Those who attend the DC2011 IAJGS conference in August 2011 will have an opportunity to conduct research at three major institutions: the U.S. Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). This article describes the massive holdings of Holocaust-related information available to researchers at the USHMM. To access some of its most valuable data, one must come in person—and advance preparation is the essential key to success.
Necessary Advance Preparation
During the hectic conference days, individual researchers will have limited time to utilize computers or films at the USHMM (or at the conference headquarters). Even without counting filmed or reference book material, the “menu” of available sources includes nearly 60 million listings of names in various databases. This does not mean that there is information on that many people, because a single individual’s name may appear in numerous documents. It is essential to know what one is seeking. For example, several hundred Jacob/Jakob Sterns appear in USHMM databases. The essential first bit of preparation:
- Have readily available such information as date/year of birth, place of birth, and residence.
- Then examine online the geographic holdings (not family names) held by the USHMM. Individual names held in the International Tracing Service (ITS) records cannot be searched online, but it is possible to do a geographic keyword search of the Inventar (inventory) of the ITS collection at http://resources.ushmm.org/itsinventory/ home.php.
This finding aid is available in German and English and can be searched by town name, camp, sub-camp, company employer and even, sometimes, ship—but never by country. A name must be entered in either the English or German spelling—e.g., Warsaw or Warschau—but not Warszawa (the Polish spelling). The result will be an inventory of documents relating to each locality. Do not be discouraged by the absence of a reference to your town. Town records of interest may be merged into regional collections. In addition, consider that the Jews from a specific locality may have been deported and the name(s) of interest may appear in concentration camp records or in records of postwar displaced persons camps.
Separate from the ITS collection, the USHMM has prepared a names list catalogue, a “list of lists” inventory of material in which name lists appear that relate to a specific locality. At http://resources.ushmm.org/Holocaust-Names/ List-Catalog/search are the collections, records, and books in which these lists appear. This reference tool has the advantage that it links different spellings of localities no matter how they are spelled today. Some entries are linked to the original list in PDF form.
- Search USHMM Archive and Library holdings by locality, simply using keywords. Go to USHMM.org and then Library or Archives to search. Both the Library and Archives use current place names in their catalogues.
This enables one to identify collections of interest, such as, for example, a 34-reel collection relating to Lwow, (RG 1995 A-1086) or the far larger, about 250,000 names, Central Committee of Polish Jews survivor collection (RG 15.057M). (See illustration A from ITS, which gives an example of the type of information in this collection, but which does not include all the information in the filmed version.) The library collection has the 17-volume Karta series (D 810 D5 D467) that identifies thousands of Poles, Jews and non-Jews, from Eastern Poland who were deported to the Soviet Union in 1939. The books provide more information on individuals than appears on the Karta website. Researchers interested in Rheinland-Palatine should look at the multi-volume Inventar der Quellen zur Geschichte der juedischen Bevoelkerung in Rheinland-Pflaz und im Saarland 1800-1945 (Inventory of sources on the history of the Jewish population in Rhineland-Pflaz and Saarland 1800–1945) which provides information on Jews in virtually every tiny village in that area. The Archival Guide to the Collections also may be helpful; see www.ushmm.org/research/center/archguide.
- Finally, consider coming a few days before the conference or staying a few days after it ends.
The Museum is open all but two days of the year (Christmas and Yom Kippur) and Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center staff is available any day the Museum is open to help with all the research described below. Library and archive hours are more limited and should be checked before visiting the Museum.
International Tracing Service (ITS) Collection
Most conference attendees who have not already done so, will want to search the International Tracing Service (ITS) collection since the USHMM is the only place outside of Bad Arolsen and Jerusalem where it may be accessed. Copies of the ITS collection are gradually being transferred from Bad Arolsen to the USHMM, as well as to Yad Vashem. This transfer is unlikely to have been completed by the summer of 2011, but the majority of the collection and key references will be available on USHMM computers, and researchers will be able to access and search with the assistance of USHMM staff. For the history of the ITS and its collection, see “International Tracing Service Documents Accessible At Last: But What Happens Next?” in AVOTAYNU, Vol. XXII, No. 2, Summer 2006.
Given the often-exaggerated expectations that arose when this collection was opened, it may be worthwhile to outline the weaknesses as well as its strengths. The ITS collection has very little information on Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, and even less from Belarus or Ukraine, while its Polish collections are uneven. It has major collections on concentration camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Stutthof, Gross Rosen, and Bergen Belsen, as well as some ghettos. Its major strengths are the forced labor and post-war displaced persons records. Records from the death camps (Sobibor, Chelmno, Treblinka, or Belzec) do not exist, except for scattered transport records to these camps. Technically, Auschwitz was not a “death camp” even though approximately two-thirds of those sent there were killed within a day of arrival. Extensive records exist on those who died there or were sent elsewhere. Death camps were those where all persons were killed i.e., no prisoner numbers were issued; they had no work details and virtually no survivors.
