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Illustration
from book: Page of Testimony, English Language
Version
Pages of
Testimony
Background
The major archives and documentation center for the Holocaust is Yad
Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel. Since 1955, Yad Vashem has been attempting
to document every one of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust
in a manuscript collection called Pages of Testimony. To date, more
than three million victims have been documented. Persons have been
requested to come forward and submit, on a preprinted form, information
about the victim, including name; place and year of birth; place, date
and circumstances of death; occupation; names of mother, father and
spouse; and, in some cases, names and ages of children. Each submitter
is required to sign this Page of Testimony and to show his or her name,
address and relationship to deceased. By submitting this form, the
person testifies that he or she knew of the victim and the
circumstances surrounding his or her death. The majority of the
submitters are relatives of the deceased. Most Pages of Testimony were
submitted in the 1950s when the project started. Most have been
submitted by Israelis and, therefore, are written in Hebrew. In recent
years, there has been an effort to increase the size of the collection
significantly. Holocaust survivors are encouraged to contribute Pages
now; otherwise, information that only they can provide will be lost to
future generations. The emigration of a large number of Jews from the
former Soviet Union has also provided an opportunity to add
significantly to the collection.
Description
To make it as simple as possible for people to complete the form, it is
available in many languages. The form has been redesigned a number of
times through the years, but it still asks for essentially the same
information:
- Family name of
victim, in native language and Roman letters
- Given name of
victim, in native language and Roman letters
- Name of father
- Name of mother
- Country and place of
birth
- Place of permanent
residency
- Occupation
- Nationality before
German occupation
- Places of residency
during the war
- Marital status
- Number of children
- Spouse's name and
age and, if wife, maiden name
- Names of children
under 18, ages, places and dates of death
- Name and address of
person giving testimony
- Relationship to the
deceased
- Signature and date
How to Use
Pages of Testimony
Pages of Testimony serve two valuable functions: They provide detailed
information about the Holocaust victim, and they may offer a link to
the present--to a person who either knew the victim or was familiar
with the victim's fate. This link is becoming weaker as the years pass
because many of the Pages of Testimony were filled out in the late
1950s, and many of the submitters are no longer alive. In this case, it
becomes necessary to locate descendants of the submitters, who may be
more difficult to track down and whose knowledge of the victims may be
secondary.
How to Get
Pages of Testimony
[As
of November 2004, Pages of Testimony are online at http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance. It is part of the
Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names.] The Pages of Testimony are currently
available only at the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem. They can be accessed
in person or by mail inquiry. There is a nominal charge for each
document. In response to a mail inquiry, you will be sent the documents
and an invoice; there is no need to prepay. In a departure from the
norm, it is usually better to get copies by mail rather than in person.
If you go in person, a number of others usually are waiting to use the
one microfilm reader/printer allocated to accommodate the public. Most
requests are not for specific persons; therefore, it can take a fair
amount of time for the operator of the machine to search through the
films for each patron. Instead, write to:
Hall of Names
Yad Vashem
P.O. Box 3477
91034 Jerusalem, Israel
The handling of mail
inquiries does not involve the pressure of impatient patrons waiting to
be serviced, and you will probably get better service using this
method. The Hall of Names will accept generic searches such as "all
persons named Mokotow" or "all persons named Mokotow from Garwolin";
however, they will do generic searches only for surnames for which they
have fewer than three hundred documents. The cost averages less than
$2.00 per document, but rates may change based on economic conditions,
and rules for quality of service may change as demand rises.
If you elect to do research in person, the current hours are 10am to
2pm Sunday through Thursday and 10am to 12:30pm on Friday. Check before
you go.
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