DIVISION OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

APRIL 2000

Introduction                                                                                                                                       

For a variety of historical reasons, circumstances scattered the documentation of the Holocaust among a great number of countries on all five continents. Important materials are held in the repositories of such major participants in World War II as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. But there are important records regarding the Holocaust in virtually every European nation, as well as in many of the countries of Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australia. Often records are to be found within a given country in a variety of regional and city archives. Additionally, much documentation is in the archives of private organizations and individuals

Many of these paper-based records are endangered due to the fragility or instability of the materials used, or because of deliberate decisions not to preserve them. Even in those repositories where the documentation is well maintained, many paper documents are at risk due to the acidity of the low-grade paper manufactured at the time they were written

The documentation of the Holocaust is often inaccessible. It is scattered among too many disparate locations to be productively and conveniently used by researchers, and in many instances, access is restricted for political or other reasons. Often records have not been adequately cataloged, which also severely limits access for the researcher

One of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s mandates is to stimulate scholarship on the Holocaust. The Museum recognizes that for scholarship to flourish, preservation of and access to the historical record is essential. Since its inception, the Museum has committed itself to an ambitious worldwide program to identify and gather together in one location the documentation of the Holocaust. This unique and unprecedented project is similar to locating the pieces of a vast puzzle. Often the efforts of the Museum have resulted in the declassification and opening of hitherto closed archival collections, thereby adding to the pieces available to solve the puzzle. This program is a highly complex endeavor simultaneously taking place in almost every country in Western and Eastern Europe including Russia, in South America, Africa, China, Japan, and the countries of the Caribbean Basin

The creation of a repository to house centrally the documentation of the Holocaust and its historical context has already begun to facilitate the research efforts of scholars around the globe. Information on acquisitions of original and microfilmed materials is made known to the world over the Internet and through publications. As an integral part of its Worldwide Archival Acquisitions and Reproduction Program, the Museum has negotiated mutually beneficial cooperative agreements and partnerships with archival and other institutions around the world. These joint projects include, but are not limited to, cooperation in the exchange and cataloging of materials, and identifying and copying Holocaust documentation in American institutions that is relevant to a specific country in order to make such documentation available in that country’s archives.

Support for the Museum’s Worldwide Archival Acquisitions and Reproduction Program comes in part from the appropriated and non-appropriated budget of the Museum and, very importantly, in part from restricted grants by individual, corporate, and foundation donors

The Museum most gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc

Additional support has been given by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation; The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, Inc.; The Marcel M. Lutwak and Asna Hirschmann Lutwak Fund; The Rosjanski-Ross Family; Florida State University; The Roma and Joseph Koplewicz Fund; The Charles H. Revson Foundation; William Rosenzweig; and Marvin S. Crell.

History of the Project  

1) To collect materials not readily accessible to American and other scholars due to the fissures caused by the Cold War and to make them freely available.

2) To preserve in microform the content of materials in immediate and long-term danger of deliberate destruction or destruction through the internal combustion of low-grade, acidic paper.

3) To collect in one place as much of the important archival documentation about the Holocaust and its historical context as possible, which would assist research generally and form the foundation for a major research center to study and publish works of scholarship on the great complex phenomenon that is the Museum’s mandate.

Regarding the first aim, given the relative openness of Western European archives, the residual effects of the Cold War, and the difficulties in conducting research in Soviet and Eastern European archives, the Museum decided to begin its programs in the Soviet Union and Poland, then expand into other Eastern European countries, using the prestige of the Council’s leaders and the increasing interest in the subject to best advantage. Negotiations with these countries often proved exceedingly difficult, and the implementation of projects involving obstructionist behavior and bureaucratic procedures often frustrated the Museum staff, but the resulting collection of materials has proved to be of great benefit to researchers. Under the leadership of Miles Lerman and Brewster S. Chamberlin, the Museum gradually gained access to not only the principal state archives, but also the archives of ministries of foreign affairs and defense and intelligence services archives in those countries. With the end of the Cold War, some of the rationale for focusing on Eastern Europe waned, and by the mid-1990s the Museum expanded its activities to establish major projects with Western European countries, especially France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland (in particular, the International Committee of the Red Cross), while maintaining large projects in Central Europe, the Baltic States, the Balkans, and the Russian Federation.

On more than one occasion the Museum’s activities led to the declassification and opening of hitherto closed archival collections. Examples include the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland, the national archives of France and Italy, and the archives of the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Romanian Ministry of Defense. Cooperation with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation began with a Kremlin ceremony in the fall of 1996. Without the Museum’s efforts, many of these and other collections would still be closed to researchers.

