EHRI Portal Vocabulary Set of Concentration Camps Greatly Expanded and Enhanced

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

Over the past year, the EHRI team on Users and Standards has expanded and enhanced the EHRI Portal vocabulary set of concentration camps, incorporating data from the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, the Bundesarchiv, and Wikipedia to increase the number of camps in the vocabulary list from 1974 to 3077. Most of the camps in the list will also be enriched with additional descriptive information, including geographic coordinates, alternative names, associated place names, and hierarchical relationships with other entries. This improved vocabulary set will ensure that more points of access can be applied to the diverse Holocaust-related archival materials integrated in the EHRI Portal and that links between materials can be more easily established.

Wikidata

In addition to improving the EHRI vocabulary sets, the EHRI team contributed new entries for Holocaust-era concentration camps to Wikidata, increasing the number of these camps listed in Wikidata from approximately 500 to 3077. These Wikidata entries were enhanced with an EHRI-assigned unique identifier, geographic coordinates, and alternative labels. By promoting linked open data between EHRI and Wikidata, we are hopeful that millions of Wikidata users across the world will benefit and be directed to the resources described in the EHRI Portal.

Nancy Cooey

Mapped visualization of the camps listed in Wikidata
before EHRI’s contributions
Mapped visualization of the camps listed in Wikidata
after EHRI’s contributions