The Archive of Nachman Blumental

“I did not wish my father’s personal archive, a product of decades of intensive and emotional work, to be shut in a dark room. I wanted it to be preserved and used by researchers everywhere...”

— Miron Blumental, on donating his father's archive to YIVO

This past June, YIVO received the archive of noted historian, scholar, and Holocaust survivor Nachman Blumental.

Born in 1905 in Borszczów, Austria-Hungary, Blumental worked as a zamler (collector) before the war, gathering ethnographic and historical documents for YIVO’s pre-war collections and was a member of the Association Friends of YIVO. He survived the Holocaust in the non-German occupied part of the Soviet Union, but the rest of Blumental’s family, his first wife Maria, three-year-old son Ariel, and six of his seven siblings were all tragically killed.

After the war, Blumental made it his mission to investigate his wife and son’s murders at the hands of Polish officers who collaborated with the Nazis. As he traveled across Poland, Blumental felt compelled to collect survivor testimony and German documents concerning ghettos, camps, and sites of mass murder. His archive also contains aspects of Jewish life before and during the war, such as songs and poetry from the ghettos, including many original documents from the Łódź Ghetto.

Blumental served as an expert witness in post-war trials against Nazi perpetrators in Poland, including the trials of Rudolf Höss and Artur Liebehenschel—who were Commandants of Auschwitz—and Amon Göth—the SS Officer who commanded the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp.

Filled with the signatures of high-ranking Nazi officials, the documents Blumental gathered reveal the inner administrative workings of the Nazi government. As is the case with YIVO’s materials, many of these documents were used as evidence during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, as well as numerous other trials in later decades.

Blumental was especially interested in the power of language. He argued that “the Nazi language was one of the most important tools used by the Germans in the physical extermination of the Jewish people.” Studying the Nazis’ word choice in official documentation and in materials presented to the public was Blumental’s lifelong mission.

Among the materials donated to YIVO are a series of catalog boxes full of his handwritten and typed notecards that form the basis of Słowa niewinne (Innocent Words), a dictionary of German Nazi words that were less innocent than their meanings. Blumental’s dictionary reveals the true nature of George Orwell's "doublespeak" even before 1984 was published. The dictionary demonstrates the intention behind words the Nazis used to normalize, obscure, and soften the mass genocide being carried out.

Nachman Blumental eventually remarried and had another son, Miron. Honoring his father’s request, Miron—who currently lives in Vancouver—donated these materials to YIVO, knowing that YIVO would protect and preserve them. Just like YIVO’s founders, Blumental understood the importance of saving these pieces of history for future generations.

TERMS FROM NACHMAN BLUMENTAL'S DICTIONARY, SŁOWA NIEWINNE (INNOCENT WORDS)

..."Eviction" [GERMAN: Aussiedlung]
= Destruction and robbery of property

..."Dismiss" [GERMAN: Entlassen]
= Murder

..."Recreation" [GERMAN: Erholung]
= Prison

..."Farmhouses" [GERMAN: Bauernhäuser]
= Gas chambers

..."Major operation" [GERMAN: Großeinsatz]
= Liquidation of the Jews

“…because of reasons in foreign policy the deportation of Jews to the East cannot occur at the moment…”*
..."Deportation of Jews to the East"
= Murder in extermination camps

* Found in a document sent by the head of the security police in Berlin to numerous gestapo offices in cities of countries occupied by Nazi Germany, dated September 23, 1943

As the only prewar Jewish archive and library to survive the Holocaust, YIVO’s collections have unparalleled treasures that document Jewish resilience during this difficult time in our history. These materials include diaries, survivor testimonies, ghetto and concentration camp documents, Jewish organizational records, art and artworks, music, posters, and Nazi agency records. They also include materials from the ransacking of YIVO’s original building in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). YIVO’s Holocaust collections add up to more than seven million pages of original documents and over 20,000 photographs depicting the Jewish experience during World War II and its aftermath. Nachman Blumental’s archive further enriches YIVO’s Holocaust archival collections.