European Holocaust Research Infrastructure

The objective of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure project is to connect and make accessible information about dispersed archive sources on the Holocaust. Over more than four years, between 2011 and 2014, 20 organizations from 13 EU countries and Israel have build an extensive database of archive funds and collections concerning the Holocaust. The project builds upon innovative use of human digital sciences and supports new methodological approaches in Holocaust research.
Currently the database offers information about 1828 archives in 51 countries which hold Holocaust-related collections. It contains 152 673 descriptions of archival units, from funds and collections to individual files and documents. It is safe to assume the EHRI database will change the way researchers search for information and prepare for visiting archives or for researching digitized materials online. Researches can also annotate researched materials and contribute to adding new records and improving the database.

Yerusha in the Czech Republic

The project of a future Yerusha database supported by the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe is one of the major achievements of digital humanities in Europe. Its objective is to collect and publish information on accessible sources concerning modern European Jewish history and culture.
The sources are currently in different stages of processing or even damage. They are dispersed around archives of various institutions, from state archival systems to private archives or collections. The Judaica are hidden in extensive funds of state offices, school, police or financial institutions and other funds and collections. The primary vision of the Yerusha project is to unify and publish information about the dispersed Jewish written heritage. The result of the project will not only be an online database containing information concerning archival funds and collections relevant to Jewish history but also an infrastructure interconnecting professional institutions and researchers and a platform for publishing digital archival tools, catalogs or expert studies. The Jewish Museum in Prague currently partakes on the Czech part of the Yerusha project. The research focuses on Moravian Jewish political communities and the Jews in the Sudetenland between 1848 and 1938. Both research topics struggle with difficulties due to dispersion or inaccessibility of the preserved sources. The objective of this research is therefore to cover the full scope of funds concerning Jewish history in the Bohemian lands. The project task is fulfilled thanks to a group of professional archive workers and historians who carry out research in regional archives and they describe archival funds and collections containing relevant information in accordance with their professional erudition and under the methodological guidance of the Jewish Museum in Prague. At the point when Yerusha will serve as an infrastructure and database of Jewish history sources, Czech and foreign researchers will be able to prepare their research and projects in user friendly settings containing maximum amount of necessary information and within the context of local and international history. Making the information on Jewish European history and culture written heritage accessible can fundamentally support the present research and our knowledge.

• The main issue of researching Jewish history is the considerable dispersion of archival sources and their inaccessibility.
• The Yerusha database supported by the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe aims to make accessible to international professional public information on archival funds and collections containing judaica stored in various countries and archives.
• Archival funds and collections are described according to international standards of archival description and experienced professionals from renowned European institutions participate at their description.
• The Yerusha database will thus enable the sources on Jewish history and culture to be seen in the broadest possible context. It will connect researchers and thus it will support research and our knowledge of the history.
• The Jewish Museum in Prague participates at the establishment of the Yerusha database through a research project mapping out sources in Czech archives, concerning hitherto neglected chapters of Jewish history - Jewish political communities in Moravia and Jews in Sudetenland between 1848 and 1938.

Yerusha in Slovakia

The sources are currently in different stages of processing or even damage. They are dispersed around archives of various institutions, from state archival systems to private archives or collections. The Judaica are hidden in extensive funds of state offices, school, police or financial institutions and other funds and collections. The primary vision of the Yerusha project is to unify and publish information about the dispersed Jewish written heritage. The result of the project will not only be an online database containing information concerning archival funds and collections relevant to Jewish history but also an infrastructure interconnecting professional institutions and researchers and a platform for publishing digital archival tools, catalogs or expert studies. For a year now the Jewish Museum in Prague has been involved in research for the Yerusha project in Czech archives, where professionals search for sources on History of Jews in Sudetenland and the phenomenon of Moravian Jewish political communities. From this fall, the Jewish Museum in Prague together with DSH (Holocaust Documentation Centre) will participate on Slovak research for the Yerusha database with the topic titled "Periphery?" Jewish Sources from Slovakia. The research aims to explore the funds of the state archives and selected Jewish communities concerning the Jewish history between 1848 - 1938, the history of emancipation and transformation of Jewish social and economical structures, the period of growing nationalism and anti-Semitism in hitherto neglected regions of southern and north-western Slovakia. The project will be carried out by professional Slovak archive workers who will research regional archives and describe archival funds and collections containing relevant information under the guidance of DSH and the Jewish Museum in Prague. The descriptions will follow the international standards of archival descriptions on the fund level. At the point when Yerusha will serve as infrastructure and database of sources on Jewish history, researchers will be able to prepare their research and project within user friendly settings containing maximum amount of necessary information within the context of local and international history. Making the information on Jewish European history and culture written heritage accessible can fundamentally support the present research and our knowledge.

Frontier of Memory

The Frontier of Memory project maps out the fate of a large hitherto unexplored group of Holocaust victims from Bohemia and Moravia, composed of Jewish inhabitants of so-called Sudetenland, i.e. Czechoslovak areas seized by the national-socialist Germany after the Munich agreement of 30 September 1938. The project is supported by the Claims Conference organization and it is carried out by the Jewish Museum in Prague in close cooperation with historians, Czech archives and a number of international memory institutions. The main output will be a database of Holocaust victims from the so-called Sudetenland. In 2015 the Jewish Museum in Prague launched the Frontier of Memory project. In spring 2015 the project workers organized a workshop in Prague titled "Traces of Jewish History and the Holocaust in the archives of the Czech Republic" (joint workshop of EHRI, Yerusha and Frontiers of Memory project - for more information go to http://www.jewishhistory.cz/konference-workshopy/stopy-zidovskych-dejin-a-holokaustu-v-archivech-ceske-republiky/).

Jewish Councils Archives in Europe

Jewish Councils Archives in Europe aims to make accessible archival sources on so-called Jewish councils and their activities in the period of the Second World War. It is primarily focused on digitization of archives and their detailed cataloguing. The project runs from July 2015 under the guidance of NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Apart from the Jewish Museum in Prague, partners from Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Finland and Israel are involved in the project.
The Jewish Councils Archives in Europe project is financially supported by the Claims Conference organization. (For more information go to http://www.niod.knaw.nl/en/projects/jewish-councils-europe).