The EHRI Country Reports are published on the EHRI Portal. This page contains a general introduction to the Country Reports.

The field of Holocaust studies relies on a vast variety of archives. One of EHRI’s most important tasks is to create an inventory of Holocaust-related archival institutions and collections in order to share this information with the research community. The country reports provide EHRI’s identification work with a systematic and structured framework. They give an historical overview of the country and its Holocaust history as well as of the archival situation in the covered countries.

If you have questions or comments about the country reports or the introduction, please contact info@ehri-project.eu.
 

All EHRI country reports follow the same general structure:

• Our first aim is to provide a general overview of each country’s history during the Second World War. This is done in two short paragraphs. The first paragraph briefly summarises the country’s history during the Second World War, covering questions of statehood as well as German rule and influence. The second paragraph focuses on Holocaust history and the history of the genocide of the Roma (1). Where possible, it includes information on the size of the pre-war Jewish and Roma community as compared to the total population of the country, as well as an estimate of the number of Jewish and Roma victims. Please note that dividing the number of victims according to today’s national borders is a highly complicated matter.
   
• The second section offers a short overview of the archival situation. It deals with the archival culture of the country: how the archives are organised (centralised system or not; public and private archives; general information about access, etc.). The summaries do not include detailed information on privacy legislation, copyright issues or accessibility. For privacy issues, the EU member states are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2). However, since the processing of personal data for research purposes or archiving in the public interest is subject to member state law, there may still be differences from one member state to another, and even within a given country there may be other variables to take into account (specific laws and culture, local practices). In non-EU countries, and especially in former communist states, the archival system is usually more centralised, but this does not mean privacy issues are more clear-cut. This is why EHRI refers users to archival administrations and, more importantly, the archives themselves for their policy on data protection and access to the documents, as well as copyright issues. EHRI also finds a partner advocating for archival access to Holocaust-related sources in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (3). 
   
• Until 2019, EHRI also maintained a summary and extensive report on its identification work (2010-2019). It also includes references to aggregators and country-specific research guides. An EHRI Research Extensive section has been included for countries for which EHRI was able to include collection descriptions on the portal. Following a three-step structure, the extensive reports offer information on how EHRI acquired its data and integrated it into the portal. They note the pre-existing research, local experts, available archival and, in some cases, on third party surveys EHRI relied on (A); they provide information on characteristics and specific challenges of the archival systems (B); and, finally, they present overviews of EHRI’s identification and description results (C) that appear as listings of archival institutions relevant to Holocaust-research which can be found in and outside a particular country.

• For its Portal, EHRI uses the  IHRA Guidelines for Identifying Relevant Documentation for Holocaust Research, Education and Remembrance, which were launched on 23 March 2022. 

The EHRI country reports are first and foremost a tool to frame the identification and investigation of sources on the Holocaust. Please note that the list of identified institutions and collections includes more detailed descriptions and information, not only about the content and type of sources, but also about archive-specific conditions regarding the accessibility of the sources.

As a first priority, the reports focus on the Axis and Nazi-occupied countries in Europe (including the North-African colonies). The ultimate goal is to include a country report on every country which holds Holocaust-related archival collections and to keep the reports up to date in order to create a dynamic, growing resource for the identification of Holocaust sources.

Authors and bibliographic reference:

The country reports and descriptions in the EHRI portal have been authored and reviewed by a team of expert contributors.

The reports can be referenced as follows: The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Country Reports on Holocaust History and Archives, and the Data Identification and Integration Work of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), [LINK to website and/or portal] (date of consultation).

(1) The word ‘Roma’ is used as an umbrella term which includes different related groups, whether sedentary or not, such as Roma, Travellers, Gens du voyage, Resandefolket/De resande, Sinti, Camminanti, Manouches, Kalés, Romanichels, Boyash/Rudari, Ashkalis, Égyptiens, Yéniches, Doms, Loms and Abdal that may be diverse in culture and lifestyles. The present is an explanatory footnote, not a definition of Roma (see https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antigypsyism-anti-roma-discrimination).

(2) ‘Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)’ in, Official Journal of the European Union. Legislation. L. 119 4 May 2016, p. 1-88.

(3) https://holocaustremembrance.com/what-we-do/focus-areas/archives-and-research (accessed 6 March 2024)