Introduction to Primary Sources on the Holocaust |
Memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories are very useful primary sources when researching the Holocaust. You can find these personal narratives using library catalogs such as WorldCat, but be careful not to narrow your search too much. Books are given subject headings that briefly describe the topics covered in them, but books will invariably cover many other topics as well. Using a book's index might be helpful, but even if you do find a topic listed in the book's index, that topic is very likely to show up on many more pages than are listed in that index. The only way to be sure you've gleaned everything you can use from a book is to read it cover to cover!
One goal of these library sessions is to train you to be thorough in your searching for primary sources.
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Research Session September 3: WorldCat (Primary vs. secondary sources)
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Published primary sources can be located using library catalogs (databases), but there are various pitfalls you will encounter when using these databases. Just as an index to a book can't possibly tell you all the topics covered in it, an entry in a library database can't possibly tell you what is really covered in a book! If you search by typing narrow search terms into the database search screen, you will miss most of what's out there on your topic. Rather, you must search broadly, be patient while looking down the list of results, and be vigilant in looking for the clues that can alert you to primary sources. In other words, you have the think creatively to uncover the pieces to the puzzle you are putting together when you do history research.
The work of historians is published in books and journal articles. WorldCat and WorldCat Local can be used to find books, and Historical Abstracts can be used to find artices from history journals.
WHAT WE ARE DOING IN THIS SESSION AND WHY:Today we will use WorldCat to identify primary sources on the Holocaust. You will learn how to search for English translations of personal narratives in German and other languages. You will learn the subject headings that the databases use to label a book a primary source, a technique for distinguishing between a biography and an autobiography, and searching hints. We'll also use WorldCat and Historical Abstracts to find articles and books by historians.
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Research Tools:
WorldCat
Examples |
| Research Session September 8 TURABIAN Practice *** |
| Historians follow the conventions of The Chicago Manual of Style and its companion volume, Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations. We will practice writing footnotes and bibliography entries for some of the more difficult types of sources, such as essays in collections, interviews, diary entries, and letters. |
Turabian Notes
Chicago Manual of Style |
| Research Session September 15: Online Primary Sources * |
General Web Sites:
General Web Sites:
EuroDocs--Holocaust
http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Shoah_(Holocaust)
Yad Vashem Shoah Research Center
http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/Odot/prog/index
_before_change_table.asp
Primary Documents relating to the Holocaust
http://www.teacheroz.com/holocaust.htm
German and French Diplomatic Documents, 1938-1939
www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/fyb-preface.html
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
www.ushmm.org/education/
Center for Holocaust Studies
www.aish.com/holocaust/default.asp
Holocaust Chronicle
www.holocaustchronicle.org
A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Documents
http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/document/document.htm
Spartacus Educational
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERholocaust.htm
The Nizkor Project
http://nizkor.org/
I Survived
http://www.isurvived.org/home.html
Stories of Holocaust Survivors
http://www.kimel.net/stories.html
Voices of the Holocaust
voices.iit.edu
USC Shoah Foundation Institute Testimonies
http://college.usc.edu/vhi/otv/otv.php
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Focused Wed Sites:
Nazi and East German Propaganda
www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa
Bund Deutscher Maedel (the League of German Girls)
www.dbmhistory.com
Primary Documents on Hitler
http://www.teacheroz.com/hitler.htm
German Armed Forces during World War II
http://www.feldgrau.com/
Kindertransport
www.kindertransport.org/
Hitler's Christianity
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
Hitler's Speeches
www.hitler.org/speeches/
America and the Holocaust
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/ reference/primary/index.html
Nuremberg Trials
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/
nuremberg/nuremberg.htm
OSS Papers
www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text
Auschwitz
http://www.auschwitz.dk/
Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/
Dachau
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/dachau.htm |
Research Tools:
GOOGLE
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Research Session September 22:
Finding Newspaper and Magazine Articles from 1940-1949 * ; Research on Kristallnacht
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Newspaper and magazine articles can be extremely important primary sources. Following an event from the beginning by reading daily newspaper articles is a good way to get a sense of the uncertainty and confusion surrounding an event. It is also a good way to see how the event is reported in different types of publications across the world. The newspaper articles that are easiest to find are from the New York Times, because here at Milne Library we have the entire run of the NYT newspapers on microfilm. Additionally, we have two research tools called the New York Times Index and the New York Times Article Archive, which can be used to find out what articles appeared on what dates. We also have the London Times on microfilm, as well an as index to it called Palmer's. For other newspapers, especially English translations of German newspapers, we must rely on reprints collected in book form. These may be identified through WorldCat. We can get newspapers on microfilm via the IDS system.
Milne Library has many popular magazines from Holocaust era that had interviews with the those involved in the Holocaust. To search all these publications together, you can use the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. In today's session, you will look through indexes to the New York Times newspaper for years between 1935 and 1945, looking for articles on assigned topics. You will also will look through the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature for articles published in popular American magazines between the years of 1935 and 1945.
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Research Tools:
Readers' Guide Retrospective
New York Times Article Archive
New York Times Index
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