Yad Vashem photos going online

By · April 30, 2008

Yad Vashem is putting its photo archive online.

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day Thursday, about 130,000 photos will be uploaded from the Yad Vashem collection, the largest in the world, to the Jerusalem-based Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority Web site.

The images include photos taken in the ghettos and during the deportations, as well as that illustrate slave labor, the camps and liberation.

Users can search the database by topic, name or location. Photos in the database will be linked also to information about its content, and clicking on an image will open a Google map showing the location of the places mentioned in the caption.

“Over the last few years, Yad Vashem has invested significantly in the computerization of its various collections,” said Avner Shalev, the chairman of Yad Vashem. “This will allow the public at large direct and simple access to the vast collection of resources collected by Yad Vashem over the past half century.

“We are hoping that it will increase public awareness of the archives’ tremendous importance, and encourage people who have similar photographs and documents to confer them to Yad Vashem for safekeeping.”