The missing primary sources
Why is this space empty?
Library collections about the Holocaust are always incomplete. Some of these collecting gaps are due to the horrors of war; some are due to negligence and deliberate action to alter the historical record of this period.
Some of the voices in this guide are extreme and hate-filled. However you can use the gaps and omissions in their words to give life back to those who are missing.
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are first-hand accounts, that serve as original evidence documenting a period, event, people, idea or work.
Primary sources can be printed materials like books or newspapers, manuscript and archival materials like diaries and documents, artifacts, and audio/visual materials. Primary materials can be found in analog, digitized, and born-digital forms.
Some examples of primary sources include:
- Memoirs, speeches, writings, correspondence
- Papers of a political party, agency, or association
- Official documents such as congressional hearings and reports
- Contemporary magazine and newspaper articles
- Contemporary art, films, literature, and music
- Contemporary artifacts, such as buildings and monuments
Newspapers
Jerusalem Post (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Call Number: Online1932 - 2008. Formerly published as Palestine Post.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
Full-text and full-image articles for major newspapers from the United States (including Historical Black Newspapers); plus ABC (Spain), Le Monde, the Jerusalem Post (formerly the Palestine Post), The Korea Times, London Evening Standard, South China Morning Post, and the Times of India. Each paper is available from its first issue through about 2013 (depending on the paper). Earliest papers start in 1827. - Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, history of science and artificial intelligence, and the like.
Specific digital collections
- Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive This link opens in a new windowCollection of audiovisual interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Digital CollectionsResources that document the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others. The collection contains millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies. It also includes the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database.
- Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and transcripts)
Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010. The collection includes both primary and secondary materials.
- Voices of the HolocaustTranslations into English of interviews of Holocaust survivors conducted in 1946. These primary sources are complemented by maps, biographies, and links to other resources.
- Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust TestimoniesThe Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is a collection of over 4,400 videotaped interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust. **NOTE THAT YOU MUST REGISTER IN ORDER TO ACCESS SOME OF THE DIGITAL CONTENT**
- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: Library and ArchivesThe YIVO Archives contain some 23 million items, including sound and music collections, theater and art collections, communal and personal records, photographs and films, manuscripts, diaries, memoirs, personal correspondence, and much more. Its holdings span Jewish civilization from the 15th to 21st centuries, with an emphasis on the Jews of Eastern Europe and their descendants. There is a special focus on Yiddish language and culture, Jewish life in Europe, the Holocaust and its aftermath, and Jewish life in the United States.
- Jewish Periodicals in Nazi Germany (DNB)Digitized Jewish periodicals (only available in German) held at the Deutche National Bibliothek (German National Library). The Kulturbund Deutscher Juden/Jüdischer Kulturbund collections is only available in German.
Government & IGO documents
- Nuremberg Trials Project [Harvard Law School]Trial transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers from the trials of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany.
- Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, history of science and artificial intelligence, and the like. - Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
A comprehensive set of declassified government documents, 1942-current. - ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
Fully searchable, digitized archival collections having to do with American history. Carleton has access to 13 collections available through this tool, including: Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files 1960-1969: Europe and Latin America, Africa and the Middle East; Office of Strategic Services (OSS)-State Department Intelligence and Research Reports, 1941-1961 (including Part 04: Germany and Its Occupied Territories During World War II); U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, 1914-1945.
- Carleton physical Gov Doc collection - "Holocaust"Includes reports and hearings related to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Swiss banks and assets of Holocaust survivors and heirs; the Holocaust in US textbooks; and some reports from ca. 2007 around changes to the Bonn Treaty.
- United Nations (UN) Digital Library [new interface]Contains full text of all UN documents from 1993-present; plus some older digitized documents from 1946-1993. Some older items are metadata only.
- UN Official Documents SystemOfficial repository from the UN. Dates: 1993 forward. The database also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and the General Assembly Official Records.
Searching Catalyst
There are many specific Subject Headings that the library uses to catalog books. These subject headings can help you find things you wouldn't have thought to search for. These are a few examples of Subject Headings:
- Subject (is exact) Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) . Also look for the related subjects....
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), art
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) In Literature
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal Narratives
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
- Subject (is exact) Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945 AND Physical Resources [oldest first]
- Subject (is exact) Germany -- History -- 1933-1945
- Subject (is exact) Gays -- Nazi persecution
- Subject (is exact) Anti-Nazi movement -- Germany AND Language = English
- Author (is exact) Hitler, Adolf AND Books [oldest first]
