The Whole Truth: International Archival Program Rescues Evidence at Risk

“Tens of millions of documents, without exaggerating.” That is how Radu Ioanid, director of the Museum’s International Archival Programs Division, described the breadth of Holocaust-era archives around the world that have not yet been opened to the public or that need to be preserved. Such archives cannot be accessed by survivors, family members, and scholars and are also at risk of being forgotten, damaged, or destroyed.

“Often, the paper is crumbling into your hands while you’re looking at it,” noted Ioanid, adding that some collections are stored in conditions inadequate to preserve low-quality World War II-era paper.

Radu Ioanid examines an “instantaneous transcription disk” that is one of 1,942 containing recordings of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. They are stored at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, along with 37 reels of film footage and 250,000 pages of documents. In cooperation with the Court and France’s Mémorial de la Shoah, the Museum plans to digitize the audio and visual components of the archive. — Patrick Post for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

With hundreds of archives still closed, Ioanid and his team travel the world to locate original documentation and arrange for its microfilming or digitization. The Museum’s federal status enables staff to collaborate with US agencies abroad — including the Department of State — and negotiate with foreign governments to open sealed archives. This work now takes place in 50 countries and leads to the reproduction of 4–6 million pages each year.

“We aim to make the dozens of archives in a given European country available to scholars at just one location — the Museum,” Ioanid said. Reproducing the archives significantly enhances their accessibility by scholars. For example, French documents related to the Holocaust reside in about 90 regional archives, of which the Museum has accessed approximately 75. “A researcher who wants to study the Holocaust in France will never have the time, energy, and money to go to 75 archives,” Ioanid said. Thanks to the Museum’s collection efforts, scholars can conduct research into documents from many archives at one location.

Increased accessibility is also important to confronting Holocaust denial and contemporary antisemitism, which are resurgent worldwide. That makes the Museum’s work to open new archives more important than ever. “Information is power,” Ioanid said.

This article was first published in Spring 2017.