Millions of names thought vanished added to Holocaust museum records
Recently opened Nazi archive contains 16 linear miles of papers detailing deaths, torture of millions.
By The Associated Press Tags: Holocaust Jewish World NaziWhen Bill Connelly heard that the heirs of a collector of Jewish memorial books were cleaning out his library, he rushed to New York and fished dozens of the Yiddish-language volumes out of a municipal trash bin.
With their lists of residents from long vanished European communities - sometimes recorded street by street - the books often are all that's left of entire villages or neighborhoods consumed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.
To rescue a name is to rescue a life from oblivion, Holocaust survivors believe.
The yizkor books, from the Hebrew word for remember, are now on the shelves, alongside hundreds of other volumes, at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where Connelly works.
"It's a gesture to the centuries: It says, this is who we are, and we will not disappear," said Connelly, referring to the books he salvaged 10 years ago that formed the foundation of the museum's library.
Now, the museum is gaining access to millions more names, the largest registry of Holocaust victims existing anywhere.
For more than 60 years, they were locked in a secretive archive in Germany that houses records scooped up by Allied troops from concentration camps, Nazi SS offices and postwar displaced-persons compounds.
In August, the International Tracing Service of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which administers the archive, began transferring digital copies of its documents to the museum in Washington, to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, and to the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, Poland.
It will take the ITS two more years to finish copying onto hard drives the 16 linear miles (26 kilometers) of paper now filling a half-dozen buildings in the small German town of Bad Arolsen.
Sharing the files will allow survivors and victims' relatives to see true images of documents - transportation lists, Gestapo orders, camp registers, slave labor booklets, death books - that evince their tortures and that may have determined whether they lived or died.
With the legal barriers nearly cleared away, the museum will be ready by early next year to begin helping survivors track their history.
"Each day we are losing survivors," said museum director Sara J. Bloomfield, "and many go to their graves without knowing where or when their loved ones died."
At Bad Arolsen, names fill rooms.
Though now digitized and entered onto a database, the ITS retains all 50 million index cards bearing the names of victims, concentration camp inmates, slave laborers and displaced persons mentioned somewhere in the vast warehouse of papers.
Many are duplications, filed under different spellings, and the cards refer to about 17.5 million people, Jews and non-Jews. The cards alone occupy three cavernous rooms.
Survivors have been waiting for decades to rummage through the archive in search of names.
David Mermelstein, 78, now a Miami resident, will look for his brothers.
"My older brother was with me the whole time, from Auschwitz through two other camps. Then they were separated when Mermelstein suffered a work accident. About three months before we were liberated, that was the last time I saw him."
"Though the Holocaust and the Nazi reign must be among the most intensively studied 12 years in history, the files could still prove invaluable for new research. It won't change the big picture, but no scholars have ever had their hands on this material," said Bloomfield. "For historians, there are going to be some very exciting years ahead."
Joe White, a specialist on the earliest concentration camps created within weeks of Hitler's 1933 rise to power, hopes to tap the files for new data on privileged groups, like the inmates who acted as overseers known as kapos.
But White, who is with the museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, also is waiting for the chance to just explore. "Turning the pages, you find things you weren't expecting."
Scott H. O'Gara, a teacher of Holocaust studies at Suffolk County Community College in Riverhead, New York, said the ITS archive has a rich library of English-language testimony recorded by U.S. Army officers immediately after the war that could throw up new names of SS officers.
The reports were prepared contemporaneously with the liberation of the camps, and my hope would be that they would prove useful in tracking down some of the perpetrators, he said.
When complete, the arrival of the ITS archive will more than double the 40 million pages of records already compiled by the Washington museum, making it one of the world's largest repositories of Holocaust resource material along with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
The Israeli memorial already has a database of 3.3 million names of the 6 million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust and has assembled a team to comb through the newly acquired ITS material for more.
But even with the ITS files, the names of millions of victims are lost forever. The Nazis destroyed much of the evidence of their crimes in the final months of the war, and millions more vanished without a trace in eastern Europe, where record-keeping was less meticulous.
The ITS archive was created to trace the fate of people who went missing during the war and in the chaotic aftermath of the German surrender on May 8, 1945, and to reunite families. Later, survivors turned to the ITS for evidence to support compensation claims for their persecution or property.
But survivors never had direct access to the records themselves. Inquirers submitted applications and often waited years to obtain bare-bones information in a form-letter response.
Missing was the context - the feel factor of seeing their names as inscribed by wartime German officials, or seeing the orders with perhaps a note by SS chief Heinrich Himmler scribbled in a margin in green ink.
Laymen will be able to browse the archive from computer terminals in the museum, but they still will need professional helpers to find specific information because of the arcane system the Red Cross archivists set up over the years.
"But at least they will walk away with copies of the documents on which their names appear so that they have something tangible to pass on to their children and grandchildren," said Bloomfield.
People hoping to discover the fate of relatives can submit inquiries by the Internet, mail or fax to the ITS, the Washington museum or Yad Vashem. Scholars will have to conduct their research on site.
