Shoah – Holocaust Free Research Help

Scope

In an effort to build a tutorial on researching the Holocaust era, I have included pointers to the information provided by me (on ManyRoads) to help you find your way through the confusion created as the legacy of this catastrophic historical period. I, also, share an anecdote or two on some of the experiences I have encountered. Finally, I will provide links, site synopses, and set research expectations.

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Listen to this article’s
“Life in the Past Lane” Podcast!

Podcast Show Notes:

Holocaust Tutorial Notes.pdf

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To begin let me say…

Holocaust research is in many ways similar to other genealogical research, but in other ways it is quite unique. For the purpose of this tutorial, I will not focus on every aspect of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis during and before WW2; I will concentrate on 4 crucial populations and aspects of the holocaust. My focus will be on some of the largest populations targeted by the National Socialists (Nazis) for elimination/ extermination/ removal. These “murdered” peoples include, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:

27 Jan 1945 - Survivors of Auschwitz are shown during the first hours of the concentration camp's liberation by soldiers of the Soviet army, January 27, 1945. Manfred Pohl, a Deutsche Bank historian, said February 4 that Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG, lent funds to firms involved in the building of the World War Two camp. An estimated 1.5 million people were killed in the camp during World War Two. Photo by B. Fishman-Corbis-Bettmann REUTERS — Survivors of Auschwitz during the first hours of the concentration camp’s liberation by soldiers of the Soviet army, January 27, 1945. Photo by B. Fishman-Corbis-Bettmann REUTERS

some 6,000,000 Jews
around 250,000 Disabled (T4) -People with disabilities living in institutions
some 196,000 -220,00- Sinti/Roma (Gypsies)
approximately 5,000 – 15,000 Homosexuals

Not addressed in this tutorial are…

those ~ 1,900 Jehovah’s Witnesses murdered
more than 70,000 Repeat criminal offenders, so-called asocials who were murdered

Note: There were other populations/groups as well targeted by the Nazis, but most were, also, ‘war time opponents of the Reich’. The Geneva War Conventions were flagrantly violated by all sides of the conflict. The slaughter of the conflict (WW2) was enormous. So, I’ll leave that for others to untangle. I, also, will not discuss the Soviet civilian murders perpetrated by Stalin before, during, and after WW2.

Related Guidance (Pages)

Background/ Foundation

Like most genealogy or family history research, Holocaust Research (as a unique research domain) requires you build upon a good, sound foundation in order to achieve optimal results with minimal frustration. Trust me Holocaust research can be VERY challenging, frustrating, disturbing.

So, if you do not already possess a reliable degree of competency or ‘high-level of comfort’ in conducting ‘basic’ genealogical/ historical research, I recommend you take advantage of the free courses and materials discussed in ManyRoads’ Genealogy: Getting Started area/section. The courses and materials I have cataloged there are largely free (no-cost) and are both designed and available for distance learners (meaning you need not sit in a class room somewhere to benefit from these tools and courses).

Included on the Getting Started page are the following ‘instructional’ categories:

Because the Holocaust took place on German or Third Reich controlled lands, between the years 1933 and 1945, many more of the traditional Prussian-German-Polish research techniques and databases apply.

If you are unfamiliar with research in these regions, you’ll find ManyRoads podcast on materials and help-aids listed on the Prussian-German-Polish free genealogy help webpage and guidance to be helpful. This particular self-help section on ManyRoads offers hundreds of articles, thousands of curated links, and more. It is simply one of the most advanced tutorials available on the conduct of Prussian-German-Polish research available anywhere. Please use it and benefit from it.

Once you feel you are on reasonably firm footing with the basics of researching this geographic region (Central & Eastern Europe); and, in using traditional genealogical historical research techniques and resources, then the guidance that follows in this podcast provides pointers on how to conduct Holocaust research.

You certainly are free to use any of the guidance offered in this podcast and related show notes, even if you do not have the recommended foundational skills established. It’s just that you may get tangled up in the morass of the region’s history, ethnic cleansings, and ethnic destructions in other words you might get confused.

The Adventure begins

Having “completed” our quick discussion about building a solid foundation, let’s move on to the more specific aspects of conducting and experiencing Holocaust research but let me warn you…

“Demons and surprises lurk here.”

Before we go into the bread & butter sites & links discussion, I will share the following story, as an example of what can happen.

Sometimes genealogy research leads to unexpected places. It can dash assumptions and destroy illusions; such was the result of my casual search for information and photographs from the ‘former’ area of Zeyer in Kreis Elbing. I had hoped to find photos of churches and hidden information about the community; instead I uncovered something more ominous and disturbing.

I know this tutorial is the Holocaust, but bear with me. Perhaps like many of you, I had always assumed that Mennonites did their best to avoid military service, as well as political involvement in more ‘earthly’ pursuits. I had assumed Mennonites were people of peace. But, I was wrong.

In my search for pictures & images I stumbled across an old newspaper clipping (see below).

