Digital resources available onsite at The Wiener Holocaust Library

The Wiener Holocaust Library holds a number of digital resources which are available onsite to readers and visitors in the Wolfson Reading Room.

Audio-visual resources

The Wiener Holocaust Library has a collection of audio and audio-visual material, mostly consisting of interviews with former refugees and survivors.

Some of these testimonies are only available to be viewed at the readers terminals in the Reading Room whilst others can be accessed on any personal device onsite as long as the device is connected to the Library’s free Wi-Fi.

Please contact us at [email protected] and to book one of our terminals.

  • Final Account

    The Final Account documentary project resulted in the collection of rare testimonies taken from elderly Germans who either participated or witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust.

    Access to the Resource is provided exclusively via a dedicated computer available in the Reading Room. The computer must be reserved in advance to avoid disappointment – please email us at [email protected] and we will try to accommodate your request. However, please note that this may not always be possible; hence, we will give you alternative dates.

    If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the Collections Team at [email protected]

  • The Girls

    The Girls is a collection of 14 video interviews carried out by The Wiener Holocaust Library, comprising the oral history testimonies of female, orphaned, child concentration camp survivors who came to the UK after the war. The testimonies chronicle the lives of these young girls and in particular examine post-war life, focusing on Jewish identity and heritage, memory and the long-term effects of extreme experiences in early childhood.

    The testimonies are available to view at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room as edited versions with documents and photographs (approximately 30 minutes), as uncut interviews ranging in length from two to four hours, and as full transcripts.

    To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

    View the full collection record in our Online catalogue

  • Refugee Voices

    Refugee Voices is a collection of 150 filmed interviews with Holocaust survivors and refugees speaking about their experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe and transitions to life in Britain. Commissioned by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) the interviews range from two to six hours in length, more than 450 hours of film. 

    The list of interviewees can be found via the AJR website please note that at present we only hold the first 150 interviews.

    The testimonies are available to view at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room as full transcripts and video format.

    To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

    View the full collection record in our Online catalogue

  • Rwanda Testimonies

    The Library holds ten video testimonies by survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The testimonies were donated by the Rwandan Youth Information Community Organisation (rYico), a UK registered charity based in Brighton. 

    In telling their stories, participants aimed to promote a better understanding of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and preserve the memories of the Rwandan diaspora. The interviews also explored themes of childhood, legacies of colonialism, prejudice, ignorance, forgiveness and reconciliation, encouraging audiences to think deeply about the past as it relates to the present.

    The testimonies are available to view at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room as full transcripts and video format.

    To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

    View the full collection record in our Online Catalogue

  • Secret Listeners

    Interviews with “secret listeners” and other wartime refugees and their relatives. “The Secret Listeners” was the name given to German and Austrian refugees, many of them Jewish, who had fled Nazi Germany before the Second World War and were then recruited by British intelligence to spy on Nazi prisoners held at Prisoner of War camps. 

    The interviews are available to listen at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room.

    To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

    View the full collection record in our Online Catalogue

  • Konin Interviews: Jewish life in Konin, 1900-1946

    This collection comprises a set of recorded conversations with sixty-four former Jewish inhabitants of Konin, Poland. The interviewees describe Jewish life in Konin from circa 1900 to 1946 and cover such themes as religious practice and belief; Polish-Jewish relations, work and recreation; political affiliations; Nazi persecution and post-war life in their adopted countries. The conversations, recorded during 1987-1988, are mostly in English but also in Yiddish, French, Hebrew, German and Polish.

    The interviews are available to listen at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room.

    To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

    View the full collection record in our Online Catalogue

  • USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (VHA)

    This resource allows users to browse through 52,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, and the Rwandan Genocide. The website also includes a detailed description of the testimony project as well as links to related articles. 

    Users can access this resource on any personal device onsite as long as the device is connected to the Library’s free Wi-Fi.

    See our recent blog entry for further information.

  • Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

    The Fortunoff Archive’s collection consists of over 4,400 testimonies, comprising over 12,000 recorded hours of videotape. The recorded testimonies are those of willing individuals with first-hand experience of the Nazi persecutions, including those who were in hiding, survivors, bystanders, resistants, and liberators. The Testimonies were recorded in whatever language the witness preferred, and range in length from 30 minutes to over 40 hours (recorded over several sessions). 

