Information Projects
Task Force Information Projects
(Wesley A. Fisher, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, December 1999)
At its initial meetings in 1998, the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research identified as one of its first priorities the development of a catalogue or survey of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research efforts currently underway worldwide. As a first step toward that goal, an International Directory of Organizations in Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research and a web site for the Task Force were prepared in time for the Washington Conference on HolocaustEra Assets in December 1998. The number and scope of such information projects increased substantially thereafter, and in mid1999 an editorial group consisting of appointees from each of the member countries was formed. At present it consists of the following persons:
Editorial Group for Task Force Information Projects
France
To be appointed
Germany
Dr. Beate Kosmala
Zentrum fuer Antisemitismusforschung,Technische Universitaet Berlin
Israel
Ms. Richelle Budd Caplan
Yad VashemThe Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
Italy
To be appointed
Netherlands
Mrs. Nine Nooter and Mr. Aik Meeuse
National 4 and 5 May Committee
Poland
Ms. Teresa Swiebocka
State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Sweden
Dr. Paul A. Levine
The Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Uppsala University
United Kingdom
Mr. Paul Salmons
Imperial War Museum
United States of America
Dr. Wesley A. Fisher
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Task Force Web Site
Visit the Task Force's website. At present the web site is in English only, but it is planned to make at least basic information on the Task Force available in the languages of all member countries. There are, of course, links to many nonEnglish language sites.
International Directory of Organizations in Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
The International Directory of Organizations in Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research is maintained on the web site of the Task Force in an electronic searchable version that is regularly updated. It provides basic information on over 1000 institutions throughout the world concerned with Holocaust education broadly defined and has been updated. The listings incorporate and supplement those of the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the GoetheInstitut, the Council of Europe and others.
A hardcopy printout has been prepared for delegates to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust 2628 January 2000. In this printout version, organizations are listed alphabetically within the listings for each country. International organizations can be found both under "International" and under the country of location. All the information presented should be accurate as of January 2000, but in a work of this sort omissions and errors inevitably occur, despite best efforts to ensure that the information is complete and correct.
Obviously such an international compilation is impossible without the generous assistance of many organizations and individuals in many countries. In particular, we are most grateful to Dr. William Shulman, President of the Association of Holocaust Organizations, for permission to include the current (2000) listings for the organizational members of the AHO. Institutions that are members of the Association of Holocaust Organizations have been marked with an asterisk.
The compilation of information when this project began in late 1998 was done by Ste'phane Bruchfeld, then of the Swedish Prime Minister's Office, and Wesley A. Fisher and Nicolas Gauvin of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the assistance of the following; Shulamit Imber, Pedagogical Director, and Richelle BuddCaplan of Yad Vashem, kindly provided Yad Vashem's list of relevant institutions in Israel and abroad. Regina Wyrwoll, Head of Media Division, GoetheInstitut, Munich, and Annette Brinkmann generously provided the address list of German institutions resulting from the project Learning from History: The Nazi Era and the Holocaust in German Education. Also useful was information collected by Katherine Klinger for the Council of Europe's publication The Holocaust in the School Curriculum: A European Perspective. Veronika BardBringe'us, Deputy Director International Affairs, and Mia Lowengart of the Office of the Prime Minister of Sweden, and Swedish embassies in Europe and Israel helped collect and verify information for the initial version. Many staff members and interns of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum assisted, in particular Joan Ringelheim, Sara Greenberg, Stephen Feinberg, Jacek Nowakowski, Radu loanid, Klaus Mueller, Michael Haley Goldman, Andres Abril, Alberto Rios, Arnold Kramer, Harry Lee, Susanne Brose, Sarah Lueer, Solomon Danzig, Monica Schaeffer, Robert Price, Carmen and Jessica Marrero.
The current updated version was prepared by members of the Editorial Group for Information Projects of the Task Force with the assistance of Rebecca Grinblat, Monica Schaeffer, and Greg Jacobson of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We are grateful to the numerous organizations worldwide that provided us with information on their activities.
International Calendar of Events in Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
The International Calendar of Events in Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research is maintained on the web site of the Task Force in an electronic searchable version that is regularly updated. It provides basic information on conferences, lectures, exhibits, and programs related to the Holocaust all over the world. The International Calendar is maintained primarily in English with links to sites in a variety of languages. A new version will be available shortly that will permit searches by country and institution in addition to date.
International Guide to Archival Sources on the Holocaust
In view of the importance of access to the full archival record of the Holocaust and its historical context for understanding this tragic period of history, the Task Force wishes to draw attention to the work already underway and planned in this area.
Archives relevant to the study of the Holocaust are scattered in many public and private institutions in a great many countries around the globe. In recent years both the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem have implemented wideranging global programs to survey these records and to microfilm them and make them available to researchers. In this way, invaluable data banks are being created that provide essential reference material for those researching or teaching Holocaustrelated issues.
The Task Force web site will soon provide links to the online archival catalogs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem; to guides to relevant archival repositories around the globe; and to the Internetbased International Guide to Archival Sources on HolocaustEra Assets initiated by the Historians of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.
International Guide to Holocaust Educational Curricula
Work is currently under way in a number of countries to place information on educational curricula concerning the Holocaust on the Internet. The Task Force web site will soon begin to provide a search mechanism to locate such materials by country of origin, intended age of audience, and other criteria.
The Editorial Group for Task Force Information Projects looks forward to and availability of information in the abovenamed guides as well as to the creation of additional projects that may assist international efforts in Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.