Collection: Yahad - In Unum Archives and Interactive Map of Execution Sites of Jewish Holocaust Victims

In the Ukraine, Yahad recorded more than 1,800 eyewitness-testimonies of mass shootings of Jewish victims and identified more than 700 execution sites.

Different resources and tools within Yahad - In Unum's database can help genealogists in their research for information regarding their town.

1. Yahad - In Unum archives

In the Yahad - In Unum archives, one can find information not only about the mass shootings of Jews, but also about Jewish life before the war in the towns and villages of the Ukraine, as well as the fate of specific Jewish inhabitants murdered in theses villages and towns.

Yahad - In Unum archives include:

- Videos of eyewitness testimonies of mass shootings of Jews during the Holocaust
- Contemporary photographs of the villages, towns, and sites of execution, ghetto locations, camps of forced labor, synagogues, cemeteries...
- Archival photographs of the town/village and their Jewish inhabitants
- Archives of the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission. These are inquiries led by Soviet authorities between 1943 and 1946, after the liberation of the towns and villages about what had happened during the occupation (not only for the Jewish population). These archives are available for consultation at Yahad - In Unum's research center in Paris.
- The German archives are from the collection of the Bundesarchivs of Ludwisburg. These are files of the trials of perpetrators including interrogation of people on trial as well as the witnesses (Jewish survivors, bystanders and so on). These archives are available for consultation at Yahad - In Unum's research center in Paris.

Video testimonies can be made available online upon request through the page of the town you are interested in, at Yahad Interactive map

Photos and short video clips of testimonies are available online at Yahad - In Unum interactive map

Others archives are available for consultation at Yahad's research center in Paris. For more information, please contact Patrice Bensimon

2. Yahad - In Unum Interactive Map

The Yahad - In Unum Interactive Map indicates the sites of mass execution sites located by Yahad research teams at which the Nazis and their allies murdered Jews in towns and villages throughout Eastern Europe. Each site includes a link to a brief village profile and to research findings for each location.

One can get access to each village where Yahad - In Unum investigated. There 2 ways to find a specific village: 1/ click on the map directly on the village you are interested in if you know where it is located; 2/ enter the name of the village in the line called 'village' in the column on the left.

Users have also the possibility to launch a search by country, scrolling through the section 'country' in the column on the left of the map. Selecting a country, all the villages investigated by Yahad - In Unum in the selected country will appear on the map.

Users can also make search with other criteria than geographical. For that, users must write any word (for example: 'gas van', 'synagogue', 'rabbi'...) and all the occurrences of the selected word published on the interactive map will be listed.

Each village has a dedicated page containing various information including:

1. Archival pictures of the town/village and their Jewish inhabitants
2. Contemporary photos of witnesses, of various places (execution sites, ghetto location, synagogues, camps location...)
3. Number of video testimonies recorded in the village in question
4. Short video clips of witness testimony
5. Written excerpt of testimony
6. If available, an excerpt of German archives with the reference of the archives. The German archives are from the collection of the Bundesarchivs of Ludwisburg. It is files of trials of perpetrators including interrogation of sued persons, interrogations of witnesses (Jewish survivors, bystanders and so on). These archives are available for consultation in Yahad - In Unum research Center in Paris.
7. If available, an excerpt of Soviet archives with the reference of the archives. The Soviet archives are from the collection of the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission. It is inquiries lead by Soviet authorities between 1943 and 1946 after the liberation of the towns and villages about what happened (not only for the Jewish population) during the occupation. These archives are available for consultation in Yahad - In Unum research Center in Paris.

Users must be aware that not all of the sites identified and not all of the villages investigated are published for the moment. Village profiles are being added incrementally each month as information is prepared and new sites are identified.