Jul 14, 2011

Searchable Holocaust Database Now Online

Recently, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an overseas partner of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, announced the launch of its Shared Legacy Project, a valuable new online resource that allows users to search deep within the JDC’s massive digitized archives of World War II-era documents and photographs. The website – JDC.org/SharedLegacy – enables users, especially Holocaust survivors and their families, to perform searches for themselves or others on a database that contains more than 500,000 names from 14 countries where JDC operated during and after the war.

Users also can explore and identify people they know in photo galleries of 1,500 photos from over 10 countries, including: Austria, France, Germany, Spain and more. The public is invited to tag photos and to share their JDC stories from this turbulent period in Jewish history, helping JDC fill in the gaps about its impact on Jewish lives. JDC helped care for hundreds of thousands of Jews in places from Cuba to Portugal throughout and after World War II.

The names on the database were compiled from historic documents and JDC client lists from operations in Barcelona, Shanghai, Kobe, Vilna, Australia, South America and the JDC Emigration Service in Vienna and Munich. A group of volunteer genealogists helped the JDC Global Archives create the database. New names are being added each week.

Joe Sachs, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Miami, is excited to start using the database. “Survivors in the community welcome any information that they haven’t had throughout their lives. This database will allow them to pinpoint what happened to their families. It’s a very meaningful program,” he said.

According to Rabbi Solomon Schiff, Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, this tool will provide another way for Holocaust survivors to connect with each other and assist in the healing process. “Survivors have consistently held out hope that someday they may discover what happened to their families. This project could fill in the gaps that have plagued them for close to 70 years. This information will bring some solace and comfort and help ease some of the pain they have been suffering,” he said.

To start re-connecting and using the tool, visit JDC.org/SharedLegacy.