If you have ancestry from Eastern Europe, you may find that your family tree has been touched by the tragic events of the Holocaust.
This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) falls on April 25. It's a day to honour those who died and to recognize the courage of those who survived. So, in honour of Yom Hashoah this year, I'm looking into genealogy and family tree resources associated with the Holocaust.
Yizkor books are published memorials of those who died in the Holocaust, containing not only names but photos, maps and personalized stories. These books are written for certain towns or communities, and can be hard to find in print. The Yizkor Book Project has an excellent database of existing books, as well as online translations for anyone wanting to research their contents. You can also access scanned images from more than 600 Yizkor books that are held at the New York Public Library.
There are other online resources as well:
Holocaust Global Registry at the JewishGen website has a searchable database of survivor names and relations. This database is specifically for living survivors who are looking to re-connect with family. Those who died during the Holocaust are not listed.
The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is another searchable database maintained by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust centre in Jerusalem.
Avotaynu is a publisher that specializes in Jewish Genealogy books and other resource materials. Though not specifically on the Holocaust, they offer a great number of books in their catalog for anyone researching their Jewish heritage. They do also offer a searchable database of Jewish surnames.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has another searchable names database, as well as a survivor registry and many other Holocaust research resources.
Search and Unite is a unique service that does the research for you. It's not free, but may be worth the money to find a living relative who's been lost because of the Holocaust.
