The Steering Committee for the International Shoah Archivists Working Forum met for the first time at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC) in Paris on December 11, 2003 . Present were Dr. Yaacov Lozowick, Director of the Archives, Yad Vashem; Dr. Radu Ioanid, Director, International Archival Programs, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Mr. Jacques Fredj, Director, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine; Dr. Tuvia Friling, State Archivist of Israel and professor at Ben-Gurion University; and Dr. Richard Breitman, professor at American University and Editor of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies .. Present from the Claims Conference were Mr. Greg Schneider, Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Wesley Fisher, Director of Research; and Ms. Suzanne Leon, Senior Program Associate, Allocations. Dr. Dominique Trimbur, Dr. Annette Wieviorka, and Mr. David Amar of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah also attended as observers.

The Steering Committee for the most part reached consensus regarding goals for the future and procedures for attaining these goals. This consensus will be presented at the First International Shoah Archivists Working Forum to be held March 23-25, 2004 in New York City with the participation of major institutions that specifically collect Holocaust-related materials. It is anticipated that future meetings will include many other archives small and large, including such originating archives as the Bundesarchiv, the National Archives and Records Administration, and other national archives. Future meetings may also focus on specific topics such as photographic archives and oral histories.

Main Conclusions of Steering Committee Meeting Held December 11, 2003

The members of the Steering Committee discussed ways to ensure the preservation of, and accessibility to, the archival documentation of the Holocaust for posterity. They further discussed specific ways in which international cooperation should be fostered among the various archival repositories, in particular those repositories collecting Holocaust materials that are funded or may wish to be funded by the Claims Conference.

Although just a few years ago it was unrealistic to consider making everything concerning the Shoah available on the Internet along with a search engine to locate specific documents, this is no longer the case. Technological advances and a lowering of costs now make it possible to digitize the archives of the Shoah. In this regard, it is notable that the State Archives of Israel is moving to digitize its holdings and make all unclassified material available over the Internet.

Microfilming and digitization

The members of the Steering Committee emphasized that digitization needs to be viewed separately from the question of placement of archival documents on the Internet. The preferred method for both preservation and for access is to microfilm and then to digitize materials from the microfilm or to microfilm and digitize simultaneously, and to do so in accordance with the standards set by the International Council on Archives (ICA).

It is not possible to rely on microfilming and digitization being done in every archive of whatever sort throughout the world, and therefore Shoah-related specialized institutions have the responsibility to microfilm and digitize the documentation of the Holocaust in accordance with professional standards.

The distribution of microfilm copies on more than one continent helps preserve the documentation of the Shoah. Digitization is also a means of preservation, and it potentially can provide greater access to the documentation. Indeed, with the ability now to scan a million microfilmed pages in the course of a month or less, there is a revolution in regard to access to documents, a revolution that will permit researchers to study the Shoah on the micro-level.

Digitization in addition to microfilming is already possible in more advanced countries but may be more difficult in less advanced ones. In addition, not all institutions in a given country may have the necessary server capacity to maintain the resulting digital files. In this regard it was noted that the Claims Conference has recently created a Digital Encoding Center at Yad Vashem for the use of Holocaust-related institutions throughout Israel .

It was deemed useful to create a list of original archival materials in need of conservation.

Cataloguing

The members of the Steering Committee emphasized greatly the importance of international cooperation in cataloguing the documentation of the Shoah. Cataloguing is crucial both to researchers' ability to use materials and to knowing what has and has not been acquired around the world.

While it is not possible to establish a universal catalogue at this time, it is possible to establish minimum standards for cataloguing. It was felt that the emphasis in international cooperation at the moment should be more on creating good cataloguing rather than indexing or thesaurus construction. It is useful for the various Holocaust-related archives to talk to one another, perhaps through an ongoing meeting of principal cataloguers and a listserv. Certainly the main institutions should coordinate their cataloguing as much as possible. All organizations should be encouraged to follow guidelines resulting from such dialogue and coordination.

Once documentation is digitized, it becomes easier to use existing tools such as OCR. Although a universal catalogue is not envisioned, with coordination of the catalogues of the main institutions, catalogues should eventually be able to “talk” to each other. There is in this field a major problem of language, of which major languages to use.

The consensus was that there is now a need to invest money in cataloguing.

Acquisitions

The members of the Steering Committee felt that it is useful to know what materials have already been acquired and that it is certainly useful for the Claims Conference and other funding organizations to know what has been done thus far so as to make efficient use of available monies. Development of cataloguing will be useful in this regard. A central list of microfilming and other acquisition projects already completed can be created and distributed widely. In part reports already prepared for the Claims Conference and other bodies can be used for this purpose.

There was concern, however, that future plans for acquisitions not be made so generally known as to complicate their implementation or to impede serendipity in taking advantage of opportunities as they appear.

Accessibility and the Internet

The members of the Steering Committee were in agreement over the general desirability of making the documentation of the Shoah accessible, but there were differences of opinion as to how and when this should be done. In regard to use of the Internet, privacy considerations in Europe and elsewhere make it difficult to present complete catalogues over the Internet due to personal files among holdings, let alone presentation of the documents themselves. Some repositories are concerned about the possible misuse of scanned documentation. At the same time, other repositories would prefer to make their holdings available over the Internet rather than provide microfilm copies extensively.

In the long run, it is desirable to put the documentation of the Holocaust on the Internet, since the Internet maximizes accessibility. Scanning archival documents and placing them on the Internet also helps to preserve them. The State Archives of Israel now negotiates with the originating archive/country for use on the Internet at the moment the microfilming/digitization contract is signed.

In cases where it may be desirable to create a country-specific copy archive to give researchers in a given country better access to relevant Shoah documentation, it is preferable and easier to do this through the Internet. For example, the recently formed historical commission on the Holocaust in Romania may wish to consider the creation of a website providing archival documentation as a way to develop research and education in that country. Such use of the Internet necessitates cataloguing of the material

Grant contracts from funding agencies for microfilming or other acquisition projects should stipulate that there will be open access to materials through the Internet or otherwise.

In general, the members of the Steering Committee felt that professional standards should be maintained. If an institution is unable to carry out its responsibilities (e.g., preservation, cataloguing, placement on the Internet), it should cooperate with those institutions that are capable of doing so, and the Claims Conference and other funding agencies should assist with such cooperation.