This article first appeared in Mishpocha, the magazine of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington—Ed.
Genealogists searching for Holocaust information are accustomed to searching databases for family names of interest. They consult data provided by the many genealogical Special Interest Groups such as JRI-Poland, and, of course, they may also search libraries for locality specific sources such as yizkor (memorial) books or general histories of a community. They can utilize useful online sources such as Footnote.com, and Ancestry.com. With the exception of JewishGen’s Holocaust Database, <www.jewish gen.org/databases/Holocaust>, however, which can be searched by town, none focuses solely on Holocaust data.
I find, however, that few researchers are aware of three major geographic online Holocaust-focused sources, that in themselves, do not yield family names, but rather lead the researcher to valuable sources of information. These are the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) Name List Catalog, Yad Vashem’s Shoah-Related Lists Database, and the International Tracing Service’s (ITS) Inventory Search or Inventar. Each is described below.
USHMM Name List Catalog
This is the Holocaust Museum’s ongoing attempt to identify and describe all sources of information containing Holocaust-related name lists, whether in book, memoir, archival file, internet resource, or any other format, even if the resource is not held at the Museum. To reach this catalog, go to <www.ushmm.org/>, then “Research,” then “Survivors Registry Names Research,” then “Research Tools,” or go to <http://resources.ushmm.org/Holocaust Names/List-Catalog/search>. This will open the Holocaust Name Lists Catalog Search. One can search by country or even by name of author of relevant books, although such searches would be too broad. Instead, enter the name of a town and click the box just below the search field; this will produce information regardless of how the locality was filed, e.g., Kovno, Kaunas, Kovne, or Kauen. Typing Warsaw will yield 322 entries, Warschau 30 entries, and Warszawa 585 entries, but checking the box will identify all the sources of information, regardless of spelling.
What will appear is a notation by each entry such as NL (Name List), which indicates that the names in that source are included in the Museum’s Name Search Catalog, CC (Claims Conference) which means that the source was identified by Claims Conference restitution claims researchers, or YV which means that the list is held at Yad Vashem. The extent of the information on each source varies considerably, but, while all identify sources of information on names, none includes the name lists themselves. The Survivors Registry at the USHMM welcomes additions/corrections/ comments to the information contained in this source.
While not directly relevant, it may be useful to clarify Name Search at the USHMM. This is similar but also quite different from the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem. It includes both victims and survivors, Jews and non-Jews. The Name Search database currently has 5,967,092 name entries taken from 378 different sources. This figure is misleading, however, since an individual’s name may appear in several documents and no attempt is made to link the listings. Thus, no way exists to know how many persons are identified in this database.
Finally, and unfortunately, unlike the Yad Vashem Hall of Names, the USHMM public version of Name Search at <www.ushmm.org/namesearch/> includes only one-tenth of the number of names held in the version used at the museum to answer inquiries. The discrepancy arises because, in many cases, the providers and/or institutions from which most of the information came insist that it not be made available on the Internet.
Yad Vashem
To reach Yad Vashem’s Shoah-Related Lists Database, go to <www.yadvashem.org>. Near the bottom of the page, click on “Shoah-Related Lists Database.” Alternatively, go directly to <www.yadvashem.org/lwp/workplace/listoflists>. Somewhat different from the USHMM list, the material is organized by the current name of the locality, but typing in an old name, e.g. Breslau, will bring up Wrocław. Typing Nürnberg, Nuremberg, or Nuernberg will produce the same information. As is the case with the USHMM finding aid, one may search by name of camp, e.g., Flossenbürg. Users may comment on or add to existing listings.
As is the case with USHMM, Yad Vashem includes references both to its own holdings and those of other institutions. Yad Vashem offers a unique advantage in that, in many cases, when one clicks a document reference the actual text appears. As is the case for the USHMM, the fact that a document and/or source has been identified does not mean that any or all of the names in the relevant documents have been added to the Hall of Names and Name Search. The Hall of Names is intended to identify Jews who perished in the Holocaust, while Name Search lists all those who perished or survived, regardless of religion. The Yad Vashem approach has the disadvantage that if a list and/or individual listing does not indicate religion, those names are not included.
International Tracing Service (ITS) Inventar
ITS holdings of documents are undoubtedly larger than those of the USHMM or Yad Vashem, and many more unique persons are identified in its documents. The ITS estimates that it has roughly 50 million name citations, identifying about 17.5 million persons, Jews and non-Jews, survivors and victims. Generally, the collection is rich in Western European and postwar documents, but weak in Eastern European holdings.
The Inventar (inventory or finding aid) is much less useful than those of either the USHMM or Yad Vashem. The purpose of the ITS throughout its history was never to collect the history of the Holocaust but rather to identify the fate of all those who had perished or survived. As a result, ITS until recently did not have a historian or archivist, but rather simply collected documents in order to extract the names that appeared in them. Accordingly, the description of documents was primitive. In addition to its home location in Bad Arolsen, Germany, copies of this massive collection are being shared with the USHMM, Yad Vashem, the Institute of National Memory in Warsaw, the National Archives of Belgium, and the Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Résistance in Luxembourg. The transfer process is gradual and may not be completed until 2011.
The Inventar is available on the Internet either via the ITS website <www.its-arolsen.org> or through the USHMM at <http://resources.ushmm.org/itsinventory/ home.php>. Originally in German, thanks to the efforts of the USHMM, it now also is available in English. A fundamental difference exists when entering location searches in the Inventar. When one types in the name of a locality (not possible on a country level), all Inventar descriptions where that place name has been entered appear. No linkage exists, however, between different spellings of a town’s name with no way to merge the different sources. Thus, for example, there are 237 “hits” for Warsaw and 429 for Warschau; 75 “hits” for Cologne, and 104 for Köln. Moreover, if a place name appears anywhere in the description; i.e., if a book about Warsaw was published in or was acquired from Berlin, it is indexed under both place names. The information in each citation is limited, usually consisting of a very brief description, the number of pages in the document, and number of names which are included. A reference citation appears, but no visible link to the document itself. The names that were extracted from these sources have been collected in various databases such as the Central Names Index (CNI) but, at this time, neither the documents nor the names are available on the Internet.
These databases are extremely complex, even convoluted; locating an individual name often requires expert help. A researcher who finds citations of possible interest will need to visit the institution where the material is held or write to the institution and request copies, without knowing whether or not they are of real interest. Under the international agreement, which opened ITS and made copies available to a single institution in each member country, no restrictions exist on third party access to ITS documents at these institutions or limitations on how a researcher may utilize copies of such material that he or she has acquired.
Peter Landé is a retired U.S. foreign service officer who has contributed greatly as a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 2001, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies for his work in identifying sources of information on Holocaust victims and survivors.
