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Holocaust Studies *: Primary Resources (Microfilm)

This guide is intended to help any faculty, graduate, or undergraduate student find resources in the area of Holocaust Studies.

Primary Resources (Microfilm)

Art looting and Nazi Germany: Records of the Fine Arts and Monuments Adviser, Ardelia Hall
"Ardelia Hall served as Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives adviser to the State Department during and after World War II. These records include reports, correspondence, memoranda, and minutes of interdepartmental committees and international conferences relating to the task of recovering and returning looted objects lost in the enormous displacement of art and other cultural property that occurred during WWII."

Confidential U.S. State Department Special Files. Records of the Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Educational, Cultural, and Public Affairs
"Contents: pt. 1. Records on the disposition of German assets (16 reels) -- pt. 2. Records relating to the return of looted artwork (12 reels) -- pt. 3. Records relating to the compensation and reparations for Nazi victims (19 reels) -- pt. 4. Records relating to the Tripartite Commission for the restitution of Monetary gold."

The Holocaust and Records of Concentration Camp Trials
"These records provide a unique legal perspective on war crimes perpetrated in Nazi Concentration Camps.This new collection provides unique, and never published, 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. Documents on several concentration (and later extermination) camps and sub-camps are represented in this new collection, including Mauthausen, Dachau, Belsen-Bergen, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Sobibor, etc..."

Holocaust Refugees and the FDR White House
"This new microform collection documents how FDR and his administration perceived and responded to the Holocaust in Germany and later in conquered Europe. These documents provide the basis for a reinterpretation of the FDR administration’s seemingly callous and uninterested view in regard to the Holocaust, Jews, and other refugees."

Jewish Displaced Persons Periodicals from the Collections of the YIVO Institute
"During the post–World War II era, tens of thousands of displaced Eastern European Jews were quartered in refugee camps in Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Austria. With encouragement from occupation authorities and considerable funding from American Jews, these survivors of the Holocaust produced periodicals that chronicled their experiences, problems, hopes, and sorrows. The majority of these publications were political in nature, often oriented towards Zionism and emigration to Palestine. A few issues were cultural or literary in focus; two of them dealt with sports. Printed on poor paper and in short runs, the originals of some of these rare publications no longer exist. Most are in Yiddish, and some use the Hebrew alphabet. A few are in English, German, or other languages."

Nazi Propaganda Periodicals
"In its mere twelve years of existence, the Nazi regime produced an astonishing amount of printed material. In the course of losing World War II, much of this vast output was lost, destroyed and scattered in various places. In 2002 IDC published the collection of Nazi Propaganda Literature for the holdings of Yivo. This new publication concentrates on Nazi Propaganda Periodicals.This collection offers the researcher a valuable entry point into both famous and familiar publications as well as to more obscure periodicals dealing with local matters of German occupation policies. The publication of this impressive list of periodicals will hopefully contribute to further research in this area. This collection, contains c. 300 titles.Most of the periodicals were printed in Germany in Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, and Munich. Still others came from Riga, Tallin, Belgrade, Bucarest, Cracow, Prague, and other Nazi occupied areas.The majority of the sources were published from 1938-1944, but some were published as early as 1920 or as late as 1945."

Papers of the War Refugee Board
"The War Refugee Board was established by executive order to combat the Nazi campaign of persecution and extermination of people because of their race, religion, or political beliefs. This collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, indexes, and related papers pertaining to the board's policies, programs, and operations. Included are publications and pamphlets issued by private rescue organizations, copies of submission slips prepared by the Office of Censorship containing information taken from intercepted communications relative to refugee organizations, and minutes of meetings of the Advisory Committee on Refugees and Displaced Persons."

Records of the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, 1946-1998
"This series contains copies of selected official records of the Tripartite Gold Commission (TGC) that were sent to the State Department when the TGC was terminated on September 9, 1998, for transfer to NARA. Another set of these selected records was sent to the Public Records Office in Great Britain. All of the official TGC records were transferred to the French National Archives in Paris."

The Safehaven Program
"The records reproduced in this microfilm publication consist primarily of Safehaven reports and letters, cables, and military attaché reports referring to specific Safehaven reports or Safehaven-related topics. Such topics include information on alleged art looting; business matters (including alleged patent transfers) pertaining to leading German industrial firms such as Bosch and I.G. Farben; and various Third Reich personalities. Although several small strips of microfilm are included in the series, the contents of these microfilm strips have been printed (provided in textual format) and interfiled in the appropriate places throughout the series. This series is arranged chronologically by date of cover letter or report, as appropriate, and, where possible, thereunder by report number. When Safehaven reports were received as attachments or enclosures to other documents, the date of the covering document was used to arrange the records. These date discrepancies are reconciled in the appendix."