With the transformation of EHRI into EHRI-ERIC, the question of enlargement of EHRI-ERIC’s membership is of particular importance. From December 11-12 2024, the Viennese Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI), the work package leader of EHRI-IP WP6 “Acquisition of New Members and Funding” therefore organised a workshop for prospective member and observer countries from Central and Southern Europe. The workshop was hosted by the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives (MILEV) at the Goldmark Hall in Budapest. 

While the first day was public and introduced existing Hungarian research infrastructures and initiatives in the humanities as well as Hungarian institutions dealing with Holocaust studies, the second day was non-public and provided support to the ambassadors of the invited newcomer countries from Central and Southern Europe. On the first day, Zsuzsanna Toronyi (Director of MILEV, EHRI-HU), also in behalf of Andor Grósz (President of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities), Reto Speck (NIOD, Co-Director of EHRI-IP) and Éva Kovács (Deputy Director of VWI, EHRI-AT) opened the workshop and emphasised the importance of the place because of the 80^th anniversary of the Nazi occupation of Hungary and the deportation of Hungarian Jews.

The first session consisted of presentations by existing research infrastructures and initiatives in Hungary which shared their experiences with the audience: Judit Gárdos (HUN-REN, Research Documentation Centre) introduced the Centre and its digital archive “The Voices of the 20^th century Archive” that hold manifold audio, written, and visual collections going back to the1970s. Péter Hegedűs (TÁRKI – CESSDA) introduced the TARKI social science data archive which joined CESSDA as early as in 1986. In the following two presentations Gábor Palkó (head of the Department of Digital Humanities at ELTE) and Tamás Váradi (HUN-REN, deputy director of the Research Centre of Linguistics) gave an overview over their long-term cooperation with DARIAH and CLARIN, respectively. All welcomed the idea to establish an Hungarian EHRI-ERIC and promised to support it.

The second session was dedicated to the state of the art of EHRI in Hungary and future partners of a Hungarian consortium. László Csősz (Senior Archivist at MILEV) who has been collaborating to EHRI projects since the very beginnings in 2010, concisely summarised these activities which underline the status of Hungary as a prospective member country. András Zima (Director of the Holocaust Memorial Centre) introduced the various activities of the memorial in Holocaust research and remembrance in Hungary and emphasised the importance of regional and transregional activities, as for instance as existing ones with memorials and initiatives in Slovakia and Serbia. Ildikó Barna (Research Centre for Computational Science) presented the project “Revisiting Early Testimonies of Hungarian Jewish Holocaust Survivors through a Digital Lens” analysing the protocols of the National Relief Committee of Attending Deportees (DEGOB) with innovative methods and digital tools. Balázs Tamási (ORZSE), director of the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary summarized the almost 150 years old history of the library which is also an important collection holder of Holocaust relevant sources in Hungary and gave an overview over current digital projects. In the discussion many participants welcomed the variety of possible partner institutions of a Hungarian consortium. 

On the second day, the representatives of the invited prospective member countries (Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine) received a compact overview of EHRI-ERIC and the possibilities of establishing a national consortium. While Reto Speck (NIOD) spoke about the transformation of EHRI into EHRI-ERIC, Dirk Luyten (SAB-CEGES) discussed legal issues on the way to becoming a member of EHRI-ERIC. Michal Frankl (MÚA-CAS) spoke about the process of building an EHRI national consortium which was supplemented by Marianne Windsperger (VWI/EHRI-AT) with best practice examples from the Austrian consortium. Katharina Freise (NIOD) discussed how to communicate EHRI’s work, and Ana Bărbulescu (INSHR-EW) reported on the EHRI Connie Kristel Fellowship Programme. Finally, Wolfgang Schellenbacher and Ines Koeltzsch (both VWI) briefly introduced the manifold EHRI tools. After these presentations the representatives of the newcomer countries intensively discussed their questions and issues with the EHRI representatives in world cafés. 

To sum up with the words of the invited guests, the workshop was “very explanatory and fruitful”, “helpful” and “inspiring” for the further steps in building up an EHRI membership.

Ines Koeltzsch Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)