Primary Source Databases

The following databases provide access to original primary sources related to the Holocaust. They are intended for research being conducted at the Museum. This page lists primary source electronic resources by category. Some resources are listed in multiple categories. View an alphabetical list of all primary source databases here.

Camps

Resources containing documents on concentration and other types of camps, including deportations to camps.

Arolsen Archives Provides access to a growing selection of records held by the largest archives of Holocaust documentation, containing information on 17.5 million people. Searchable by individuals’ names or by topic. Includes an e-guide to the different types of documents. Available to researchers outside the Museum.

Correspondence from Nazi Concentration camps 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 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.

Kazerne Dossin Contains original documents regarding the Holocaust in Belgium held at the Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Center. Includes official records from Belgian archives, personal documents, memoirs and oral histories in their collection of original documents. Allows open access to deportation lists and photographs of victims but other collections require visiting the Museum. Note: Researchers unaffiliated with the Museum must register with the Kazerne Dossin archives before accessing the collection. Contact the Reference Desk at reference@ushmm.org for assistance.

First-Person Accounts

These resources include written, audio and video testimonies.

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies Provides access to over 4,400 interviews with Holocaust survivors, collected from 1979 onward. Access at the Museum requires pre-authorization—see the Reference Desk for assistance. Researchers may search the collection from offsite via the Fortunoff website.

Testaments to the Holocaust A digital collection of primary source documents and rare printed materials drawn from the holdings of the Wiener Library in London that includes materials on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, including eyewitness accounts, photographs, Nazi propaganda, rare publications, and other source materials.

USC Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive Provides access to the nearly 52,000 interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted in 56 countries and in 32 languages through the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly the Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Requires free registration. Researchers may search the collection and watch selected interviews remotely via the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s website.

Life Under the Nazi Regime

Resources consisting of primary source documents and contemporary publications describing everyday life in Nazi Germany, its allies and in occupied countries.

Conditions and Politics in Occupied Western Europe Digital collection of historical documents based on British Foreign Office information files gathered from across German-occupied territories during World War II. Includes information relevant to everyday life, propaganda efforts, and resistance movements in Western Europe.

DigiBaeck Furnishes access to the digitized collections of the Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of German Jewish History Collections. Includes over 25,000 photographs, 5,000 memoirs, 4,500 archival collections, 400 artworks and objects, and a selection of books. Available to researchers outside the Museum.

Economy and War in Third Reich, 1933–1944 An official statistical source of data concerning the German economic situation throughout the Third Reich. Based on the following economic publications held by the London School of Economics and Political Science: Monatliche Nachweise-ber den Auswärtigen Handel Deutschlands (January 1933–June 1939); Der Aussenhandel Deutschlands Monatliche Nachweise (July 1939); and Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands (August 1939–1944).

JDC Archives Archives of the American Joint Distribution Committee, which provided aid to Jews in Europe before, during and after the Holocaust. Materials are primarily in English and include reports, speeches, eyewitness accounts, telegrams, correspondence as well as over 100,000 photographs and 200 oral histories. Accessible to researchers outside the Museum.

Jewish Question: Documents from the BDC Consists of documents regarding Jewish individuals, communities and businesses from local and national government agencies, police and security agencies, the media and other sources. Includes Aryanization files for select communities in Germany and documentation about Theresienstadt. Contains pre-1933 antisemitic writings from German and non-German sources.

Life under Nazi Rule: Reports by Anti-Fascists in Occupied Europe, 1933–1945 Contains English-language editions of the newsletters Germany under the Swastika (1933–1934) and Fascism (1934–1945) published by the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Discusses topics such as trade unions, labor conditions, social conditions of the working classes, forced labor, the status of various industries, occupation by Axis powers, the Spanish Civil War, and acts of resistance.

