International EHRI Workshop: Early Attempts at the Historical Documentation of the Holocaust II

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Tuesday, 4 November, 2014

The EHRI workshop Early Attempts at the Historical Documentation of the Holocaust was organised by the Jewish Museum in Prague, on October 21-23, 2014. It brought together experts from 13 countries to discuss and present their research on the early documentation of the Holocaust during and after WWII. The workshop extended the first EHRI workshop devoted to the early documentation of the Holocaust which was held in Budapest in 2012.

Opening remarks

Michal Frankl (Deputy Director, Jewish Museum in Prague) detailed in his opening remarks the problems faced by historians today when dealing with the very disparate archival sources relating to the Holocaust and the post-war period. This has made EHRI necessary, not only in the sense of bringing together sources of information, but also facilitating exchange and discussion amongst the people working most closely with those sources. Very early on, the EHRI project recognised the significance of the historical analysis of the early documentation project, their agents as well as the created collections.

Panels

In a series of panels focusing on topics such as testimonies, post-war documentation, autobiographic sources, documentation as resistance, and retribution and Holocaust documentation, experts described the collection of documents and the challenges faced when dealing with such diverse sources of information and how they were collected.

Different issues

Established experts and early career researchers presented their work on different issues, some focusing more on the history and the historical background of  individual collections, such as the Ringelblum Archive, Hersh Wasser’s historical work in Warsaw, Noyekh Prilutski's Komitet in Vilna, the Auschwitz Album or the Bialystok Underground Archives. Others discussed the methodology of early documentations – such as collecting early testimonies from survivor children – or the purpose of and issues with material such as David Boder’s interviews. 

Broader considerations

Participants also gave an insight into the broader considerations of collecting material in certain regions and in particular political contexts, such as Holocaust testimonies in Romania, the work of NIOD after the war, letters from Soviet Jews during WWII and the work of the State Commission in the Soviet Union, or the post-war documentation in Croatia. 

Introducing EHRI Database and Future Collaboration

The workshop also allowed the EHRI team to demonstrate an early version of one of the main project outcomes; the online portal which offers researchers and the wider public access to collection descriptions from many archives. As well as being a valuable chance to get feedback from potential users, Veerle Vanden Daelen, the leader of the EHRI team on identification and investigation, also detailed how those attending the workshop might contribute to the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure in the future, further adding to the extensive content already available.

The workshop was organised by the Jewish Museum in Prague and held at the Institute of Czech Literature of the Academy of Science. 

Wolfgang Schellenbacher, Jewish Museum Prague

Photos by Jewish Museum Prague:

  1. 1. Michal Frankl, Deputy Director Jewish Museum Prague
  2. 2. Workshop participant Dr Boaz Cohen presents 'Collecting Testimonies from Survivor Childeren 1944-1949'.