Holocaust Resource

The Holocaust, sometimes called the Shoah, was a terrible time in world history. An estimated six million European Jews were exterminated in one of the largest cases of mass genocide in history. These weren't the only victims. Several million homosexuals, prisoners of war, political opponents and others deemed unacceptable were also murdered by the Third Reich.

Records of these individuals are scattered at best. There are still millions of people that have not been identified. The Shoah Names Database is a nice free genealogy resource for those researching family members who perished during this dark time. It contains some of the identified individuals who were lost to the Holocaust. The database is searchable by name or location. One nice feature the database has is that it looks at both married and maiden names for women. So if you searched Bergman, it would not only bring up the women with that married name, but also those for whom Bergman was their maiden name.

The initial results screen gives the name, town, district, region, country, birth date and source of information. Some entries may not have all fields if the information wasn't available. Clicking on the hyperlinked name takes you to a page that gives a brief bio of individual. To the left of the bio, you will find an image of the source.

Beneath the bio is a drop down box for related searches. You have the option to search pages submitted by submitters of the same name, victims with the same last/maiden name born in the same place, victims with the same last/maiden name residing in the same place and victims with the same last/maiden name in the same source. The ability to search for victims with the same name born or residing in the same place is a nice feature as it may help you locate other family members.

At the end of the bio block, you will find a more details button. Clicking it takes you to a screen with additional data such as name, maiden name, name of parents, sex, date and place of birth, marital status, normal residence, residence during the war, date and place of death, type of material and the submitter's name and relationship to the victim.

If you have a family member that perished in the Holocaust, but is not listed in the database, you can submit their information. On the database start page, there is a link on the left side of the page to submit additional names.

Once you have finished browsing the database, check out the other free genealogy resources available on the website. In addition to the Shoah Names Database, their digital collection also has a photo archive, library and related lists database