“Translated” into non-Gothic typeface:

An den Herrn Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler- Berlin

Die Heute zu Tiegenhagen im Freiestaate Danzig tagende Konferenz der Ost- und Westprußischen Mennoniten empfindet mit tiefer Dankbarkeit die gewaltige Erhebung, die Gott durch Ihre Tatkraft unserm Volk geschenkt hat und gelobt auch ihrerseits freudige Mitarbeit am Aufbau useres Vaterlandes aus dem Kräften des Evangeliums heraus, getreu dem Wahlspruch unserer Väter: Einen andern Grund kann niemand legen außer dem, der gelegt ist, welcher ist Jesu Christus.

Von dem Herrn Reichskanzler ist inzwischen folgendes Antwortschreiben eingetroffen:

Für die mir Ihrer Zuschrift zum Ausdruck gebrachte treue Gesinnung unf Ihre Bereitwilligkeit am Aufbau des Deutschen Reiches mitzuarbeiten, spreche ich Ihnen meinen aufrichtigen Dank aus.

— Adolf Hitler

Translated the document reads

The Mennonites of East and West Prussia sent an official greeting to the new Reichskanzler (Imperial Chancellor) Adolf Hitler on September 10, 1933:

Those gathered here today at the meeting of the Conference of East and West Prussian Mennonites in Tiegenhagen within the Free City of Danzig, feel with deep gratitude the great uplifting that God gave our people through your strength of will, and pledge, for our part, joyful cooperation in the building of our Fatherland from the power of the Gospel, faithfully from the Motto of our fathers: “Other foundation can no man lay, other than that which is already laid, Jesus Christ.”

From the Lord Chancellor the following reply has arrived:
I offer my sincerest appreciation and thanks for your Communication, in which you expressed your loyalty and willingness to work together with me to rebuild the German Reich.
-Adolf Hitler

I was shocked; here was a newspaper clipping indicating that the broad East- and West Prussian Mennonite Community was expressing joy, fealty, and adherence to Adolf Hitler and his efforts to make Germany great again.

I had to see if there was more. I immediately decided to look for information via Google (something I do frequently).

What I found next was evidence of two Stutthof Concentration Sub-camps in the Zeyer area, one in Zeyersniederkampen and the second in Zeyersvorderkampen. Both camps had Mennonite involvement and the one in Zeyersvorderkampen was even run by Mennonites.

For more see this posting on ManyRoads.

The sad truth is that for this “time and place” these sub-camps were not exceptional. Stutthof,alone, had dozens of sub-camps. The shock was that these atrocious activities were ‘everywhere’ and they were ‘ordinary’.

Having said that, I am left to ponder the following:

How it is that so many people can be turned into eager, almost joyful, adherents of hatred?
What causes people to lose their “humanity” and become predators who victimize and oppress?
Why are people so willing to sacrifice long held beliefs and traditions and follow a path of “evil”?

I share this in order to demonstrate that the information and facts you seek may not all be found where you expect. Next, I am going to briefly discuss what I believe are among the best “traditional” website resources from which to gather excellent Holocaust related data. Collectively these sites offer a wealth of data and information; although, you will soon discover that they also simply are unable to offer enough information to satisfy the needs of those who seek it. And as I pointed out a little while ago,

“You never know where you might encounter additional information.”

Important Internet Resources

The first of the traditional sites I’m going to mention is:

FamilySearch.org – as many of you know, FamilySearch is a free LDS (Latter Day Saints Church) site. The site also offers concise guidance on researching the Jewish Holocaust. If you access the FamilySearch Research Wiki you will receive a listing of Holocaust related links. Its Jewish Holocaust section is quite brief and provides a bit of context but mostly it provides pointers to the sites that I’m going to discuss next.
The next site is ancestry.com. Ancestry offers information on finding Jewish records. Their site provides some very interesting links as well included among those are:
- Jewish family history message boards which facilitate discussion and collaboration of Jewish history and then
- Jewish history collection which is said to be the world’s largest online collection of Jewish historical records this collection contains passenger lists, census records Holocaust records and more
- the thing to be aware of with ancestry.com is that it is a for fee site.

The next resource mention is the NizKor Project which provides guides on research and sorts materials. The site is unique in that it focuses on Holocaust deniers as well as Holocaust victims. As noted on their site, “[…] Nizkor may include […] materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them, and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse.” Major topic areas listed on the site include:

- Holocaust Research Guides
- The Holocaust Camps
- Nuremberg Trials
- People from A to Z
- Organizations
- Shofar FTP Archives
- Special Features

The next site I’ll briefly review is JewishGen and their getting started section. Their links include:

- - First Timer— Advice for Beginners. If you use this section, “you will learn a lot about your family (through interviews) and understand a little better how JewishGen works.”
  - FAQ— Frequently Asked Questions about Jewish Genealogy.
  - InfoFiles— A directory of resources, organized by topic and country. This area offers hundreds of internet links grouped in dozens of categories. It is “extensive.”
  - Tools— Calculation & language aids (soundex, calendar, distance). This area includes:
    - Soundex: calculates Daitch-Mokotoff (D-M) and National Archives soundex codes.
    - Calendar Conversion: calculates dates to/from Gregorian and Jewish calendars.
    - Jewish Calendar: displays all Jewish holidays for any Gregorian or Jewish year.
    - Distance / Direction: calculates distance and direction between towns (kilometers and miles).
- Online Classes— Interactive Jewish Genealogy education offered as a rolling calendar of courses.

