45,000 Jewish survivors from different countries were living. Among
these survivors, testimonies were taken and questionnaires were distributed with the aim of
gathering information about the fate of the various destroyed Jewish communities in
Europe, and also of the fate of individual Holocaust survivors. Attempts were also made to
secure information about concentration camps and about Jewish communities from German
sources, both by acquiring Nazi documentation and by distributing questionnaires among
the regional councils (Landräte) in Germany.
The CHC collected some 1,800 photographs taken during the Nazi rule in Poland, Lithuania,
Latvia, Hungary, the western part of the Soviet Union, and Germany itself. The CHC
published a Yiddish journal, entitled “Fun letztn Churbn.”
After three years of work, the CHC was dissolved and its rich and unique archival material
transferred to Israel. This material now comprises the M.1 fond at Yad Vashem Archives, and
is divided into 11 sub-fonds.
Creator
The Central Historical Commission of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the U.S.
Zone, Munich
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
Quantity of material
55 linear metres
Owner
Yad Vashem (Jerusalem) is the owner of the fond.
Preservation
The Paper Conservation Lab of Yad Vashem, established in 1979, treats all the original
materials including documents, placards, diaries and photos. Archival materials are
preserved and treated according to professional international standards.
All archival material received by the Yad Vashem Archives undergoes fumigation, is arranged
in the storage rooms, and is sent to the Conservation Lab for treatment, according to its
condition. All stages of treatment are digitally photographed and recorded. At the end of the
treatment various kinds of packaging (folders, boxes, Mylar, etc.) are constructed for storage
of the originals. In the Archives there are three types of storage rooms: Storage Area A: for
the RARA originals, both treated material and material awaiting treatment; Storage Area B:
for copies; Storage Area C: for photos, albums and films.
The various documents in the M.1 fond were treated according to their condition. All
documents were digitized before treatment. The basic treatment consisted of consolidating
all the fragile media, gently removing surface dirt, repairing and reinforcing the weak areas,
and encapsulating the documents in Mylar. All originals were treated according to prevailing
preservation practices which provide for as little intrusion as possible.
Accessibility
In accordance with the regulations for access to the Yad Vashem Archives, the fond is
accessible to the public. Part of the material is fully catalogued, and most of the documents
are digitally scanned. In the coming years we are planning to fully catalogue and digitize the
entire collection, and make it accessible on the Internet.
Bibliography
Bankier, David – Michman, Dan (eds.), Holocaust Historiography in Context: Emergence,
Challenges, Polemics and Achievements. (Jerusalem, 2008)
Bauer, Yehuda (ed.), Guide to Unpublished Materials of the Holocaust Period, Vol. III.
(Jerusalem, 1975)
Mankowitz, Zeev, Life between Memory and Hope: The Sutvivors of the Holocaust in
Occupied Germany. (Cambridge, 2002)
Modlinger, Hadassah (comp.), Collection on Displaces Persons, Central Jewish Historical
Commission, Munich (Jerusalem, 1989)
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
Fond Description
The CHC fond consists of eleven sub-fonds, totalling 55 linear metres.
M.1.B - Office of the Central Historical Commission of the Central Committee of
Liberated Jews in the U.S. Zone, Munich, 1945-1948
This sub-fond contains the entire correspondence of the CHC with its various
branches in the DP camps, with Jewish leaders and institutions from different
countries, and with German municipal authorities. The correspondence deals mostly
with gathering material about the Holocaust, cultural activity in the DP camps and
editorial work of the CHC.
The material is arranged chronologically.
Quantity of material
1 linear meter
M.1.D - Documentation of the Dachau Concentration Camp, 1934-1945
The CHC came into possession of a large part of the files from the Dachau
concentration camp. This material contains the central card index of the camp
(approximately 100,000 prisoners’ cards), payment cards and correspondence of the
camp administration.
The material is arranged by subjects.
