The Museum's David M. Rubenstein National Institute for Holocaust Documentation houses an unparalleled repository of Holocaust evidence that documents the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others. The Museum’s comprehensive collection contains millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies. The Museum’s Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names contains records on people persecuted during World War II under the Nazi regime. In addition, the Museum possesses the holdings of the International Tracing Service (ITS), which contains more than 200 million digitized pages with information on the fates of 17.5 million people—including Iranians—who were subject to incarceration, forced labor, and displacement as a result of World War II. Many of these records have not been examined by scholars, offering unprecedented opportunities to advance the field of Holocaust and genocide studies.
The Museum’s related collections include:
Oral histories of refugees in Iran, such as Eliahu Eilam Kimel, Stanley Kiersnowski, Helena Kubowicz Knapczyk, Hedy L., Ruth L., Ada R., and Adam Szymel; European Jews assisted by Iranians in Europe, such as Frank Ullman; and Iranian Jews in Europe, such as Khosrow Banayan
Oral histories of veterans who fought in Iran, such as David Buchman and Judd Nissanov
Collections from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the Polish government-in-exile, and the Anders Army (including photos) related to the fate of Soviet and Eastern European Jewish evacuees in Central Asia
Recordings of the Polish jazz band in exile in Iran, The Jolly Boys
Records of various refugee and immigrant aid organizations operating in Iran, such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle, the American Joint Distribution Committee, the Mossad LeAliyah (Institute for Immigration), and the Jewish Agency for Palestine, including its Istanbul Office, through which a number of refugees transited en route to Iran
World Jewish Congress reports on Iran and the Iranian Jewry, 1942-1977
Records related to the status of Iranian citizens in Bulgaria, Germany, and France during and after the war
Film footage set in Iran, including outtakes from The March of Time, newsreel footage, and documentary film of refugees in Iran
A number of small and mid-size personal collections of letters, memoirs, photos and personal documents, and artifacts reflecting the experiences of refugees in Iran, such as Gabriella Alter papers, the Chava Elovik collection, the Gutman, Potok, Sercarz and Norymberski families collection, the Feiga Kerzner collection, the Igo Krischer papers, the Zeev Schuss memoir, and the Yehuda Zerzy Singer papers; and the experiences of Jews aided by Iranians, such as the Dorra family, the Margosis family, the Ery Magasanik collection, and the Ullman family papers
The diary of Jewish Iranian Holocaust survivor Menashe Ezrapour
Photos of drawings from the anti-Nazi propaganda drawn in the style of a Persian miniature by Kimon Evan Marengo
To search the Museum's collections, please visit collections.ushmm.org/search.
The Museum also offers information about Holocaust denial and antisemitism in Iran.