EHRI Workshop: From Dispersed Sources to an Integrated European Research Infrastructure

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Wednesday, 2 July, 2014
EHRI workshop at the Shoah Memorial, Paris
held on Monday, 2 June 2014

On June 2nd, the Shoah Memorial of Paris (Mémorial de la Shoah) successfully hosted one of the EHRI Regional Workshops under the title “From Dispersed and Fragmented Holocaust Sources to an Integrated European Research Infrastructure”. The main purpose for this workshop was to present the work of EHRI in France. The Shoah Memorial of Paris is one of the twenty organizations from  thirteen countries – research institutions, libraries, archives, museums and memorial sites – that have been working together since 2011 to build the EHRI infrastructure.

Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine

The workshop was opened by the director of the French Shoah Memorial,  Mr. Jacques Fredj, who remembered the pioneering experience of the Centre de Documentation Juive  Contemporaine (Contemporary Jewish Documentation Centre), established in 1943 in Grenoble during the war while the persecutions and deportations of French Jews were in full swing. The CDJC gradually enlarged its scope of activities which ranged from the collection of documents, to historic research, from victims remembrance to the teaching of the immense tragedy of the Holocaust.

Key reference entity

The Mémorial de la Shoah, which is a key reference entity at European level and also the oldest one in the world devoted to the remembrance of the Jews’ genocide in Europe, had to join an International project like EHRI. In this respect the great commitment of the Mémorial de la Shoah was in large part the result of the excellent work carried out by the EHRI coordinator of the institute, Ms Laura Fontana. She led several important activities for EHRI, like the EHRI Summer School, and this workshop. The EHRI workshop brought to Paris 26 leading Holocaust historians and specialists. Jacques Fredj expressed the wish to keep on strengthening the cooperation network with the several partner institutions of EHRI.

Conny Kristel

After the opening by Mr. Fredj, Conny Kristel from the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and director of the EHRI project, reported on the state of advancement of the work that the different teams from the various partner institutions are carrying out. In particular, she insisted on the innovative importance of the portal which will be the virtual gateway through which potential users across Europe and beyond will be able to access the Holocaust relevant materials belonging to archives and document collections. The EHRI portal will be launched in Berlin in March 2015. 

Renée Poznanski

In her key-note speech “Rescue of the Jews and the Resistance in France: from History to Historiography” the French historian Renée Poznanski, Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University in Israel, highlighted and analyzed the obstacles that prevented the incorporation of the rescue of Jews in France into the Resistance movement. Moreover, Prof. Poznanski showed how the history of the rescue of the Jews should be included in an integrated perspective leading to see the Resistance as a whole, organized and unorganized, Jewish and non-Jewish.

The workshop also focused on presentations by several EHRI colleagues who are in charge of specific activities:
  • Michal Frankl, from the Jewish Museum in Prague talked about 'Research guides: an attempt to overcome the fragmentation of Holocaust collections';
  • Veerle Vanden Daelen, from CEGES-SOMA, Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society in Brussels: 'Identification and Investigation in European Holocaust Research Infrastructure';
  • Reto Speck, King’s College London and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies held a presentation entitled 'Building infrastructures for archives in a digital world';
  • Andrea Löw from the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich: '"Training” in European Holocaust Research Infrastructure';
  • and Karen Taïeb, Head of the Archives of the Shoah Memorial presented 'The Jewish Contemporary Documentation Centre CDJC in Paris'.
Language issues

The workshop participants – a quite heterogeneous group made of PhD students in History, archivists and historians, had the chance to get a better understanding of the new approach to research on Holocaust history, which is being developed by EHRI. Among the questions asked by the audience, special  attention was paid to language issues, relating not specifically to the translation of documents, but mostly to the need to share commonly agreed historic and methodological definitions.This issue, which was shared also by the EHRI team, seems to remain an open or ever-changing one, because of the high level of diversity of experiences and approaches in this field. The day was very intense and rich in ideas, making it even more important to bring people together in order to increase the exchange of experiences and opinions. No scientific progress can be made without the continuous support of people involved.

Laura Fontana, EHRI Coordinator for the Mémorial de la Shoah of Paris