Judaic Studies: Holocaust
Resources for researching Judaic Studies
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias can be an excellent place to start your research. Here are some good choices for starting your research on the Holocaust.
- The Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
- Encyclopaedia Judaica
- YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
- The Holocaust Encyclopedia from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Researching Specific People by Name
Here are some strategies to find information about specific people.
- Search for "Identification Cards" on the RememberSurvivor and Victims page of the United States Holocaust Memorial website.
- For additional information, search the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names from Yad Vashem.
- Click on the tab for Encyclopedias and Biographies near the top of this page, and use the resources mentioned under Biographies.
Researching Specific Places by Name
Here are some strategies to find information about specifics towns, cities, and villages.
- Develop a list of all the alternate spellings of the name, for example Lviv, Lvov, Lwow, Lemberg, etc. The history of places in Europe can be complex: Lviv is now in the Ukraine, but has been part of Poland, Austria, and the USSR.
- Search the Encyclopedia Judaica and the Holocaust Encyclopedia. This will provide background information.
- Search the PSU Library Catalog. Use the place name and "Holocaust" or "Shoah."
- Yizkor books are Holocaust memorial books often written by societies in memory of places destroyed and inhabitants killed. Most are in Hebrew and Yiddish, but some are in English or have sections in English. Search for Yizkor books in the PSU Library catalog. You can also search translations of Yizkor books at the JewishGen.org website.
Primary Sources
- Yad Vashem Holocaust Resource CenterLarge collection of documents, testimonies, artifacts, and photographs relating to many aspects of Holocaust history.
- Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust: Archival Sound RecordingsPersonal accounts of the Holocaust from Jewish survivors from across Europe now living in Britain, browsable by name and country (interactive map)
- Dimensions in TestimonySpeak with survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides through their interactive biographies.
- Voices of the Holocaust ProjectAudio recordings and transcripts of interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted by Dr. David Boder in 1946. Not all of the interviews were in English, but English translation is provided for all the transcripts.
- Jewish Partisans Educational FoundationA list of former WWII-era partisans with links to video clips of oral testimony.
- Image Bank WW2This database brings together all images of the Second World War in the collections of Dutch war and resistance museums, commemoration centers and the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD).
- A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust (USF): DocumentsLinks to many documents, esp. U.S. government documents on the Holocaust.
- Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History ArchiveA repository of interviews with Holocaust survivors at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
- Before the Holocaust: Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939Online research project from Birkbeck, University of London, including many documents.
- USHMM Personal HistoriesGateway to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's online collection of excerpts from survivor testimony. Arranged thematically.
- Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies: ExcerptsExcerpts from one of the largest repositories of survivor testimony videos, housed at Yale University.
- Letters to Sala: A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor CampsOnline exhibit at the New York Public Library. Each section includes facsimiles of documents and English translations.
- Our Shared Legacy: World War II and "The Joint"Digitized archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), documenting the JDC's rescue and relief efforts during and after the Holocaust.
- Learning about the Holocaust through ArtBrowsable exhibit of Holocaust-era art, organized by artist and place. Full search capability. Created by World ORT and the Ghetto Fighters' Museum (Israel).
The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews, planned, directed, and executed by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime of Germany and its collaborators from 1933-1945.
Here you will find some resources for researching the people, places, and history of the Holocaust.