Lists of Victims Question Is there an internet source for a listing of all the Holocaust victims by name? I've always wanted to know if anyone has ever documented this. Thank You Jamie McCarthy answers: I am one of the volunteers who answers questions for the Holocaust History Project. I apologize for the delay in answering your question; we have gotten somewhat behind recently. It turns out that there is no source, on the internet or otherwise, listing all Holocaust victims. The Holocaust was not a single event, but the name given to a myriad of events, stretching across Europe, for six years. At the time, since the primary concern for everyone involved was winning the war, or just staying alive, there were no censuses or any kind of centralized record of anyone's travels. The Nazis kept remarkably good records, but not only were many of the papers relating to the destruction of the Jews burned as the war came to a close, they also took no interest in the lives of individual Jews. Only those Jews who were taken to a labor camp had their names taken down; the victims delivered to extermination camps were simply killed upon arrival. If their name was not written down or remembered from the departure point, they have been lost to history; nobody will ever know what became of that person. Yad Vashem in Israel has had an ongoing project for some time to try to learn as much as possible about victims of the Holocaust by asking survivors about their families. By collecting information from surviving members of Jewish families, Yad Vashem has compiled the most thorough list of Jews who were simply never heard from again and, with great certainly, were killed. I believe they have the names of some three million individuals, but, if you want more information, you will have to write them directly. They are not on the internet and, as far as I know, have no plans to be in the near future. Thank you for writing. Again, sorry about the delay. Jamie McCarthy Question Hello, I was just wondering if there is a list or web page that describes the jobs, occupations, schooling, etc. of victims of the Holocaust. I need to find out a list of names and a brief description of those who survived and those who died. This for a project for a college class. Thank you very much. Yale F. Edeiken answers: Hello: I am one of the people who answers questions for The Holocaust History Project (and live in ...). There is to my knowledge no study that would answer your question. Since the Jewish victims of the Holocaust comprised a substantial portion of European Jews they generally mirrored the Jewish communities which varied from locality to locality. The Jews of the Pale, for example, would have been more likely to be connected to agriculture than the urbanized Jews of Germany. In The War Against the Jews by Lucy Dawidowicz there is an excellent appendix which describes the Jewish communities country by country. Please feel free to contact me during business hours at XXX-XXX-XXXX should you wish to discuss this further. Yale F. Edeiken The Holocaust History Project back to the list of questions
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