Archive and Library

LOS ANGELES MUSEUM OF THE HOLOCAUST ARCHIVE

The Archive of LAMOTH is a repository encompassing prewar, war-time, and postwar collections with an emphasis on Holocaust-era records.   As Zbigniew Gluza writes in the foreword to the new edition of the Ringelblum Archive: No archival undertaking is able to save human lives. It can however, save its substance, and also – as in this case – human dignity.

Archival research is an essential pre-condition for interdisciplinary Holocaust Studies, education, and community awareness of the past. Without properly arranged repositories, adequate archival organization together with continuous research and analysis, the vast corpus of documents may remain in disarray and as such unclaimed. Realizing a critical significance of modern repositories, LAMOTH undertook a complete reorganization of its archives. Commencing the work on the unorganized and often in the state of disarray documents, we have come to completion with a modern, adequately structured, and well-organized archival facility. In a sense, the Archive has become a core of the entire museum.

 In the process of exhibit-formation and structural reorganization undertaken to establish a new and permanent Museum’s home, the Archive has been serving as a primary source to this purpose. In September 2010, our Museum and Archive received a new permanent home in Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles. By the Museum official opening the Archive had been also technologically equipped as a modern repository with a climate control unit.

Presently the Archive contains seventy-one record groups organized according to historical and archival principles. An average record group comprises several sub-collections. Archival record groups vary by themes, provenance, volume, and overall by the type of materials. Even within one record group, a given collection often comprises narratives, photographs, artworks and various artifacts.

The history of our Archive is intrinsic to the development of the Museum and to its Founders. It was in the mid-1960s that Holocaust survivors, the former prisoners of ghettos and camps, began collecting and merge the wartime and post-war period documents and artifacts for exhibit and preservation. Therefore the initial archival items were personal testimonies, memoirs, diaries, as well as official documents of the Holocaust era. Owing to this chronology, our first record group RG-01 is named Personal Memoirs, Testimonies, Diaries. Presently, it is subdivided onto eighteen sub-groups and collections. Personal narratives are regarded as a historical source, especially if they come from the war-period or immediate postwar time.

Our Archival Index and several selected collections will soon be added to the Museum website to feature the Archive at glance. In meantime, our museum network allows to work remotely with all archival collections in digital format.

All in all, the Archive provides an institutional foundation for maintaining and growing the Museum’s status as a world-class research and educational organization, while contributing to the Museum’s uniqueness, specificity and authenticity. Presently, the Archival and Library department accommodates the needs of scholars, researchers, students, and interested members of the public who may work with primary sources of the Holocaust era in particular and with the wide array of materials shedding light on the History of the 20th Century.

The very list of archival record groups introduces the public to historically multifaceted Archival Collection.

Archival Record Groups List:

RG-0001, History of the Museum
RG-01, Personal Memoirs, Testimonies, and Diaries
RG-01.01, Irena Lusky Collection
RG-01.02, Nika Fleissig Collection
RG-01.03, Dachau Diaries and Testimonies
RG-01.04, Przeworksa-Pratt Collection
RG-01.05, Siegfried Halbreich Collection
RG-01.06, Barry Ziff Collection
RG-01.07, Erica Leon Personal Testimony
RG-01.08, Anna Lipsyzc Collection
RG-01.09, Betti Gerard Diaries
RG-01.10, Marta Mitdank Recollection
RG-01.11, Dawid Gertler Papers, Lodz Ghetto
RG-01.12, Ludwik Hirsszfeld, Memoirs, Warsaw
RG-01.13, Josef Broide Papers. Bialystok Ghetto
RG-01.14, Henryk Gliksman Memoirs, Mauthausen Camp
RG-01.15, Alice Schragai Memoir, Kosice (Kassa)
RG-01.16, Federation of Jews from Poland, US Occupation Zone, Restitution Papers
RG-01.17, Otto Herskovic, Memoir, Antwerp, Belgium
RG-01.18,  John van Huzun Wartime Diary
RG-02, DP Publications, Documents, Cultural Life
RG-03, Allied Administration in Germany, Austria, France
RG-04, Literature and Arts in Camps and Ghettos
RG-05, Nazi Propaganda and Nazi Party
RG-06, Ghetto and Camp Currency and Related Artifacts
RG-07, Post-war Publications and Scholarship on the Holocaust
RG-08, Identification Papers and Related Documents
RG-09, Liberation of Camps and Camp Site Memorials
RG-10, Hungarian Labor Battalions
RG-11, Lodz Ghetto
RG-12, Pre-war History and Jewish Life
RG-13, Dr. Julius Kühl Collection
RG-14, Holocaust-related Art
RG-15, Auschwitz Camps and Memorial Museum of Auschwitz
RG-16, Family History
RG-17, Prewar and War-time Periodicals
RG-18.01, Polish Interwar Periodical for National Minorities, Sprawy Narodowosciowe
RG-18.02, Jewish, Ukrainian Interwar Periodical in Poland, Dilo
RG-18.03, Jewish Interwar Periodical in Poland, Chwila
RG-19, Oral Histories, Survivors' Video-Interviews
RG-20, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in Lviv and Lviv Region from the Live State Regional Archives
RG-21, Ukrainian Collaborator Newspapers in Galicia, Lvivs'ki Visti, Krakivs'ki Visti, Wolyn
RG-22, Jewish Art and other various forms
RG-23, Atrocities and Perpetration, Collection of Photo-documents
RG-24, Jewish Religious Text and Sacramental Objects
RG-25, Warsaw Ghetto
RG-26.01, Erich Lichtblau (Leskly) Collection, Documents
RG-26.02, Erich Lichtblau (Leskly) Collection, Articles and Catalogues
RG-26.03, Erich Lichtblau (Leskly) Collection, Photographs of Artworks
RG-26.04, Erich Lichtblau (Leskly) Collection Framed Artworks
RG-27, Zeisl-Aberbach and Schoenberg Collections
RG-28, Dachau Concentration Camp and Memorial Site, 1941-1946
RG-29, Liberation of Paris and German Atrocities in Europe
RG-30, War-Crimes Trials
RG-31, Theresienstadt Ghetto
RG-32, Memorial Books of Jewish Communities
RG-33, Soviet Partisans
RG-34, Werner Schleyer Papers
RG-35, Literature in Yiddish
RG-36, Nazi-German Artifacts, Memorabilia
RG-37, Charles Millett (Karl Sinai) Papers
RG-38, Small Ghettos
RG-39, German Literature
RG-40, Kurt Wittler Papers
RG-41, The Second World War, History and Aftermath
RG-42, Bernd Stevens (Steinitz) Collection
RG-43, John Glass Papers
RG-44, Rescue and Aid in France, 1940 -1944
RG-45, Films, Video, Testimonies, Photographs
RG-46, Integrated museum materials
RG-47, Polish Films and Medals
RG-48, Vera Laroche Papers
RG-49, Lewis Lax (Lutek Laks) Papers
RG-50, Marianne Myerhoff Collection  
RG-51, Betty-Prins Haytt Papers
RG-52, Gabriella Karin Papers
RG-53, Marie Kaufman Papers
RG-54, Kurt Horowitz Papers
RG-55, Survivors’ audio testimonies
RG-56, Lisolette Melhorn Papers
RG-57, Kapulkina Papers  
RG-58, Marion E. Kenworthy Papers (duplicates)
RG-59, Anton Karl Collection
RG-60, Clifton Gallup Papers
RG-61, Isaak Gasnik Collection of the Netherlands News
RG-62, Mash Loen Collection
RG-63, German Crimes in Poland
RG-64, American government and politics
RG-65, USHMM documentary films
RG-66, Bundesarchiv photo documents
RG-67, USHMM photo documents
RG-68, Wiener Library photo documents
RG-69, Yad Vashem photo documents
RG-70, Hamburg Institute for Social Sciences
RG-71, Periodicals in Yiddish and other Yiddish-language publications
RG-72, Ed Victor Papers
RG-72.01, Synagogues of Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East in postcards and photographs
Rg-72.02, Correspondence from and to ghettos
RG-72.03, Correspondence from and to concentration camps
RG-72.04, Identification documents
RG-72.05, Red Cross papers
RG-72.06, German-Nazi postcards of various topics
RG-72.07, Correspondence to and from Lodz ghetto
RG-72.08, Correspondences from  and to German labor service
RG-72.09, Proofs of incarcerations under German-Nazi and Axis regimes
RG-72.10, Correspondence between German-occupied and unoccupied countries
RG-72.11, Theresienstadt correspondence, to and from the ghetto
RG-72.12, Histories of families and individuals in Germany-controlled Europe and in the Allied nations
RG-72.13, Antisemitic materials, Europe, 19th -- 20th Centuries
RG-72.14, Documents issued by German authorities in 1933 – 1945
RG-72.15, Emigration and immigrants, Europe, America, Asia
RG-72.16, Jewish Councils (Judenraete) in Germany and German-occupied and controlled territories
RG-72.17, Anti-Nazi resistance and Jews in the foreign armed forces
RG-72.18, Hungarian Jewish experience as reflected in correspondence
RG-72.19, Ration coupons
RG-72.20, Ghetto and camp currency
RG-72.21, Inter-country correspondence
RG-72.22, Correspondence between Germany and German-occupied territories
RG-72.23, Postwar correspondence
RG-72.24, Prisoner of war camps
RG-72.25, Displaced persons documents
RG-72.26, Relief Organization, correspondence
RG-72.27, Correspondence from and to Nazi Prisons
RG-72.28, Correspondence from and to Transit camps
RG-72.29, Correspondence within Romania and between Romania and other countries