Nazism in Poland: The Diary of Governor-General Hans Frank Reproduces the daily journal of Hans Frank, the head of the Generalgouvernement in occupied Poland. Covers October 1939 to March 1945. Documents meetings, speeches and other administrative matters on a wide range of topics.

Nuremberg Laws and Nazi Annulment of German Jewish Nationality Contains index cards with the biographical information of Jews whose German citizenship was revoked by 1935 Nuremberg Laws Includes Jews living in Germany, Austrian and the Czech province of Bohemia.

Propaganda

Resources containing both Nazi and anti-Nazi propaganda. Researchers interested in propaganda should also look at resources listed in the Life under the Nazi regime section.

Allied Propaganda in WWII and the British Political Warfare Executive Digital collection of the complete files of the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE) kept at the U.K. National Archives as FO 898 from 1941–1946, along with the secret minutes of the special 1944 War Cabinet Committee “Breaking the German Will to Resist.” Includes complete correspondence, minutes and agents’ mission files along with a complete collection of airborne propaganda leaflets dropped over mainland Europe during the war by the British and American air forces.

German Anti-Semitic Propaganda, 1909–1941 Comprises 170 German-language books and pamphlets which present antisemitism as an issue in politics, economics, religion, and education. Most of the writings date from the 1920s and 1930s and many are directly connected with Nazi groups. The works are principally antisemitic, but include writings on other groups as well, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesuits, and the Freemasons. Includes works of history, pseudo-history, and fiction.

German Propaganda Archive Contains English translations of speeches, essays and articles of Nazi propaganda dating from 1927 to 1945, as well as visual materials such as posters, postcards, stamps and pamphlets. Accessible to researchers outside the Museum.

Political Extremism and Radicalism: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in the US, Europe, and Australia in the Twentieth Century Covering the 1900s to 2010s, contains a broad variety of publications, campaign materials, government reports and ephemera from a wide range of far-left and far-right political groups. Includes materials from Holocaust denial, antisemitic and white supremacist groups.

Psychological Warfare and Propaganda in World War II: Air Dropped and Shelled Leaflets and Periodicals Consists of over 1,000 air-dropped and shelled leaflets and periodicals created and disseminated during World War II. The majority of items in this collection were printed by the Allies and then dropped, or fired by artillery shells over German-occupied territory. Many leaflets and periodicals have original publication codes and were printed in over ten languages. Only leaflets shelled by Germans to Allies are in English.

Refugees

Resources including information about people forced to flee their homes before, during and after World War II.

Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West’s Response to Jewish Emigration Consists of reports and files from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees from its founding in 1938 to its dissolution in 1947. Coverage includes the Evian and Bermuda conferences as well as post-war refugee issues.

Policing the Shanghai International Settlement Contains police reports, lists of arrivals, correspondence about relief efforts, intelligence reports, and other documents from the archives of British-run police force in the Shanghai International Settlement. Includes many files on individuals including Jewish refugees.

Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945–1950 Collects documents from British archives regarding DP (displaced persons) camps. Documents the day-to-day life in DP camps. Includes administrative files, political discussions, and information regarding DPs outside the DP camp system. View full list of files (PDF).

Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and WWII Covers the plight of refugees globally between 1935 and 1950. Contains pamphlets, ephemera, government documents, relief organization publications, and refugee reports from governments, aid organizations and individuals.

Resistance

Resources containing materials related to resistance. Researchers should also look at the resources listed under Life under the Nazi regime and Propaganda sections.

France Pendant la Guerre 1939–1945: Résistance et Journaux de Vichy Provides access to the British Library’s collection of resistance, clandestine and collaborationist newspapers and other periodicals that were smuggled to Britain during Germany’s occupation of France.

Jewish Underground Resistance: David Diamant Collection David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich, a Jewish communist and committed member of the underground resistance during World War II. This collection consists of original documents collected by Diamant over a period of approximately 30 years dealing primarily with the Jewish segment of the French underground resistance; many of the documents originate with communist groups, and some deal with Polish groups. Most of the documents are in French, while some are in Yiddish. NB: The Museum’s archives holds additional collections of materials collected by David Diamant.