The next to resources that all discuss are probably the premier sites in the world for the Holocaust the first one is the United States Holocaust memorial museum also known as U. S. H. M. M.. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) offering

- The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center which offers areas devoted to:

- - Resources On Survivors And Victims
  - Connect With Survivors
  - Survivor Reflections And Testimonies
  - Identification Cards
  - Days Of Remembrance
  - Database Of Holocaust Survivor And Victim Names
- Resources for Academics and Research which offers section covering:

- - Competitive Academic Programs
  - Scholarly Presentations
  - Publications
  - The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

The next resource I’ll mention is provided by Brigham Young University (BYU). BYU provides a useful set of Holocaust studies materials and links. Their materials are much more dense and include help pages for:

- linguistics
- academic research
- history
- politics
- newspapers and more
- this site is clearly designed to function at a university level and as an asset for their university and for you to use as well so it’s a bit more sophisticated.

The next major site I’m going to discuss is 5,000,000 Forgotten the non Jewish victims of the Holocaust. (Here is an article discussing the various groups & populations.) This site which is called remember.org when combined with the coverage provided by Yad Vashem, in total provides a nearly complete view on the Holocaust. However, it must be noted that the coverage on the destruction of non-Jewish peoples, be that on this site or elsewhere such as in the United States Holocaust memorial museum, is not nearly as thorough nor as energetically supported as is the coverage for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The 5,000,000 Forgotten enumerates and tries to track down what happened to the Roma/ Sinti, the T4 (the disabled), “the Pinks” (homosexuals) and the 3,000,000 Poles who were killed by the Nazis. Major sections of this site are comprised of:

- Photos and Art
- Stories
- Holocaust Survivors
- Education

Lastly, we’ll look at Yad Vashem which translates literally to “a monument and a name.” Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the “Jewish victims” of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead, honoring Jews who fought against their oppressors, and honoring gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; it is also focused on researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general with an aim towards avoiding such events in the future. An important point to keep in mind is that this Memorial does not heavily focus on non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust, although there is some coverage/mention of the various non-Jewish groups. If we look at the Yad Vashem, it is basically comprised of subdivisions or sections which include (not all are listed):

- The Holocaust- “About the Holocaust explores the history of the Holocaust thematically and chronologically. Each chapter in the narrative is divided into subchapters with explanatory texts.”
- Digital Collections- contains records of some 4.7 million victims as well as photos, films and a deportation database.
- Archives- ” the Archive has initiated activities with a view to collecting and copying Holocaust related documents that have been housed in various archives in Europe and throughout the world.”
- Research- ” the goal of the Institute has been to encourage and support worldwide scholarly research on the Holocaust and Holocaust related topics.”
- Education & E-learning- “International School for Holocaust Studies (ISHS), established in 1993, focuses upon – and excels in – providing quality Holocaust education to diverse audiences from Israel and across the world.”
- Museums- “The Holocaust History Museum occupies over 4,200 square meters, mainly underground. Both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, it presents the story of the Shoah from a unique Jewish perspective…”
- Righteous- “The Righteous Among the Nations, honored by Yad Vashem, are non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust.”

Beyond the sites mentioned above, the “Link” categories below offer several hundred of the world’s “Major Sources” of Holocaust (Shoah) Information.

Be advised: the sites mentioned on this page offer the best available source and guidance information they are able. But please be aware of the following resource limitations, any guidance provided is almost always incomplete:

Source data is rarely complete.
Indexed information may not be accurately indexed.
Data and guidance may be repeated across sites.
The languages used by the Holocaust (Shoah) sites vary; be prepared to stretch (develop) your language skills.

There, simply, is no single, universal, complete repository.

You should also expect, your search will have “only limited” success. The more success you have, the luckier you are.

ManyRoads Holocaust Research Materials

ManyRoads Holocaust Map Collection

Basic Holocaust Study Guide

Shoah-Holocaust (Links)

(the above link contains Free Courseware on the Shoah-Holocaust)

Online (Non-ManyRoads) Maps

The Memorial Book – “Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 – 1945” the German Federal Archives face the moral obligation arising from the monstrous misdoings of racial fanaticism in order to keep all Jewish victims of the National Socialist tyranny in remembrance and to hand this heritage on to future generations:

“This Memorial Book gives those murdered their names and dignity back. It is a memorial and at the same time a reminder that every single life has a name and its own truly unique tragic story.” (Preface of the Federal President Horst Köhler on the 2nd edition of the Memorial Book)

The core of the online presentation of the Memorial Book is formed by the directory of names, which enables the effective search for persons affected by means of a query template which can be adapted to different criteria:

For additional insights, please review ManyRoads’ postings on Shoah/Holocaust Research.