These activities also have caused several archives in Europe to undertake cataloging projects of their own records, which they had not considered until the Museum approached them with an offer to assist in the effort (the quid pro quo being copies of microfilms and catalogs). In a number of instances the Museum has specifically supported preservation-conservation programs in the world’s archives, especially in Poland (e.g., the archives of the Jewish Historical Institute and the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau), which also allowed the Museum to obtain complete collections in microform. The Museum’s microform reproduction projects have preserved the contents of countless millions of documents that otherwise might have deteriorated to the point of illegibility or complete destruction.

When possible, the Museum has entered into cooperative agreements with third-party institutions, in particular with Yad Vashem - The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel, to jointly support such programs (e.g., in the Netherlands and Switzerland) or to share the burdens in a more informal arrangement (e.g., Lithuania). Additionally, the Museum maintains a microfilm exchange program with Yad Vashem, which enriches the collections of both institutions.

The Museum estimates that there remain approximately 90 million pages of major relevant archival materials that have yet to be reproduced and made available to researchers.

Description of Current Holdings 

The Museum’s past and present policy is to take advantage of a closing window of opportunity and devote its resources to the collection of archival materials, leaving the creation and maintenance of an up-to-date complete catalog of its holdings to a later time. There exists consequently a wide gap between the size of its holdings and the number of records that are fully cataloged. The Museum’s Chief Archivist estimates that three-fourths of the textual records collections have not been formally cataloged. While some form of preliminary finding aids exist for most collections in the Archives, the increasing amount of material obtained by the Museum as a result of its acquisition and reproduction projects will increase the gap between the actual amount of holdings and those that are cataloged.

A rough estimate as of the present time of the number of pages of textual records in the Museum’s Archives, including paper records as well as those in microform, is 12 million. In the past, the bulk of the collections came from institutions in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Large-scale reproduction projects in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have contributed to a balancing of the collections’ geographical spread without diminishing the number of recent acquisitions from the East. No other institution in the world holds such a collection of Holocaust-related documents, with the exceptions of Yad Vashem in Israel and the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany, the latter of which is on the whole currently closed to researchers.

Among the many topics found in the Museum’s archival collections are the persecution and annihilation of European Jewry; Holocaust survival; the persecution of Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other groups; life in the ghettos and concentration camps; war crimes investigation and prosecution; concentration camp art and music; resistance, rescue, and escape; the processes of and life in emigration and exile; concentration camp liberation and displaced persons; and records reflecting the implementation of the “Final Solution” from the perpetrators’ side. Among the various collection formats are personal papers and manuscripts, oral history interviews on videotape, audiotape, motion picture film, microfilm and microfiche, musical and non-musical sound-recordings, musical manuscripts, small art works, and various photographic formats. The collection is in a variety of languages, with most materials in German, English, Polish, Romanian, French, and Lithuanian. Some materials are in other European languages and Yiddish.

There are currently 55 record groups that contain hundreds of major sub-collections. The following (partial) list will make this accounting more immediately comprehensible. Please note that this list is incomplete because it does not include all the collections of records that have been accessioned, but not processed or cataloged. For example, not included are a collection of 60 microfilms from the Wiener Library in London, microfilms of 20 linear meters of Bucharest Jewish Community records, 12,000 pages of material from Macedonia, and 60,000 pages of police records on emigration from Gerona, Spain.            

