Subject Guides
Judaic Studies
Resources for Judaic Studies.
Guide Contents
The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews, planned, directed, and executed by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime of Germany and its collaborators from 1933-1945.
Here you will find some resources for researching the people, places, and history of the Holocaust.
An excellent place to start is by going to the websites of large Holocaust museums and searching through any bibliographies they have. A great example is the bibliographies from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias can be an excellent place to start your research. Here are some good choices for starting your research on the Holocaust.
- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia
Researching Specific People and Places by Name
Here are some strategies to find information about specific people:
- Search for "Identification Cards" on the Remember Survivor and Victims page of the United States Holocaust Memorial website.
- For additional information, search the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names from Yad Vashem.
Here are some strategies to find information about specifics towns, cities, and villages:
- Develop a list of all the alternate spellings of the name, for example Lviv, Lvov, Lwow, Lemberg, etc. The history of places in Europe can be complex: Lviv is now in the Ukraine, but has been part of Poland, Austria, and the USSR.
- Search the Encyclopedia Judaica and the Holocaust Encyclopedia. This will provide background information.
- Search the Binghamton University Libraries collections using Find It! Use the advanced search, filter to "subject" on the top left, and type in the place name and "Holocaust" or "Shoah."
- Yizkor books are Holocaust memorial books often written by societies in memory of places destroyed and inhabitants killed. Most are in Hebrew and Yiddish, but some are in English or have sections in English. You can search translations of Yizkor books at the JewishGen.org website.
Primary Sources
- Before the Holocaust: Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939Online research project from Birkbeck, University of London, including many documents.
- Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons, 1936-1945This collection consists of items originating from prisoners held in German concentration camps, internment and transit camps, Gestapo prisons, and POW camps during and just prior to World War II. Most of the collection consists of letters written or received by prisoners, but it also includes receipts for parcels, money orders and personal effects; paper currency; and realia, including Star of David badges that Jews were forced to wear
- Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies: ExcerptsExcerpts from one of the largest repositories of survivor testimony videos, housed at Yale University.
- Full-Length Testimonies | USC Shoah Foundation InstituteCollection of short clips of oral history interviews with Holocaust survivors. 12 full-length interviews are available online.
- Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of the Nazi War CrimesUnique documents on the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi concentration camp commandants and camp personnel. Documents include: correspondence; trial records and transcripts; investigatory material, such as interrogation reports and trial exhibits; clemency petitions and reviews; photographs of atrocities; newspaper clippings; and pamphlets
- Jewish Partisans Educational FoundationA list of former WWII-era partisans with links to video clips of oral testimony.
- Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust: Archival Sound RecordingsPersonal accounts of the Holocaust from Jewish survivors from across Europe now living in Britain, browsable by name and country (interactive map)
- Learning about the Holocaust through ArtBrowsable exhibit of Holocaust-era art, organized by artist and place. Full search capability. Created by World ORT and the Ghetto Fighters' Museum (Israel).
- Letters to Sala: A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor CampsOnline exhibit at the New York Public Library. Each section includes facsimiles of documents and English translations.
- Nizkor ProjectA collection of projects focused on the Holocaust and its denial, including documents on the camps and war crimes trials, organizations, people and places, and research guides
- Our Shared Legacy: World War II and "The Joint"Digitized archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), documenting the JDC's rescue and relief efforts during and after the Holocaust.
- SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries and Assets in Neutral CountriesDocuments regarding the clandestine transfer of German assets outside of Germany that could be used to rebuild the German war machine or the Nazi party after the war, as well as art looting and other acts that elicited the interest of Allied intelligence agencies during the war
- A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust (USF): DocumentsLinks to many documents, esp. U.S. government documents on the Holocaust.
- Testimates to the HolocaustPersonal accounts, interviews, letters, photographs; also biographical files and Nazi documents and propaganda texts, including textbooks, songbooks, Antisemitic tracts, etc. About 25% in English.
- USHMM Personal HistoriesGateway to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's online collection of excerpts from survivor testimony. Arranged thematically.
- US Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950Provides unique correspondence, reports and analyses, memos of conversations, and personal interviews exploring such themes as U.S.-Vatican relations, Vatican’s role in World War II, Jewish refugees, Italian anti-Jewish laws during the papacy of Pius XII, and the pope’s personal knowledge of the treatment of European Jews
- Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History ArchiveA repository of interviews with Holocaust survivors at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
- Voices of the Holocaust ProjectAudio recordings and transcripts of interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted by Dr. David Boder in 1946. Not all of the interviews were in English, but English translation is provided for all the transcripts.
- Yad Vashem Holocaust Resource CenterLarge collection of documents, testimonies, artifacts, and photographs relating to many aspects of Holocaust history.
- Yizkor BooksNearly 700 memorial books of communities destroyed in the Holocaust, digitized from New York Public Library collection. Published 1950s-1970s, most are in Hebrew or Yiddish; some portions also in English or other European languages. Browse by community.
This Holocaust page was originally developed by Tom Raffensperger and other PSU library staff in conjunction with faculty from the PSU Harold Schnitizer Family Judaic Studies Program. It was revised by Joan Petit with the assistance of Allen Hauser.
