What Are Primary Sources?
"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."
(American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)
Nuremberg Trials
- Trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946This is the complete 42-volume document of the IMT in print.
- Trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946This is the electronic version of the 42-volume IMT.
- Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals : under Control Council law no. 10. Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949.This is the 15-volume PRINT transcripts of the trials conducted by the U.S. Office of the Military Government for Germany (OMGUS) subsequent to the IMT.
- Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals : under Control Council law no. 10. Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949This is the electronic version of the 15-volume transcripts of the trials conducted by the U.S. Office of the Military Government for Germany (OMGUS) subsequent to the IMT.
Collections of Primary Source Documents
Be aware that many primary sources about the Holocaust are not in English! Some of the items listed here are reliable translations, though. Some of these are actual book! Click on the individual title to find its location.
- Ghetto Fighters' House ArchiveThe Archive collects objects from the Holocaust period that will contribute to Holocaust research. This includes letters (in all languages), diaries and memoirs, identification certificates, medals, weaponry, ghetto currency, maps, tools and more! While it isn't all digitized and online, a remarkable amount of material is!
- Collection of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYCThis is an online collection of artifacts that includes a very wide array of items, including photographs. Be sure to use the ADVANCED SEARCH.
- Documents of Destruction; Germany and Jewry, 1933-1945.This is a valuable compendium of 50 documents relating to the Holocaust arranged to serve as a basic "reader" on the subject. The final document is an explanation of the process of "amends" implemented by the German government, by the book's editor & highly regarded Holocaust scholar, Raul Hilberg.
- Documents on the HolocaustThis is a very useful compendium of translated primary sources, divided into three sections -- Germany/Austria, Poland and the Soviet Union. It includes both high level official documents as well as eyewitness accounts of ordinary people.
- A Holocaust ReaderAn outstanding anthology of translated primary sources on the Holocaust. Part One, about a third of the volume, begins with 1933 pro-Nazi legislation and ends with Himmler's 1943 summation on the Final Solution. Part Two is the Jewish response to facets of the experience in a wide variety of genres.
- From a Ruined GardenThese are translations of Eastern European memorial books intended to serve as a sampler of this little known genre. They are first hand accounts of events before and during the German occupation, descriptions of places and people, folk stories and legends, from small shtetls that basically disappeared during the Holocaust.
- Witness to the HolocaustA compilation of letters, dairy entries, testimony from survivors, government documents, newspaper articles, and more, tracing the history of the Nazi dehumanization program from 1933 to the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Includes a smattering of photographs.
- The trial of Adolf Eichmann : record of proceedings in the District Court of JerusalemRevised translation of the original Hebrew transcripts.
Vol. 9 constitutes a loose-leaf binder of color illustrations, and microfiche copies of the exhibits submitted by the prosecution and defense. - The Buchenwald ReportTranslation of: Bericht über das Konzentrationslager Buchenwald bei Weimar. Original report was produced by the Intelligence Team of the Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Forces from interviews with inmates immediately upon the camps liberation.
- "The Good old days" : the Holocaust as seen by its Perpetrators and BystandersTranslation of: "Schöne Zeiten." This is a chilling collection of interviews, photographs, diary entries, and reports from German eyewitnesses, including members of the SS.
- The Einsatzgruppen ReportsTranslated selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads' Campaign Against the Jews July 1941-January 1943.
- The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen VolumesThis remarkable collection represents a carefully selected documentary history of the Holocaust selected from the holdings of the National Archives. They are divided into 4 sections: "Planning & Preparation", "Killing of the Jews", "Rescue Attempts," "Punishment." Less than a third are reproduced in the original German. Most are English translations.
- Yad Vashem Online ExhibitionsThere is a very wide array of material here, but you really have to browse your way through it patiently.
Testimonies
The USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archives was created in 1994 to preserve the audio-visual histories of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. It is one of the largest video digital libraries in the world. A subset of the archive, including 1600 testimonies, is available on the public internet. Click on the logo to connect to the public archive. The first time you use it, you will have to create a user name and a password.
How to Search the Visual History Archive:
First select a collection on the left and enter keywords in the search box. Select "All Words". You are now searching those keywords in the transcript of the testimonies.
After you enter your search, and click the Search button, you can then limit the results in various ways:
The top one Video Viewable Now will limit the results to those testimonies you can actually view on the open web. All of these should be in English!