EHRI-CZ Seminar | Databases of the Persecuted | New Perspectives on Holocaust Research, Education, and Commemoration

The two-day EHRI-CZ seminar focused on assessing the current state of, and critically reflecting on, the documentation of the names and fates of people who were persecuted during the Holocaust in the Czech lands and Central and Eastern Europe.

Date: December 4-5, 2024

Venue: The National Archives, Archivní 2257/4, Prague 4

The workshop was part of the Czech EHRI node’s long-term effort to rethink priorities and develop new approaches to databases of historical actors. One of the main topics discussed was the introduction of the Arolsen Archives database, which is newly accessible from the National Archives. During the hands-on session, archive staff guided workshop participants through search options and the practical use of the digitized collections.

The event was organized by the Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the CAS in cooperation with the National Archives. Workshop participants attended presentations on new digital approaches, regional research perspectives, and transnational databases of victims, among other topics. The presentations were concluded by a discussion on the further development and application of data, in the broader context of research on the Holocaust, genocides, and forced migration.

Programme

Wednesday, 4 December 2024:

9:30 - 10:00: Registration of participants
10:00 - 10:15: Introduction

– Milan Vojáček (National Archives) – Martin Klečacký (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
10:15 - 10:30: Objectives of the workshop, European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, EHRI-CZ

– Michal Frankl (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
10:30 – 12:30: Arolsen Archives for the first time in the Czech Republic – Chair: Martin Klečacký (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

– Giora Zwilling (Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen) - introduction, history, database structure, collections, and data on the Czech Lands

– Aneta Plzáková (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences) - Czech context, comparing data from the databases of victims

– Jan Kouřimský, Monika Václavíková (National Archives) – NA perspective, excerpts from archival collections copied from the AA
12:30 –13:15: Testing the Arolsen Archives database (“Hands on session“) – 1st group (NA lecture hall) + 2nd group (SOA lecture hall)
13:15 – 14:00: Testing the Arolsen Archives database (“Hands on session“) – 3rd group (NA lecture hall) + 4th group (SOA lecture hall)
12:30 – 14:00: Lunch
14:00 – 15:30: Regional Perspectives – Chair: Eva Janáčová (Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

– Táňa Klementová (Mehrin – Moravian Jewish Museum): Digital archives and databases as a key to the history of the Holocaust in Moravia

– Kateřina Portmann (Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education of the Technical University of Liberec): “Loss of memory.” Identity of Holocaust victims from Liberec

– Ivana Cahová (Faculty of Art of the Palacký University in Olomouc): (In)visible Jews. Documentation and geospatial visualization of Jewish history in Olomouc
15:30 – 15:55: Coffee break
15:55 – 17:30: New Digital Approaches – Chair: Karin Roginer Hofmeister (Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics,Charles University)

– Jan Hron, Aneta Plzáková (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences): EHRI-CZ Portal

– Maria Dermentzi (Digital Humanities Consultant): From Records to Recognition: Entity Linking for Holocaust Victim Identification in Archival Records

– Giora Zwilling (Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen): Al indexing and its usage

Thursday, 5 December 2024:

9:00 – 10:00: Databases of Victims Transnationally - Chair: Michal Frankl (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

– Wolfgang Schellenbacher (Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, Vienna)

– Johannes Meerwald (Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich)

– Tomáš Fedorovič (Terezín Memorial)
10:00 – 10:25 Coffee break
10:25 – 11:55: – Chair: Magdalena Sedlická (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

– Petr Matějček (National Pedagogical Museum and Library of J.A. Comenius): Children’s card files. Introducing the archival materials stored in the Archive of Přemysl Pitter and Olga Fierzová as a source of Holocaust research

– Branislav Dorko (Regional Archives in Opava): Fonds from the Nazi regime period stored in the SOkA Bruntal located in Krnov

– Zdeněk Kravar (Regional Archives in Opava): Archival materials on the confiscation of Jewish property in the fonds of the Regional Archives in Opava

– Martin Štindl (Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno): Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust from Velké Meziříčí
11:55 - 12:40: EHRI-CZ in the National Archives – Chair: Kateřina Portmann (Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education of the Technical University of Liberec)

– Monika Václavíková (National Archives): Descriptions of the archival fonds in EHRI

– Jan Kouřimský and Naděžda Kruglová (National Archives): Database of survivors of the mass deportations from Prague

– Zdeňka Kokošková (National Archives): Digital edition of the periodic reports of SD’s controlling section in Prague
12:40: Lunch