All collections are catalogued, indexed and furnished with Finding Aids. The documental corpus of the Archival Collection is digitized and available in PDF on the internal Museum network. Eventually, the Museum will create a functional search system that will adequately search through the entire Archival Collection.

LAMOTH accepts donations of historical documents, artifacts and personal collections.

LAMOTH LIBRARY AND COLLECTIONS OF RARE PUBLICATIONS

The Museum’s Library comprises around two thousand volumes. The history of our Library is intrinsic to the history of the Museum. The first donations came around the time the Museum opened its As with the first donations of documents and artifacts donated to the earliest form of the Museum, a memorial room at 6505 Wilshire Blvd., the first volumes for the library were also graciously given at the same time.
Together with several founders of the Museum, Benjamin Grey and Alex Schwartzkopf in particular helped lay a foundation for the Library when they donated wartime and postwar Yiddish, Polish, German and English language publications. These materials today are among the rarest documents in our special collections.
The official opening of the museum in 1978 spurred a new influx of donations to the library. Through the mid-1990s we acquired academic literature in English and in foreign languages, memoirs, fiction and also the world-renowned series of Encyclopedia Judaica, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem Studies, Archives of the Holocaust, and, The Nazi Holocaust. We also received subscriptions to professional journals and bulletins of Holocaust studies.
Donations in the first decade of 21st century consisted largely of individual recollections and testimonies in the form of memoirs. This was time of significant change in the Museum, as it moved repeatedly amongst several locations. Library donations slowed, even as the Museum set its goal towards the end of that decade to establishing a permanent home.
In 2010, the Museum opened its doors in its new location. E. Randol Schoenberg, President of the Museum Board, raised the Library’s quality significantly by purchasing and donating several hundred volumes of new publications on the history of the Holocaust, including video materials.
Donations from others increased as well. At the end of 2010, under the direction of Dr. Vladimir Melamed and with the assistance of several volunteers and staff members, the Library embarked on a project to modernize, re-organize, and essentially re-catalogue all materials in accordance with the Library of Congress standards. As a result of this careful and comprehensive project, today every item possesses a classification number of its own and is grouped accordingly. The on-line, searchable database allows for cross-referencing of items to allow for variant spellings of Anglicized versions of non-English words and the historic evolution of proper names. Foreign language searching can include the use of either diacritics or non-diacritic language. In short, the contemporary organization of our Library and the structure of its Search Catalogue allow researchers to find materials as if they were shelved at the Library of Congress or at most university or college libraries in the United States.  
Grouping literature according to the Library of Congress standards allow to highlight our major collections. By and large, they constitute publications on the Holocaust, Modern Jewish History, Modern European History and several special collections. The latter comprise prewar and post-war literature in Yiddish in Poland and United States. There are also smaller groups of European and American fiction and periodicals of various museums.
The three larger groups indicated above include the following sub-groups:
--Holocaust, Jewish (1939 -1945) – Persecutions – Jewish military participation and resistance;
--Second World War (1939 -1945) – Prisoners and prisons – Concentration camps and ghettos;
--Germany – History – Nazi Germany – History;
--National Socialism- Second World War (1939 -1945)
--The Jews – Encyclopedias, Dictionaries – The Jews – Collected works (nonserial);
--The Jews – Jewish diaspora – By region or country;
--Jewish diaspora – History – Antisemitism;
--Crimes against humanity – Genocide;
--The Jews – History – 19th – 20th centurie – General works

Our Searchable Library Catalogue enables multiple-criteria search, namely by keywords, subjects, authors, titles and by the Library of Congress classification numbers. We regard our new search catalogue as a collective achievement and advancement in the museum development. The search Catalogue for the Library is available on the museum web-site under the rubric Archives and Library.  Please visit our new searchable library catalog today.