RG–01	USHMC/USHMM Records
RG–02	Survivor Testimonies (208 collections)
RG–03	Jewish Communities (21 collections)
RG–05	Concentration and Other Camps (77 collections)
RG–05	Ghettos (10 collections)
RG–06	War Crimes Investigations and Prosecutions (27 collections)
RG–07	Roma and Sinti (Gypsies) (13 collections)
RG–08	Hadassah Rosensaft Collection (Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp)
RG–09	Liberation (44 collections)
RG–10	Small Collections (171 collections: amounts range from a few pages to several linear feet)
RG–11	Selected records from the Center for the Preservation of Historical Documentary Collections, Moscow (formerly the Osobyi Archive; includes ca. 53 collections of German state and NSDAP agencies, and Jewish and other organization records)
RG–12	Benjamin Ferencz Collection (ca. 75 linear feet)
RG–14	Germany (17 collections; includes recent acquisitions of microform collections from the Bundesarchiv: Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Persönlicher Stab des Reichsführers-SS, etc.)
RG-15	Poland (73 collections from state and regional archives; memorial museums at Stutthof, Majdanek, and Auschwitz; Main Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Polish Nation; and Jewish Historical Institute)
RG–16	Nazi Medical Policies and Practices (1 collection)
RG–17	Austria (1 collection)
RG–18	Latvia (2 collections, includes 33 rolls of microfilm)
RG–19	Rescue, Refugees, and Displaced Persons (59 collections)
RG–20	Righteous Among Nations (22 collections)
RG–21	Joseph and Sheila Tenenbaum Collection (US  boycott of German goods; Tenenbaum’s writings; Jewish refugee relief)
RG–22	Russia (5 collections, includes 25 microfilm rolls from the Extraordinary State Investigation Commission; 15,000 pages of postwar trial records from former KGB; several hundred pages from military archives; and several hundred pages of Ministry of Foreign Affairs records)
RG–23	Resistance (7 collections)
RG–24	Holocaust in the Arts (9 collections)
RG–25	Romania (9 collections, including ca. 500 microfilm rolls)
RG–26	Lithuania (2 collections, includes ca. 120 microfilm rolls of ghetto and security forces [police battalions] materials)
RG–28	Restitution and Reparations (14 collections)
RG–30	National Archives and Records Administration (3 collections, includes 25 microfilm rolls of Arrow Cross records)
RG–31	Ukraine (12 collections, 88 microfilm rolls, 75 microfiches)
RG–32	Jehovah’s Witnesses (16 collections)
RG–33	Homosexual Victims (2 collections)
RG–34	Gaynor I. Jacobson Collections (re HIAS, Bricha, etc.)
RG–37	Masonic and other Lodge Organizations (2 collections)
RG–39	Hungary (3 collections; see also RG–52 Randolph Braham Collection)
RG–41	Netherlands (includes 500+ rolls of microfilm from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation)
RG–43	France (includes several hundred microfilm rolls from the French National Archives, the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, and the Ministère des Anciens Combatants)
RG–44	Denmark (1 collection)
RG–45	Greece (1 collection)
RG–46	Bulgaria (includes 250+ rolls of microfilm from Bulgaria State Archives)
RG–48	Czechoslovakia (includes the Lety Gypsy camp records from the Czech State Archives and 11 rolls of microfilm from the Military Historical Institute)
RG–49	Yugoslavia (3 collections)
RG–50	Oral Histories (ca. 470 collections containing ca. 6,500 oral history interviews, ca. 1,500 cataloged)
RG–52	Randolph Braham Collection (includes 180 rolls of microfilm and two series of paper records all relating to the Holocaust in Hungary)
RG–53	Belarus (6 collections, 38 microfilm rolls)
RG–54	Moldova (1 collection, 24 microfilm rolls relating to Bessarabia and Transnistria)
RG–55	Aleksander Kulisiewicz Collection (camp and ghetto music, 80 linear feet)

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives’ on-line catalog provides a means for searching and retrieving information about the cataloged collections in its current holdings, including a sampling of photographs from the Photo Archives. The system allows the user to search the catalog by keyword, personal name, Library of Congress Subject Heading, and geographic place name. Help information is provided for search strategies and printing of catalog information. The catalog may be accessed via the Internet on the Museum’s website at www.ushmm.gov. It is always recommended that researchers contact the Reference Archivist (tel: 202-488-6113; e-mail archives@ushmm.gov) about records relevant to their subject matter.

Country-by-Country Status of The Worldwide Archival Acquisitions and Reproduction Program as of the End of 1999 

ALBANIA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

ALGERIA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

ARGENTINA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

AUSTRALIA
Contact with former Ministry of Justice Special Investigations Unit and various NGOs

AUSTRIA
Preliminary survey of state archives and camp memorials. Negotiated arrangements with and received photographs from Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes

AZERBAIJAN
Contact with Office of the President. Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

BELARUS
Surveys and microfilming of various fonds in Minsk Central State Archives and in Oblast Archives

BELGIUM
Contact with Administration of War Victims; The Centre d’Études et de Documentation Guerre et Sociétés Contemporaine; and the Jewish Museum of Deportation in Mechelen

BOSNIA-HERZOGOVINA
Contact with State Archives

BRAZIL
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

BULGARIA
Negotiated agreements and microfilming begun with General Department of Archives and Archives of the Ministry of Interior

CHINA
Contact with Shanghai Municipal City Archives

CROATIA
Negotiated agreements and microfilming begun in the National Archives

CZECH REPUBLIC
Preliminary surveys of various institutions. Negotiations with State Archives resulting in microfilming of Lety Gypsy Camp records; Ministry of Defense; and Jewish Museum in Prague. Participation in Czech President’s Commission on the Holocaust and the “Holocaust Phenomenon” conference in October 1999 in relation to archival matters. Received photographs from Museum of Romany Culture, Brno

DENMARK
Negotiations with State Archives and Danish Resistance Museum

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Survey of National Archives.  Contact with Archives of the Jewish Community and Museum of Sosua.

ESTONIA
Microfilming in State Archives. Contact with various other archives

FINLAND
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

FRANCE
Negotiated and implemented agreements with National Archives, 15 departmental archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives, Ministry of Veteran Affairs Archives, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC), and Grand Orient de France.  Ongoing cooperation regarding photographs with CDJC.