Patriotes aux Armes! Consists of newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides and other types of publications created by resistance groups in France, Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Contains largely of French-language materials.

United States

Resources regarding the United States government’s activities during the Nazi era, particularly in regard to relations with other governments.

British Foreign Office: United States Correspondence Contains correspondence between the British Foreign Office and their embassies and consulates in North America, from the British National Archives. Discusses such topics as world politics, refugees and World War II. Each section’s description lists topics of special interest for the time period covered.

Foreign Relations Between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean States, 1930–1944 During the 1930s, the US shifted away from the use of unpopular military interventions to maintain its influence in Latin America toward policies advocating Pan-Americanism in support of strong local leaders, the training of national guards, economic and cultural penetration, Export-Import Bank loans, financial supervision, and political persuasion.

Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life Includes 25 individual newspapers that document life inside the internment camps for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II.

Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, 1981 Consists of transcripts, testimonies, newspaper clippings, photographs, reports, etc. investigating the history and impact of internment of citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.

U.S. Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940–1950 Digital collection documenting relations between the United States and the Vatican during World War II and the immediate postwar period. Illustrates the Vatican’s role in discussions concerning Jewish refugees through correspondence, reports, interviews, and contemporary analyses.

War Crime Trials and Postwar Investigations

Collections of investigation results, reports, trial transcripts, evidence and other material related to war crimes trials and post-war investigations into Nazi activities.

Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes Consists of materials from the US Army Courts for cases not held at Nuremberg, known as the “Dachau trials.” Includes 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 held at the US National Archives and Records Administration.

Nazi Bank and Financial Institutions: U.S. Military Government Investigation Reports and Interrogations of Nazi Financiers, 1945–1949 Comprised of collections “Records Regarding Bank Investigations and Records Relating to Interrogations of Nazi Financiers” and “Records Regarding Intelligence and Financial Investigations, 1945–1949” at the US National Archives. Includes interview transcripts, correspondence, balance sheets, reports, exhibits, newspaper clippings, and civil censorship intercepts. Covers topics such as the major German banks, German relationships with Swiss banks, Aryanization, restitution of Hungarian property and the denazification of the German Finance Ministry, among others.

SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries and Assets in Neutral Countries Contains documents regarding the Allies’ effort, codename SAFEHAVEN, to block the Nazis from moving assets to Switzerland and other neutral countries.

Prosecuting the Holocaust: British Investigations into Nazi Crimes, 1944–1949 Contains British war crimes investigation materials such as trial transcripts, investigation material, files on individual war criminals, British policy documents regarding war crimes and the investigation into the German occupation of the Channel Islands. Includes transcripts from the International Military tribunal and individual trials held in the British zone of occupation.

Additional Resources on Twentieth-Century History

World War II, Occupation, and the Civil War in Greece, 1940–1949: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files Contains documents regarding Greece during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II by Germany, Bulgaria and Italy beginning in April 1941. When liberation came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of crisis, which soon led to the outbreak of civil war between 1946 to 1949. Addresses topics such as Greece’s political atmosphere, economy, the resistance, the 1942 famine and the civil war.

La Guerra Civil Española Collection of approximately 3,000 pamphlets, newspapers and other publications published by anti-Franco factions during the Spanish Civil War. Represents the views of Republicans, Falangists, Catholics, anarchists, communists, socialists, agrarian reformers, and regional political parties. Includes also Nazi publications translated into Spanish. Text is in original language of document.

Occupation and Independence: the Austrian Second Republic 1945–1963 Consists of US State Department records documenting the occupation of Austria by the Allies, their withdrawal in 1955 and the creation of a stable democracy. Includes reports, publications, correspondence, etc. on the rebuilding of the Austrian economy, Austrian politics, refugees, war crimes, and the rebuilding of Austrian society.