The ITS in Germany has allowed in few outsiders over the last 60 years, except for the occasional class of schoolchildren. Now it is open to visitors, and while it prefers they make appointments, survivors and victims are always welcome, says the director, Reto Meister.
Prying open the archive took years of pressure, led by the U.S. Holocaust museum and the State Department, on the reluctant ITS and the 11-nation commission that governs it. Opponents argued that the files were subject to strict German privacy laws and that allowing free access by survivors and researchers would distract from the ITS's mission.
The May 2006 decision to amend the 1955 rules was met with repeated delays in implementation. The commission decided each nation must formally ratify the amendments, a process originally expected to take six months but dragged on for 18.
The Greek parliament approved the amendments Oct. 23 - the last of the 11 countries. The archive was officially pronounced open Wednesday after Athens filed its ratification documents in Berlin.
The commission members are the United States, Britain, Germany, Israel, Poland, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The key to finding anything is the central name index. Though names are searchable by computer, the index gives a bare outline of personal information and vague indication of how to find the actual documents. No software exists to electronically search and read the documents.
But there will be a guide of sorts to the archive's contents. Over the years the ITS kept an inventory of new documents added to its storehouse. In a few lines, the inventory of more than 21,000 collections gives the date they were registered and a general description. The collections range from a few pages to many thousands.
For years, the ITS refused to say what was there in the archive, said Paul Shapiro, director of the museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. It was only once the inventory became available that outsiders had their first evidence of its vast scope.
"Investing months of work, the museum translated the index of all of the collections and created a search tool for the inventory in German and English and posted it on the Web," Shapiro said. "We have a responsibility to show the survivors what is there and to demonstrate the scholarly significance of the collection."
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The correspondence archive at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany. (AP) |
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To the guy who doesn't understand or know all the facts, I am a historian and I can help you get up to speed: The Israeli government does not target Palestinian children; they are very unfortunate casualties caused because the Palestinian militants use them as human shields and are only too happy to use their deaths as propaganda. On the other hand, the Nazis specifically and methodically sought out all Jews--even babies hid away with Christian families or in orphanges. They were the "target" not "collateral damage". That is the difference. But let's take it a step further: the Nazis and the Palestinian militants are very much the same in that they specifically target children, the elderly and non-combatants for one reason--they are Jews. I hope you'll understand and accept the facts over your emotional outburst based on half-truths spread by people who haven't studied and do not know history. I am happy to further help you understand the truth should you have any questions.
Not all Jews were in camps that could be documented. In Eastern Poland, Rumania, Russia, the Baltics, whole communities were mass murdered (many by locals), and not a name or a plaque erected in their memory. Also many on false papers were betrayed and killed and never documented,
I can find out what happened to some of my unaccounted relatives who vanished in Poland without a trace
In reply to your question about Germany having the facilities, Auschwitz itself was in Poland...
"When six million died"...thanks for the reference to this book and I will look for it on Amazon.com. As Cipora and myself said, it is horrifying to remember that this happened in a civilized, cultured country, a European country. How many German Jews must have left it too late to leave the country precisely because they believed that such things could not happen in Germany...
As you say, the entire Holocaust literally "boggles the mind". My mother is at present visiting me from London and she and I were discussing it only yesterday. We said we could understand how so many German Jews refused to leave Germany even after Hitler had set in motion his bloody progress of murder...it was precisely because Germany was so civilized and cultured-think of the German composers of famous music, just one example-these poor people must have thought that Hitler's power could not possibly last, that Germans would remove him...thus so many must have waited until it was literally too late to leave Germany. Another picture I once saw-a pile of shoes from a death-camp, thousands of pairs of shoes...it is seeing these sights that bring it home to us yet make it almost impossible to grasp.
pacificist,communists,christians etc.They too perished.And even though the facilities were scattered across,not all of Europe,but the countries where the Germans had sway&despite so called German efficiency,it does seem that substantially more than 6 million(maybe a few thousands more)could have perished.BTW,al nakba,shoa,the Indian famines,the genocide of indigenous peoples(North America,Australia etc.) are now being closely studied in post colonial studies.
The truth is 6 to 7 million names is really nothing compared to some massacres that have taken place. But Eurpoe is small, Hitler had help from other countries and their conquered people. Others didnt lift a finger to save jews. More people have been killed by governments than by any other means. Six million or 7 million dead would in effect remove every living soul in ISrael, it would be a open state. Thats a lot of people. Of course the arabs would like that, and fort that reason alone, "never again" will such wholesale killing be permitted by ISrael of her people without there being consequences to those who try. The reality is brought to mind when you see the tattoed number on another persons arm.... at thta point, you know they have survived the worst that mankind can do.
that. Weren't you the one that indicated that everybody is a Jew on another thread the other day. Presumably then the 17.5 million were also Jewish?.... Contrary to the accepted figure of 6 million? Want to take a crack at this?
All Holocaust deniers should be invited to read through the documents...including the Naturei Karta, the BNP in UK and David Irving...
Me thinks part of the reason for the delay is if the names are kept secret, there will be fewer claims on the stolen assets, art and money. Blame Europe for the coverup. They "gave" you Israel instead and kept their dirty secrets hidden.
