Conducting Research
The Museum receives millions of pages of new archival material each year.
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Museum currently holds, among its major collections, more than three million pages of documents from France, one million pages of documents from Romania, one million pages from the Netherlands, one million pages from Poland, and 300,000 pages from Croatia. Thousands of pages of Jewish community documents were discovered in the Osobiy Archives, collections seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. In addition to Gestapo, Nazi party, and ministry records, the Osobiy Archives house files from the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens Berlin (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Belief, Berlin), Jewish community records from Austria, Greece, and Croatia, and archives from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the World Jewish Congress in Paris.
These diverse collections, together with core holdings of Nazi records and access to American and foreign documentation at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), make the Center a unique facility for undertaking research on the Holocaust. The use of these archival materials by Center and visiting scholars is already having a significant impact on the field of Holocaust studies, in publications, public forums, and in the way that the Holocaust is being taught on American campuses.
The following links are provided to facilitate your research into the holdings and resources of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Library and Archival Collections
- Library and Archives Catalog
A combined catalog of published materials available in the Museum’s Library, and unpublished archival materials available in the Museum’s Archives. Published materials include books, serials, videos, CDs and other media. Unpublished archival materials include microfilm and microfiche, paper collections, photographs, music, and video and audio tapes.
- Archival Guide to the Collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This guide provides researchers with a general overview of the textual record collections of the Museum and facilitates the first stage of the research process.
- Archival Finding Aids Search
The Archives’ Finding Aids Search provides detailed access to the Museum’s archival collections, including folder-level (and sometimes item-level) inventories of individual archival collections.
- International Database of Oral History Testimonies
This USHMM catalog is a resource for persons interested in the location of Holocaust oral history collections worldwide.
- The Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at USHMM
This online catalog is a comprehensive informational and archival resource for moving image materials pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II throughout the world.
- Photo Archives Online Catalog
This searchable catalog provides information on approximately 20% of the 85,000 images in the Museum’s Photo Archives.
Archival Collection Guides
- Jewish Resistance: A Working Bibliography
A bibliography of books and articles on the subject of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust which compiles basic data on scholarly and other significant writings dealing with the period 1939-45. It focuses primarily on Jewish armed resistance to Nazi Germany and its Axis allies throughout Europe.
- Index of Holocaust-Related Archival Holdings For the Jewish Source Study Initiative
The Center has initiated an effort to identify and disseminate information about Holocaust-related Jewish source manuscript and oral history collections in university, college, and other institutional libraries and archives in the United States, including those in Jewish museums and Holocaust education and memorial centers. This list contains the results of a preliminary survey conducted during the summer of 2003.
- Jewish Source Archival Resources at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
List of Jewish source collections available at the USHMM Archives (a snapshot of the part of the Museum’s collections, as of May 2005, dealing with archival materials created by Jewish organizations, shadow organizations, communities, and individuals immediately preceding, during, and following the Holocaust).
- Guide to English-Language Archival Collections
This fall 2010 list provides researchers with information on select archival collections that appear in the English language or in a combination of languages that include English.
- Significant Archival Collections from the Former Soviet Union
This guide provides users with a select list of USHMM archival collections that originate in the states of the former Soviet Union. Its aim is to present a sample of the rich archival resources at the Museum and to suggest future avenues of research on the Holocaust as it occurred in the former Soviet Union.
Other Resources
