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Genealogy Guide: Holocaust Research

G

GERMANY

Holocaust Documents and Survivor Lists:

Territorial Collection. Territorial Collection-Germany, Part 2. 1933-1945. This collection includes a number of concentration camp inmate lists and survivor lists. Upon request, you may view a finding aid to this collection in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room. 

YIVO Archives Record Group 116-Germany 2

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Collection. 1929-1949. Print and microfilm. The bulk of this collection consists of the German case files of the JDC, dated from 1929 to 1947, which document various individuals’ immigration attempts. Access to the materials in this collection will be granted only to users who can demonstrate a legitimate research need. Please submit requests to view any folder in this collection via email to lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org.

Note: The JDC has some of its records digitized and available online.  Please see its listing under Internet Resources below.

Leo Baeck Institute AR 7196

 

International Tracing Service. Miscellaneous Lists and Registers of German Concentration Camp Inmates, Originated or Collected by the International Tracing Service (Arolsen); [1939-1945?] (1939) The Genealogy Institute has a copy of this entire collection on microfilm. For a complete list of this collection’s series and the reels within each series, please visit:  search.cjh.org/beta:CJH_SCOPE:CJH_ALEPH004598864

 

German Minority Census of 1939. (1939).  Although it was officially a census of all “non-German” minorities living in German territory, including the region of Sudetenland that had been annexed from Czechoslovakia, it predominantly targeted Germany’s Jewish population.  It is an invaluable source of information on Jewish individuals who remained in Germany on the eve of the Holocaust. The Leo Baeck Institute has a copy of the entire census on microfilm.

Leo Baeck Institute MF 466

NOTE: A detailed inventory of this microfilm collection is available here

 

Spalek, John M., and Hawrylchak, Sandra H.. Verzeichnis der Quellen und Materialen der Deutschsprachigen Emigration in den USA seit 1933. [Guide to the Archival Materials of the German-Speaking Emigration to the United States after 1933]. Charlottesville, University of Virginia, 1978.   In English and German.

Reading Room E 184 .G3 S68

 

Boberach, Heinz, et. al. Quellen zur Deutschen Politischen Emigration, 1933-1945. [Sources on German political emigration, 1933-1945]. Muenchen; New Providence: K.G. Saur, 1994.  In German

NOTE: You may search for a name in this book in the database “National Socialism, Holocaust, Resistance, and Exile 1933-1945” (available only on-site at the Center for Jewish History).

Reading Room  Z 5140 Q45 1994

 

Diamant, Adolf. Deportationsbuch der von Frankfurt am Main aus Gewaltsam Verschickten Juden in den Jahren 1941 bis 1944 (nach den Listen vom Bundesarchiv Koblenz). Frankfurt Am Main: Jüdische Gemeinde, 1984.   A listing of Jews deported from Frankfurt am Main 1941-1944, providing the name, maiden name, birth, and death place for each person.  In German

Reading Room  DS 135 G4 F7 D5

 

Zentralinstitut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung and Freie Universität Berlin. Gedenkbuch Berlins der Juedischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1995. A listing of Holocaust victims from Berlin, providing birthplace, cause of death, and death place. In German

Reading Room  DS 135 .G4 B4 G4 1995

Röder, Werner, et al. Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933 = International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigres 1933-1945. Muenchen : New York: K. G. Saur, 1980. This is a three-volume set.  Volume I is in German. Volume II is in English and is a listing of prominent people who fled Central Europe during the Nazi period.  Volume III is in both German and English.  There are two parts to Volume II.

Reading Room  CT 1053 .B56

NOTE: You may search for a name in this book in the database “National Socialism, Holocaust, Resistance, and Exile 1933-1945” (available only on-site at the Center for Jewish History).

 

Jewish DPS [Displaced Persons Camp] at Furth, Germany. 1945.  194 names, not alphabetical. Includes birth date, country and occupation.

YIVO Library 000088247 

 

Jüdisches Adressbuch für Gross-Berlin. Berlin: Goedega Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1930. Name, address, and occupation of Jews living in Greater Berlin.

YIVO Library 000011717 

 

Ehmann, Annegret. Juden in Berlin, 1671-1945; ein Lesebuch. Berlin] : Nicolai, [1988].

Reading Room  DS 135 .G4 B4 J83

 

Minninger, Monika, Joachim Meynert, and Friedhelm Schäffer. Antisemitisch Verfolgte, Registriert in Bielefeld 1933-45; Eine Dokumentation Jüdischer Einzelschicksale. Bielefeld: Bielefelder Beiträge zür Stadt- und Regionalgeschichte, 4, Stadtarchiv Bielefeld, 1985.  This contains information about more than 1,000 Jewish families in Bielefeld, including registration status, religion, occupation and length of stay as a registered resident.

Leo Baeck Institute DS 135 G4 B54 M55

 

Nuremberg Jewish Community Collection 1919-2006 (1919). This large collection contains a list of survivors, compiled in December 1945, and including both those remaining in or returned to Nuremberg and those who survived elsewhere. Other materials include deportation lists and lists of community members who lived in Nuremberg during the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. The collection has been digitized.  A finding aid with links to the digitized material is available through the online Catalog.