I'm not German or Jewish, but I think there were two things that contributed... first most of the Jews and the others targeted were identified early on and were easy to round up. Secondly, the detention camps and death camps were scattered across Europe. They wern't all in Germany.
About time! These files should have been made accessible to survivors 60 years before and to Nazi Hunters and justice officials to arrest all involved with the Nazis crimes that killed not only Jews but tens of millions of others as well. This makes me sick and now all these survivors and Nazi SS are finally dead from time to never see these files come to light. What of the land, money and items stolen from the millions of Jews? This info would have the addresses of these Jews who were card cataloged and slaughtered. So efficient are the Germans to have a card on every piece of Jewish flesh to be slaughtered, worked to death, shot, gassed, raped, starved, beaten, and worse. How many more files are out there about the Nazis and the Allies? What of the Bush family involvement with the Nazis are their cards on that?
Please keep in mind, there were concentration camps along most of Europe's railways, not just in Germany. Have you never heard of German efficiency?
You have understood nothing. Try to for yourself if you are really interested in grasping the difference, not in just using the Holocaust against their victims.
It is so disturbing... Words fail me. G-d bless the victims of the Holocaust. G-d bless the Jewish people.
space to kill so many people?The official figure so far is 4-6 million.How is it physically possible to have many more millions.In the Indian famines of the 19th century(man made disasters because of colonial agrarian policy) 15 million was the figure(Romesh Dutt'sEconomic History of India,1902)Gandhi read the book & wept he tells us in Hind Swaraj,1908.Recently,British scholars have put the figure at 20 million!But India is a vast sub continent & farmers just died off in the countryside,left to die etc.And it was cumulative,over a period of a decade or so.Germany,by contrast is small in area.
remember all of them. I also believe that is why the second World War was and is so extensively researched. So we would all remember that so many died for the arrogance and ugliness of so few.
it happened in a short space of time is just as horrifying. "While six million died" is a good reference to the pic. good book for you to read if you haven't already.
Catch hold of those two rascals(one is a Swine,the other is a Bas...d) lock them up for fifteen years & make them translate 100 pages of a day.If they don't complete their quota,punish one of them with Nazi flogging,# the other one with 200 lashes.To oversee their work, there will be"one Christian,one Moslem,One Jew,One Chinese,One Hindu & ten other representatives from ten other nations. food,one meal a day.clothes,none toilets oudside.Christian & Moslem Guards.Just in case you didn't know who they were:1) Ahmadinejad,the other"Irving. With no leave or parol fifteen years to document & translate deligently.No cheating.No bribing. To work silently.No shouting,no noise.It's holy ground. Holier than all the Books you can think of.
Of course it is better not to fight back, with whatever desperate measures you have at your disposal including children. It is better to walk quietly so the missles and tank sheels can more easily kill. Gas chambers in WWII were more efficient and Jews were not schooled in terror back then. The Arabs have learned your lesson.
"Who is remembering the others?" That's a really good question, that begs another: if not, why not?
"A dead child of any religion is horrific NO MATTER WHICH SIDE YOU SUPPORT!" 100% right! -What is even more heartbraking is that cowardly Palestinian parents were sending their own children on the frontline of the intifada to let them die as "martyrs". -To let their own children blow themselves up and to be proud of it. -In the Iranian-Iraki war: the Iranians sended whole balallions of children on the battlefield with a plastic key in case they would die so they should be able to open the gates of heaven. Poor children, victims of bestial adults.
I agree Cipora, but now will you also agree that the pages of innocent dead Palestinian children is as equally horrific above imigination? And if you want to agrue that they are children of terrorist and should die, then the mentality of the nazi that killed jewish children and the mentality of the israel government that kill arab children are simular in traits? A dead child of any religion is horrific NO MATTER WHICH SIDE YOU SUPPORT!
I agree Cipora, but now will you also agree that the pages of innocent dead Palestinian children is as equally horrific above imigination? And if you want to agrue that they are children of terrorist and should die, then the mentality of the nazi that killed jewish children and the mentality of the israel government that kill arab children are simular in traits? A dead child of any religion is horrific NO MATTER WHICH SIDE YOU SUPPORT!
Who is remembering the others?
I wish that all six million names would come back to us. Slowly, slowly, perhaps they will reappear. But I shall always look up to the sky and know that their names and neshamot are engraved in Heaven, Kiddush Hashem, as the stars that sparkle in the sky. Remember Amalek and blot him out.
The entire Holocaust is very difficult to grasp. It is very difficult to understand how a people, considered "advanced" and "cultured" could idolise a nobody like Hitler, and how they could commit attrocities where some one and a half million children were murdered under horrific circumstances. I mention only the children because the systematic annihilation of children is horrific beyond imagination.
is shocking in itself...to think that all that paper contains the names of people long dead, is difficult for the mind to grasp...
And the disciples said to Jesus "tell us when the end will come" and he said "it will not come by expectation, they will not say it is here or there, for the kingdom of god is within you and yet men do not see it." From the writing of Thomas.
to the museum. "Now, the museum is gaining access to millions more names, the largest registry of Holocaust victims existing anywhere."