    Users can access this resource on any personal device onsite as long as the device is connected to the Library’s free Wi-Fi.

    Search the archive via the Fortunoff Archive website

Documents and rare printed materials

These documents and rare printed materials from the the Wiener Holocaust Library’s collections can be accessed on any personal device onsite as long as the device is connected to the Library’s free Wi-Fi. 

  • Gale – Archives Unbound: Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London

    Testaments to the Holocaust is the online publication of the archives of the Wiener Holocaust Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party. It contains documentary evidence collected in several different programmes: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of ‘educational’ children’s’ books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included. 75% of the content is written in German.

  • Gale – Archives Unbound: Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950

    This online archive delivers essential primary sources for the study and understanding of the challenges facing the European peoples in the aftermath of World War II. It covers the politics and administration of the post war refugee crisis in Europe well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves.

    Source Collections:

  • Gale Primary Sources – Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II

    The online resource addresses the history of refugees on a fully global scale. Records within this collection cover the entire “war theatre,” from evacuations in Burma and mass migrations within central and Eastern Europe to the displacement of North African populations and resettlement of refugees in Latin America. Records from such sources as the foreign and colonial office files from U.K. National Archives in Kew, the U.S. State Department from the National Archives Records Administration (NARA), the British India Office collection from the British Library, and the archives of World Jewish Relief give researchers detailed insights into the complicated and shifting landscape across Europe, Asia, and Africa during and following World War II. 

  • The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC)

    This large digital archive contains a wide variety of documentation relating to the handling of war crimes by the Allied powers between 1943 and 1949, including: lists of alleged war criminals, files of charges brought against them, minutes of meetings, reports, correspondence, trial transcripts and other related materials.

    Please use the archive finding aids to identify relevant material.

    The digital archive is available at the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room. To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected]

Online journals

The Library subscribes to the following e-journals. They are available on the reader terminals in the Wolfson Reading Room. To book one of our terminals, please contact us at [email protected].

  • East European Jewish Affairs

    East European Jewish Affairs – an interdisciplinary journal – serves as the leading global journal dealing with both Jews in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as Ashkenazic Jews wherever in the world they may be. Serving as a bridge between Jewish Studies and Russian and East European Studies, as well as between the scholarly community and the public, the journal welcomes scholarly submissions of single- or multi-authored articles, review essays, and annotated archival documents

  • European Judaism

    The journal offers stimulating debates exploring the responses of Judaism to contemporary political, social, and philosophical challenges; articles reflecting the full range of contemporary Jewish life in Europe, and including documentation of the latest developments in Jewish-Muslim dialogue; new insights derived from science, psychotherapy, and theology as they impact upon Jewish life and thought; literary exchange as a unique exploration of ideas from leading Jewish writers, poets, scholars, and intellectuals with a variety of documentation, poetry, and book reviews section; and book reviews covering a wide range of international publications.

  • German History

    German History is renowned for its extensive range, covering all periods of German history and all German-speaking areas. Issues contain refereed articles and book reviews on various aspects of the history of the German-speaking world, as well as discussion fora, reflections and review essays.

  • Holocaust & Genocide Studies: an International Journal

    The major forum for scholarship on the Holocaust and other genocides, Holocaust and Genocide Studies is an independent, peer-reviewed international journal featuring research articles, interpretive essays, and book reviews in the social sciences and humanities.

  • Journal of Genocide Research

    Journal of Genocide Research is a cross-disciplinary journal that promotes the scholarly study of genocide and related phenomena, like crimes against humanity, war crimes, and violence against civilians. It publishes articles on the history of these phenomena from all periods.

  • Journal of Holocaust Research

    The Journal of Holocaust Research aims to promote research and study of the various aspects of the Holocaust and antisemitism and to create a platform through which our readers may access the most recent, innovative work being conducted in various disciplines and in different countries. Intended for a diverse academic audience, the journal publishes a wealth of articles, research forums, and special issues that connect scholars from around the world in a meaningful discourse about the Holocaust.

  • Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

    The Journal of Modern Jewish Studies is internationally recognized and covers several disciplines including history, social studies, religion, thought, literature and the arts, from the early modern period to the present day. Published four times a year, it welcomes contributions from established and senior scholars, as well as encouraging work from younger scholars at the start of their academic careers. Each issue of the journal comprises research papers and reviews of scholarship in Jewish Studies.

  • Patterns of Prejudice

    Patterns of Prejudice provides a forum for exploring the historical roots and contemporary varieties of social exclusion and the demonization or stigmatization of racial, ethnic, national or religious Others across the world. It probes the language and construction of ’race’, nation, colour and ethnicity, as well as the linkages between these categories. The journal does not publish texts that analyse cases of prejudice based on gender/sexuality or disability.

External free digital resources

The following is a selection of freely accessible online resources relate to digital databases, collections and publications related to the Holocaust and the Nazi era.

Primary sources such as oral testimonies from Jewish survivors are also included.

  • Databases
    • The Lost Art Internet Database (Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg): The database provides information on cultural objects removed or relocated due to Nazi persecution or the Second World War. It is divided into search requests, where cultural objects that were lost can be registered to request a world-wide search, and found-object reports, where found objects can be registered.
    • The Database of Jewish Businesses in Berlin 1930-1945: An online, abridged version of the database created as part of a Humboldt University research project. It contains key information on more than 8,000 companies that were regarded as Jewish and therefore persecuted from 1933 on, as well as the raw data of another 44,000 companies that could not be identified as Jewish.
    • Berlin Address Books 1799-1943 (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin): The directory provides information about residents, businesses and public authorities of the city of Berlin from 1799 to 1943. The data is listed alphabetically by name and street.
    • Music and the Holocaust: This website is about the role of music in the Holocaust and describes in detail a wide range of musical activities that took place in camps and ghettos across Nazi-occupied Europe, both by professional musicians and composers and by ‘ordinary’ people in response to their experiences of internment. It includes videos, lyrics and background information about the origin of select songs and text is provided in English, Spanish, and Russian.
  • Periodicals
    • Selected digitised Jewish periodicals (available only in German): Many of the most important of Jewish periodicals published in Nazi Germany, established shortly before or after the Nazis assumed power in Germany, have been digitised and catalogued by the Deutsche National Bibliothek as part of the German Research Foundation (DFG) project “Jewish periodicals in Nazi Germany”.
    • Compact Memory: available via Goethe University, this portal comprises 366 Jewish newspapers and journals of the German speaking area of the years 1768–1938 and beyond. These periodicals represent the complete religious, political, social, literary and academic spectrum of the Jewish community and the “Science of Judaism”, thus constituting a major source for the research on Judaism in the Modern Age.
    • The Jewish Chronicle Archive offers online access to all the digitised printed copies of the newspaper, all the way back to 1841. Users can access this resource on any personal device onsite as long as the device is connected to the Library’s free Wi-Fi. Please speak to staff at the Enquiry Desk for log-in details. 
  • Oral Testimonies
    • Oral History: Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust (The British Library): The freely accessible resource includes over 1,800 recordings of personal accounts of the Holocaust from Jewish survivors living in Britain. It brings together two oral history projects and can be sorted by interview, subject and location.
    • International Database of Oral History Testimonies (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum): The database contains links to over 125 collections of interviews and Holocaust testimonies gathered by different institutions. It features names, addresses and contact information for each organisation as well as information about the content of the collections. Follow @holocaustmuseum
    • Visual History Archive Online: the USC Shoah Foundation has established the Visual History Archive Online, which enables any user with an Internet connection to access indexing data on the 55,000 interviewees and provides free access to 4,000 full-length selected video testimonies. PLEASE NOTE: first time users must create an account with the Visual History Archive (via the REGISTER option) by filling in a registration form, and by choosing a Username and Password. Further information can be found via their help pages.
  • Exhibitions
    • What Would You Bring?: an online exhibition where you can discover refugee stories told through the lens of the objects they brought with them.

Any further questions? Ask a Librarian

If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us in the Wolfson Reading Room, by calling 020 7636 7247, or emailing the Collections Team.

 
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