Where to begin a search of ITS records? Start with the Central Names Index (CNI) although other possibilities exist. In theory, though not completely in fact, every name that appears in an ITS collection was indexed on a file card, so that a researcher can, first of all, determine whether any information exists on the person being researched, and, second, where the document is located from which the names was extracted. (See illustrations A-C.) The extent of the information recorded for each individual varies widely, however, and the nature of the information is not always clear. Card A, Chashellis Lande, identifies a Polish Jewish survivor registered with the Polish Central Jewish Committee. What is not stated, since it is not part of the ITS collection, is that a much more complete file on each registrant (with the Polish Jewish community) is available in the USHMM Archives. The information on Leopold Lande, Card B, is straightforward. He was deported from Vienna to Minsk. Card C for Lya Lande is equally clear. She was a survivor in Shanghai who immigrated to the United States in 1947. Card D for Anna Lande, married name Milon, only notes a court case, but without going to the referenced document, one cannot establish what the case concerned or when it took place. Reference E is clearer in that it refers to an Anfrage (inquiry received at ITS) regarding Abram Lande. It identifies the inquirer, Richard Saper, and provides a summary of the information provided to Saper.
At the time of this writing, copies of such correspondence files have not been provided to the USHMM, and it is not known if the copying process will have been completed by the time of the conference. If not, one may write to Bad Arolsen to request copies of the incoming request and the reply that was sent. These will be provided if the correspondence dates back more than 25 years. More recent correspondence will not be provided. Finally, and most basic for genealogists, card F is a birth certificate for Anna Lande, listing her parents, while card G is a Bad Arolsen death certificate for Eugenia Lande, who perished in Auschwitz. For all of the above and much more, USHMM staff will be available to help locate and then interpret what is seen. Whatever information appears on the screen can be copied, saved on a flash drive, or e-mailed to a selected address.
Names appear in the CNI in alphabetical order, based on ITS’ phonetic system, and within a given name in order of year of birth. Thus, the card for Isaak Eisenstadt will be filed together with but before the card for Jakob Aijzenstadt. Where no year of birth appears in the source document, these names appear before those in which a year of birth is given.
The ITS was created for research of individuals and not by locality, much less nationality or religion. Thus, unless a researcher locates a collection of interest in the Inventar, it is not possible to find all lists from a specific town, although this is possible for concentration camps, e.g., Buchenwald. ITS camp collections are often more valuable than those published by camp memorial sites, since the latter frequently only list those who perished, while the ITS includes all persons for whom records exist. Of course, one can peruse all persons with a surname of interest, especially if it is an unusual surname, in the hope that the information includes the names of towns of birth and/or residence. Many listings, however, do not include this information.
USHMM Name Search Collection
Although much smaller than the ITS collection, USHMM has its own name collection, called Name Search. With more than six million entries at present, it includes some of the same sources as ITS, but also reflects others as well, most drawn from the Museum’s archival collections. Unlike the CNI, this collection may be searched by place or a combination of name and place.
Because of restrictions imposed on the Museum by source institutions, only a small proportion of Name Search appears on the USHMM’s website at www.ushmm.org/ namesearch. All of Name Search can be accessed at the Museum, however, and Name Search is expected also to be available in the conference hotel’s computer room. Some of the indexes are shared with JewishGen; these appear on that site’s Holocaust Database and should be searched before coming to Washington.
Archive and Library Holdings
Time permitting, researchers will find it useful to look at USHMM Archive and Library holdings. Many, if not most, archival collections have never been indexed by name, but they cover virtually every part of Europe of interest to genealogists. Examples of such collections that were never acquired by ITS are the Soviet Union’s Extraordinary Commission records, indexed by town, but not name; Swiss Jewish refugee records (indexed by name); the German, including Sudetenland, 1939 census; Hungarian Jewish property seizures; and vast collections of Romanian and Bulgarian material. The Library, which holds more than 85,000 books, including many yizkor (memorial) books and local histories, may be searched at http://catalog.ushmm. org. Look for the word “registers” in the catalogue entry; this indicates that name lists appear somewhere in the book. Or limit a search of the catalogue to Location: Name Lists. The Library has open shelves and visitors can examine all books relating to a country or locality.
A True Story
The usefulness of using ITS and other sources of information is best illustrated perhaps by the following true story. I was asked if I could determine the fate of someone’s great aunt, named Rose, maiden name Born. She had lived in Berlin and had been married to someone whose name began with the letters BAR. All that was known was her maiden name, place of birth and that she reportedly died in Berlin. The CNI is not organized by maiden name, and a search of the thousands of persons whose name began with BAR would have been difficult, and, as it turned out, would have been unsuccessful, since her name does not appear in the CNI. The USHMM Archives, however, has a computerized database of the 1939 German census (not available at ITS) and, with this, it was possible to find Rose’s married name, Baraniecki. Now that I had the married name, I turned to the CNI and found information on her husband, a non-Jew, and their son, Curt. As the spouse of a non-Jew, Rosa was not deported, though she died during the war years. Husband and son survived, and in 1947 Curt registered in Berlin. What happened after 1947 is unknown, but the inquirer now had the basic facts from which a search can proceed.
Summary
To sum up, if planning to visit the USHMM while attending the 2011 IAJGS conference in August 2011, make sure to do sufficient advance planning and, if possible, take a day or two before or after the conference to accomplish what you will not have time to do during the hectic days of the conference. Utilize the friendly advice of USHMM employees and volunteers; be imaginative and never give up.
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.
