By Researching Hungarian Jewish Community History Books

The latest EHRI Document Blogpost, written by former EHRI fellow and Oxford Doctoral Candidate Barnabas Balint, identifies a specific genre of local history source – Hungarian Jewish community history books. These books are similar to Yizkor books, that are Hebrew and Yiddish language memorial books that document the Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust.

In this blogpost, Barnabas Balint explores the contribution of these Jewish community books to our understanding of the Holocaust, including the history of Orthodox Jews and provincial areas of Hungary.

The example of the book of Ujpest showcases how this source can elaborate on the under-studied aspects of Hungarian Jewish history, provides insight into Jewish and non-Jewish spaces, and opens new opportunities for further research.

For centuries, Roma people in Europe faced exclusion, discrimination and racism. They were among the groups singled out for persecution and murder by the Nazi regime, its allies, and collaborators before and during World War II. During the Nazi era, German authorities and their supporters throughout Europe subjected Roma to systematic racial persecution and decimated communities across the continent.

A Hands-On Seminar on Implementing Crowdsourcing Projects for Micro-Archives

November, 25-28, 2024 | Location: Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution | Bad Arolsen, Germany | Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2024

Crowdsourcing can be an ideal way for institutions with archival collections to enrich their holdings, working with the public to, e.g., identify places and people in photographs, transcribe documents, or obtain other information that will make the collections more accessible. Archives can also gain greater public attention through crowdsourcing. That said, it can also be rather daunting to set out on a crowdsourcing project, particularly for smaller institutions.

EHRI partner Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution, the leading institution related to documenting National Socialist persecution and the liberated survivors, has significant experience in successfully planning and managing crowdsourcing projects such as #everynamecounts and will also host this event.