Quantity of material
7.5 linear metres and 25 linear metres of cards
M.1.DN - Nazi documentation, Munich Municipality, 1933-1942
This sub-fond is composed of files concerning Jews, which the CHC received from the
Archives of the City of Munich. These documents deal with the persecution of Jews
during the Nazi period, mainly in Munich, but also in Frankfurt am Main, Passau,
Ansbach, Coburg and a number of other towns in Germany. Included are personal
files of Jews, from the Munich welfare department. The material also contains a
collection of laws and instructions (Gesetze und Verordnungen) concerning the Jews
of Bavaria.
Quantity of material
3.5 linear metres
‫יד ושם‬
‫אגף הארכיונים‬
M.1.DNA - Nazi documentation- The German Academy of Science, 1930-1941
After WW2 the CHC acquired some files of the German Academy of Science in
Munich. These files contain material for a lexicon of German economists and
industrialists since 1801 (Deutsche Wirtschfsführer), excluding Jews.
The files contain correspondence about the project, and the files of the project itself
- a page with a few lines of information about every person.
The material is arranged alphabetically.
Quantity of material
8 linear metres
M.1.E - Testimonies Collection of the Central Historical Committee in Munich,
1946-1948
During the three years of its existence, the CHC gathered about 2,700 testimonies
taken from Holocaust survivors coming from different countries. The testimonies
deal with the fate of the survivors during the Nazi rule in their countries of origin.
Most testimonies are written in Yiddish, followed by Polish, German, Hungarian and
Hebrew.
Quantity of material
4.5 linear metres (about 2,700 testimonies)
M.1.L - Questionnaires filled by Landräte in Germany on the Jewish communities in
their areas, 1946-1948
The CHC distributed questionnaires among the regional and municipal authorities,
mainly in the zone occupied by the Americans in Germany. The purpose of these
questionnaires was to gather information about the plight of Jews under Nazi rule in
the various localities, the numbers of Jewish victims and also about Nazi
concentration camps there.
The material is arranged according to localities, in alphabetical order.
Quantity of material
0.5 linear metres (542 questionnaires)
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‫אגף הארכיונים‬
M.1.P - She’erit Hapletah Collection: DP Life in the Camps, 1945-1948
The CHC gathered material about the post-war political, social, religious, and cultural
activities of the liberated Jews in the DP camps and in the newly established Jewish
communities in Germany. This sub-fond is composed mainly of placards.
Quantity of material
2.5 linear metres
M.1.PC - Föhrenwald DP Camp Children Questionnaires, 1945-1946
The CHC distributed special questionnaires to gather information about the past of
the few children among the Holocaust survivors in Föhrenwald DP camp. The
children were asked about their life during the Nazi rule and the fate of their
families. Most of the children were deported from Hungary and others from Poland.
Quantity of material
0.5 linear metres (423 questionnaires)
M.1.PF - War time Jewish Folklore Collection, 1941-1948
There are 353 poems and songs in the collection, mostly in Yiddish. Inmates of
camps and ghettos wrote most of them during the war, but some were written after
the end of the war. The poems and songs express the suffering and torture, the life
under subhuman conditions and the murder of the Jews; they also tell of the burning
of synagogues and desecration of holy books and religious articles. Despite the
despair permeating the writings, there is also a spark of hope, and the yearning for
victory and revenge against the Germans as well as the expectation of reaching Eretz
Israel, the State of the Jews to be established after the liberation.
Approximately 35 of the songs in the collection were recorded.
Quantity of material
0.5 linear metres (353 poems and songs)
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‫אגף הארכיונים‬
M.1.Q - Historical Questionnaires, 1946-1948
The CHC distributed questionnaires among some Holocaust survivors coming from
different countries and towns. The aim was to gather detailed information about the
persecution during Nazi rule.
The questionnaires are arranged according to the alphabetical order of countries and
localities.
Quantity of material
0.5 linear metres (667 questionnaires)
M.1.S - Post war documentation, 1946-1948
The CHC distributed special statistical questionnaires among a large number of
Holocaust survivors. The questionnaires requested data concerning the estimated
number of Jews before the war in their communities, the number of Jewish victims,
destroyed and stolen Jewish property, slave labour, concentration camps etc.
Quantity of material
2 linear metres (7793 questionnaires)