What Makes the YIVO Holocaust Archive Unique?

“If you pick up any piece of paper from the [YIVO] archives, you will learn something you never even imagined about Jewish life.”

— The Jewish Week

As the only prewar Jewish archive and library to survive the Holocaust, one of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s greatest responsibilities is to ensure that we remember. YIVO’s collections have unparalleled treasures that document our resilience during this 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, including documents from the ransacking of YIVO’s original building in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania).

YIVO’s original documents prove not only that the Holocaust happened, but how it was executed. The Berlin Collection, containing material captured directly from the surrendering German army, is among the few original ‘captured German documents’ remaining in the United States. Many of these materials, which the Nazis sought to destroy, were used as evidence in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, as well as numerous other trials in later decades. Filled with the signatures of high-ranking Nazi officials, these documents reveal the inner administrative workings of the Nazi government.

YIVO also has the largest collection in the United States of original kennkarten, the identity cards given out to the Jews by the Nazi regime. Each card in the collection bears the portrait of a German-Jewish citizen, and a ‘J’ for the word ‘Jude’ stamped across the page. Each woman was assigned the additional name ‘Sara’ and each man was assigned the additional name ‘Israel.’ These identity cards reflect the methodical, organized way the Nazis attempted to debase, dehumanize, and demoralize the Jewish people. Despite these challenges, the Jews resisted, smuggling documents to protect their history and culture, fighting back to protect their lives.