- Title: BELGIUM / VARIOUS: New project connects Holocaust archives of 13 countries
- Date: 17th November 2010
- Summary: JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 16, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF YAD VASHEM HOLOCAUST MUSEUM INSIDE, RESEARCHERS TAKING PICTURES OF DOCUMENTS BOOK'S PAGES BEING TURNED RESEARCHER DISPLAYING BOOK AND BOOK'S IMAGE ON COMPUTER SCREEN DETAIL OF PAGE ON SCREEN DOORS OF ARCHIVE CENTRE OPENING UP BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NOVEMBER 16, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HISTORY MUSEUM ON BUILDING,
- Embargoed: 2nd December 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,History
- Reuters ID: LVA1DEAGL7KWLT9DK09RF2JDP4OD
- Story Text: The European Union, Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust museum and the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) launched on Tuesday (November 16) the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI).
The project, which was launched in the History Museum of the European capital Brussels, is set to create a database connecting Holocaust documents dispersed in 20 organizations across 13 European countries, EHRI said. The project will receive seven million euros to build the database over four years.
Because the documents will be accessible through internet, it will be easier and cheaper to study the period, EU commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Maire Geoghegan-Quinn said. It wants to attract researchers, students or Holocaust victims, she added.
"I think it's important to create the database. It's much easier, it's cheaper for researchers, they don't have to travel, they can go to one particular facility. And if one looks at information that we have from Holocaust victims who are trying to find information, there is one case in particular for example where they had to go to Israel, to Poland, to Germany and elsewhere to try and access the information and go on site. Now they have one site where they can go and get access to all of that information. So it's cheaper, it's quicker and I think overall it will give more comprehensive information," Geoghegan-Quinn said.
The participants want to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in order to educate younger generations, Israeli education minister Gideon Saar said.
"The internet is a tool that can give accessibility not only to researchers but also to students and young people and there is one thing which is important is to fill the gaps by sharing the information," Saar told Reuters.
The project also wants to encourage collaboration between researchers, EHRI said.
The EHRI partners are research institutions, libraries, archives, museums and memorial sites based in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom, EHRI said.
The Amsterdam-based NIOD was created after the second World War to compile archives about the Netherlands under German occupation. In March 1944 the Dutch education minister in exile in London Gerrit Bolkestein launched an appeal to collect evidences about the nazi persecution. Anne Frank recorded the appeal in her famous diary when she wrote:
"Dear Kitty, Last night Bolkestein, an MP, was speaking on the Dutch Radio from London and he said that they ought to make a collection of diaries after the war. Of course, they all made a rush at my diary immediately," Bolkestein said.
Today, the NIOD keeps both Anne Frank and her father's passport application.
The project coordinator at NIOD, Doctor Conny Kristel sees great opportunities for the researchers: "We will have access to collections which were not so easily within our reach before, so we will connect collections, we will also collect researchers and we connect researchers with data, which were not connected before."
Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev is equally enthusiast.
"It's a new state of mind and a new technology and a new understanding of the importance and the relevance of the history of the Holocaust as essential part of the history of Europe," Shalev said during the launch in Brussels.
EHRI said it hoped the next step of the project will be able to bring American partners on board and into the database. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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