GEORGIA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

GERMANY
Receipt of finding aids to various German collections. Contact initiated with Deutsche Bank, Topographie des Terrors, various camp memorials, resistance organizations and other institutions. Survey of photographs completed and photographs received from local and state archives

GREECE
Cooperation initiated and implemented with Thessaloniki and Athens Jewish Communities. Negotiations completed and microfilming begun with Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Contact initiated with Hellenic State Archives

HOLY SEE
Contact with Archives

HUNGARY
Negotiations initiated with National Archives, Office of Contemporary History, Budapest Municipal Archives, Archives of Military History, Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation.  Cooperation implemented with Hungarian National Library.

IRELAND
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

ISRAEL
Ongoing cooperation with Yad Vashem. Negotiations initiated with Central Zionist Archives; Archive for the History of the Jewish People; Israeli branch of The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC); Beth Hatefusoth, the Nachum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora; and Ghetto Fighters’ House.  Received photographs from Yad Vashem, Ghetto Fighters House, and JDC.

ITALY
Negotiations completed and microfilming begun in Central State Archives. Negotiations and microfilming completed in Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea. Negotiations initiated with Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Jewish Community of Venice

JAPAN
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

KAZAKHSTAN
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

KYRGYZSTAN
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

LATVIA
Negotiations and microfilming completed with State Archives including archives of former Latvian KGB and former Communist Party.     

LITHUANIA
Negotiations completed and microfilming begun with Lithuanian Archives Department. Negotiations continuing regarding additional collections

LUXEMBOURG
Negotiations and microfilming completed with National Archives

MACEDONIA
Negotiations and microfilming completed with State Archives

MEXICO
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

MOLDOVA
Negotiations and microfilming completed with State Archives.  Contact initiated with Ministry of Security.

MONACO
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

MOROCCO
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

NETHERLANDS
Negotiations and microfilming completed and photographs received from Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. Negotiations initiated with Amsterdam City Archives

NEW ZEALAND
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

NORWAY
Negotiations completed and microfilming begun with State Archives and negotiations initiated with relevant museums and resistance organizations

POLAND
Negotiations completed and microfilming ongoing with Main Commission for the Prosecution of the Crimes Against the Polish Nation; camp memorial museums at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Majdanek State Museum, Stutthof State Museum in Sztutowo, etc.; National Library; State Archives;  Jewish Historical Institute, and other institutions. Cooperation for conservation of important documents, including Ringelblum Archives and records of death camps.  Photographic collections received from Majdanek and Auschwitz.

PORTUGAL
Negotiations completed with Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives

ROMANIA
Negotiations and microfilming completed with State Archives, Romanian Intelligence Service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and Federation of the Romanian Jewish Communities

RUSSIA
Negotiations completed and microfilming ongoing with Russian State Archival Administration, including the former Osobyi archives now merged into the Russian State Military Archives. Negotiations and reproduction of archival materials ongoing with Federal Security Service, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Contact with other Russian organizations such as Memorial and Moscow Holocaust Center.

SLOVAKIA
Negotiated agreements and microfilming begun with National Archives. Negotiations initiated with the Slovak Military Historical Institute

SLOVENIA
Surveyed holdings of National Archives

SOUTH AFRICA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

SPAIN
Survey and microfilming completed with Departmental Archives of Gerona. Negotiations and microfilming begun with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Archives

SWEDEN
Negotiations initiated with State Archives and local Swedish archives surveyed.  Received photographs from Nordiska Museum.

SWITZERLAND
Negotiations and microfilming completed with Swiss Federal Archives and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  Received photographs from ICRC.

TUNISIA
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

TURKEY
Negotiations initiated with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Archives, and other relevant institutions

UKRAINE
Negotiations and microfilming ongoing with Ukrainian Archival Administration and Oblast Archives. Negotiations initiated with Security Service of Ukraine and Vernadskiy National Library of the Academy of Sciences.

UNITED KINGDOM
Negotiations and microfilming ongoing with Wiener Library, Imperial War Museum, and other institutions. Negotiations initiated with Public Records Office.  Received photographs from Hulton Getty Archive.

UZBEKISTAN
Cooperation with relevant institutions to be explored

YUGOSLAVIA
Negotiations completed and microfilming begun with State Archives and Ministry of Defense

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Division of International Programs     

Wesley A. Fisher, Director of International Programs

Brewster Chamberlin, Associate Director
Radu Ioanid, Associate Director
Genya Markon, Associate Director
Jacek Nowakowski, Associate Director
Jürgen Matthäus, Historian
Carl Modig, Project Director for the Former Soviet Union

Jeremy A. Leffler, Administrative Officer
Julie Hock, Program Associate
Alberto Rios, Program Assistant

Contractor Representatives Abroad                                                          

Worldwide Acquisition and Reproduction Program*                                                                   

Radu Ioanid, Project Leader
Brewster Chamberlin, Senior Advisor

*List includes individuals who have worked on the project in the past.