Leo Baeck Institute AR 1706

 

Würzburg; Jewish Community. Würzburg; Jewish Community Collection Undated, 1921-1971 (1921). The collection contains handwritten, typed, and mimeographed lists of Jewish survivors from Würzburg.  There are two short lists of survivors: residents of the Jewish Home and 34 returnees to Würzburg. The collection has been digitized.  Links to the digitized material are available through the online Catalog.

Leo Baeck Institute AR 3788

 

Institut der NSDAP zür Erforschung der Judenfrage. Institut Der NSDAP zür Erforschung der Judenfrage 1930-1945. Print.  This was a Nazi institute that collected materials related to the Jewish question and participated in Nazi propaganda activities against the Jews.  It contains identification cards of German Jews, 1938-1942. Upon request, an alphabetical list is available for viewing in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room.

YIVO Archives Record Group 222

 

Concentration Camps and Ghettos:

Dębski, Jerzy, and Państwowe Muzeum Oświęcim-Brzezinka. Death Books from Auschwitz: Remnants. München; New Providence: K.G. Saur, 1995. Three volumes. In English, German, and Polish. Volume I provides documentation based on original death records, analysis of the data the records contain, and articles by ex-prisoners of Auschwitz.  They depict the true nature of the Nazi concentration camp system.

YIVO Library 000090347

 

International Tracing Service. Catalogue of Camps and Prisons in Germany and German-occupied Territories, Sept. 1st, 1939-May 8th, 1945. Arolsen, [Germany: Service], 1949. Two volumes. In French and English.

YIVO Library 000028760

 

Red Cross. Vorlaeufiges Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und deren Aussenkommandos Sowie Anderer Haftstaetten unter dem Reichsfuehrer-SS in Deutschland und Deutsch Besetzten Gebieten (1933-1945). Arolsen, 1969. In German.  Supplement to the Catalogue of Camps and Prisons in Germany and German-occupied Territories, 1939-45, noted above.

Leo Baeck Institute D 805 A2 R4

 

Weinmann, Martin Ed. Das Nationalsozialistische Lagersystem (CCP). 2. Aufl.. ed. Frankfurt Am Main]: Zweitausendeins, 1990. Includes a reprint – in English - of Catalogue of Camps and Prisons in Germany and German Occupied Territories, September 1, 1939-May 8 1945, and Supplement.  (International Tracing Service, 1949-1951).  Comprehensive list of camps and prisons in Germany and German-occupied territories, 1939-1945.

Reading Room  D 805 A2 N27 1990

 

Internet Resources:

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)

In addition to the resources available for viewing at the CJH, the JDC’s website has a searchable Names Index.  It is possible to search the 500,000 names found in their historic documents and survivor lists.

 

German Jewish Roof Card Collection Database

One of the most difficult areas of research pertains to German Jews who perished, or survived, within Germany. Under close supervision of the Gestapo, the Reichsvereinigung der Juden (translation:  National Association of Jews) in Deutschland (to which all German Jews were required to belong) maintained individual card files on every member from 1938 to 1942. These card files, part of the International Tracing Service (ITS) collection, provide a variety of information, including name, date and place of birth and death and residence and, where reported by local branches, any change, such as emigration or death. It is extremely difficult to obtain copies of death certificates from German civil registry offices, so this aspect of the collection may be of particular interest. The International Tracing Service has made all of these card files viewable online, arranged alphabetically by last name.

 

Gedenkbuch: Opfer Der Verfolgung Der Juden Unter Der Nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland, 1933-1945  [Memorial Book: Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany, 1933 - 1945 ].  

This is a continuously updated, searchable listing (in English) of German Jews who were deported from Germany and perished during the Holocaust, produced by the Bundesarchiv. 

 

Totenbuch KZ Sachsenhausen 1936-1945 (Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Book of the Dead)

The database contains the names of more than 20,000 victims of the concentration camp.

 

GREECE

Holocaust Documents and Survivor Lists:

Recanati, Aure. A Memorial Book of the Deportation of the Greek Jews. Jerusalem: Erez, 2006. 

This is a translation from French, which reprints essays and selected registers from a three-volume work.

American Sephardi Federation DS 135.G7 R4313 2006 

 

Molho, Michael, and Joseph Nehama. In Memoriam: Hommage aux Victimes Juives des Nazis en Grèce. Salonique: [Imp.N.Nicolaidès], 1948. English translation from French.

YIVO Library 000040837

 

Franco, Hizkia M. The Jewish Martyrs of Rhodes and Cos. Harare Zimbabwe: Harper Collins Publishers, 1st English ed. 1994. This book includes lists of Jews living in Cos and Rhodes who were deported and those who survived.

American Sephardi Federation DS 135 .G72 F7213 1994

 

Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Marcia. In Memory of the Jewish Community of Ioannina. First ed. New York: Published for Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum by Bloch Publishing Co., 2004. List of Holocaust victims.

American Sephardi Federation DS 135 .G73 I5513 2004  

NOTE:  Also available online.

 

Union des Israelites Sefaradis de France. Liste Complète Des Reescapés Thessaloniciens Rentrés dans Leurs Foyers. 1946. In French. Names and ages of 1,040 people who returned to Thessaloniki.

YIVO Library 000022777D    Also available on Microfilm: 1996-Y-1537.12 (5)