Les archives de Yad Vashem : un outil essentiel de la recherche sur la Shoah

Abstract

The article presents history of the Yad Vashem Archives, its main projects and departments related to collection of documents on the Holocaust. Since the establishment of Yad Vashem in 1953, the Yad Vashem Archives was one of the main departments of Yad Vashem. Nevertheless, collections of documents on the Holocaust preceded the formal establishment of this institution. Gathering all possible material on the Holocaust was not only written in the Yad Vashem law of 1953, but was the principal element of the idea of commemorating the Holocaust victims as well as learning and studying that period. The article presents a general outline of the building of Yad Vashem Archives collection and the way it became a main repository of the documentation on the Holocaust in the world. Collections of documents regarding the names of the Holocaust victims, Righteous Among the Nations, projects regarding collections of documents on the Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust are important elements enriching our knowledge on the Holocaust and its human aspects. New technologies allow the Yad Vashem team to develop new projects, building databases and give the wide public access to those databases and documents through the internet.