Toward a Central Database of Evacuated Soviet Jews' Names, for the Study of the Holocaust in the Occupied Soviet Territories

Abstract

Previously unknown data from central Russian archives show that Soviet, post-Soviet, and Western historians have substantially overestimated the number of Soviet citizens evacuated in 1941 and 1942. This research note advocates a central database of evacuated Soviet Jews' names, including social and demographic information on each. The author suggests as its basis name lists and card catalogues from central and regional archives in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other republics of the former USSR, as well as from the Tracing and Information Center of the Russian Red Cross. The database would afford more precise information on the numbers of refugees from, and victims of, the Holocaust in the occupied Soviet territories, improve possibilities for the sociological and demographic study of both groups, and help ascertain heretofore unknown names of Soviet Jews martyred by the Nazis and their allies. The database would serve such pragmatic purposes as genealogical research and compensation cases of the Claims Conference.