Website Wednesday - Holocaust Reunion Project

The mission of the Holocaust Reunion Project is to harness the power of commercial DNA testing, combined with expert genealogical research, both to reunite Holocaust survivors and their children with living relatives and to illuminate the family history that has been lost to genocide.

The Holocaust devastated the Jewish community in countless lamentable ways. But its deepest cut was the literal rending of families: the loss of millions of irreplaceable parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. And while numerous agencies and organizations support survivors and honor the legacy of the Shoah in myriad ways, there is surprisingly very little focus or energy put towards restoring what was actually taken: family.

Genealogical research, and specifically commercial DNA testing, can do precisely this. DNA can unlock mysteries and make crucial connections, often linking survivors to living relatives they did not know they had. DNA matches can also open the door to help survivors reconstruct their shattered trees and reclaim their lost history, often reconnecting lines of communication severed by the Holocaust.

Initially piloted at the Center for Jewish History in November 2022 and launched as an independent non-profit in 2024, the program serves three primary functions:

• To distribute free DNA tests to the survivor community, as well as raise awareness of the potential of testing to reconnect separated family members. 
• To provide free expert genealogical research exclusively to Holocaust survivors and their families. Co-founders Jennifer Mendelsohn and Dr. Adina Newman specialize in solving complex cases, such as hidden children, unknown parentage, or cases where people are first learning of hidden Jewish history from DNA testing. 
• To educate and empower the survivor community – and the greater Jewish community–to investigate their own history by teaching them how to analyze their DNA results and locate pertinent records. Several myths circulate around both DNA testing and the availability of Holocaust records, which thwart would-be researchers from delving into their past, robbing them of the opportunity to reclaim their family history.

 

The Wiener Holocaust Library

Based in London, The Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest and Britain’s largest collection of original archival material on pre-war Jewish life, the Nazi era and the Holocaust, making it a major resource for Jewish family history research.

The Wiener is home to hundreds of thousands of documents, letters, photographs, press cuttings, books, pamphlets, periodicals and unpublished manuscripts and memoirs, posters, artworks, and eyewitness testimonies.

Wiener Digital Collections enables online access to some of the library's most important collections, including documents used in evidence at the Nuremberg Trials, the family papers of Jewish refugees, photos taken at the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, JCIO reports, and responses to Nazism and fascism in Germany, Britain and beyond.  Over 150,000 historic documents and photographs recording the Holocaust and resistance to Nazism have been published online in this new collection.

The Library's founder, Dr Alfred Wiener recognised the Nazi threat early on and campaigned against Nazism in the 1920s and 1930s. After fleeing Germany for Amsterdam in 1933, he founded the Jewish Central Information Office (JCIO) at the request of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association, collecting information about Nazi persecution. He brought his collection to Britain shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, where it became known as ‘Dr Wiener’s Library’.

Jewish Newspapers added to Trove

Throughout the year Trove's collection of Australian Jewish Newspapers has been expanded to provide  access to over 200,000 pages and 180 years of Australian Jewish community history.  This project is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia (NLA), the National Library of Israel (NLI) and the Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), and has seen 15 new titles are digitised into Trove’s collection of newspapers, over the years 1871-2008.

Titles now included in Trove include :

• The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1920 - 1933)
• The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1999)
• The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 2000-2020)
• Australier Leben = Australian life (Melbourne, Vic. : 1931 - 1933)
• The Westralian Judean (Perth, WA : 1924 - 1925; 1929 - 1955)
• The Australian Hebrew Times (Sydney, NSW : 1894)
• The Dialectic : Jewish Monthly (Fitzroy, Vic. : 1875)
• The Australian Zionist Pioneer (Sydney, NSW : 1929) 
• The Australasian Hebrew (Sydney, NSW : 1895 – 1896) 
• The Australian Jewish Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1922 - 1931)
• The Sydney Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1954)
• The Australian Jewish Times (Sydney, NSW : (1953-1990) 
• The Australian Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 1990 - 2008)
• The Australian Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 2009-2020)
• The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1955) 
• The Australian Israelite (Melbourne, Vic. : 1871 - 1875)
• The Jewish Weekly News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1933 - 1935)

 

Holocaust Stories Online

Do you have Jewish ancestry and want to know more about the Holocaust?  My Story is a new website from the Association of Jewish Refugees, launched to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. It offers a collection of free downloadable e-books containing the memoirs of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution and Holocaust survivors. Based on oral history interviews, they allow the interviewees to tell the story of the suffering they experienced, their lives after the war and their journeys to seek refuge in the UK.

My Story first began collecting the stories of Holocaust survivors in 2017and currently over 35 members have either had their book printed or are waiting for their book to be created.  All My Story books can either be read online in pdf format or downloaded as an ePub file.

We Were There Too - Jewish Londoners in WW1

A new resource designed to honour the lives of Jewish Londoners involved in the First World War has launched online.
Unveiled at Bevis Marks Synagogue on Thursday 30 June, We Were There Too enables users to share and search for details of ancestors who served overseas and on the Home Front, ranging from soldiers to nurses.
The site also provides access to an array of historic photographs, video clips and documents, as well as a memorial wall that allows people to light a virtual Yahrzeit candle – traditionally lit on the anniversary of a loved one’s death.

 We Were There Too provides an insight into Jewish life in London in the early part of the 20^th century and gives easy access to a number of diverse research sources, brought together for the first time, for personal exploration. As the site develops, more collections of rare material will be added, so revisit the site to see what's new.

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust victims website continues to add more genealogy records. This free access website now records some 4 million names and biographical details. This is approximately 2/3 of the roughly six million Jews killed by the Nazis. The database can be searched by name and place of residence. Yad va Shem also accepts submissions of testimony and photographs.
Their mission :
As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations. Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter.

For over half a century, Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance:

• Commemoration
• Documentation
• Research
• Education