The Past and the Future of Holocaust Research: From Disparate Sources to an Integrated European Holocaust Research Infrastructure

TL;DR

The paper discusses the development of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), a digital platform unifying dispersed Holocaust archives across Europe to facilitate research and develop innovative online tools, with potential applications beyond Holocaust studies.

Contribution

It introduces EHRI as a novel integrated digital infrastructure that consolidates dispersed Holocaust collections and develops new online research tools, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

Findings

Successful integration of over 20 partner organizations' collections

Development of innovative online research tools

Enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration across disciplines

Abstract

The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) has been set up by the European Union to create a sustainable complex of services for researchers. EHRI will bring together information about dispersed collections, based on currently more than 20 partner organisations in 13 countries and many other archives. EHRI, which brings together historians, archivists and specialists in digital humanities, strives to develop innovative on-line tools for finding, researching and sharing knowledge about the Holocaust. While connecting information about Holocaust collections, it strives to create tools and approaches applicable to other digital archival projects. The paper describes its current progress and collaboration across the disciplines involved.