J300: Perpetrators of the Holocaust
Use IUCAT, the IU Libraries online catalog, to find primary sources such as survivor accounts, perpetrator biographies, documentation of trials, and official records of governments involved, as well as secondary sources in the form of scholarly histories of the holocaust, book-length studies of the psychology of violence, etc. (See below for other types of primary and secondary sources). Here are some Library of Congress subject terms that will help:
concentration camps europe Use the format limit to find non-book materials in IUCAT. Select Manuscripts for unpublished written materials, Sound Recordings for audio resources (such as interviews) or Video/Slides, etc for videos and DVDs. To find still images, try limiting your search to the Bloomington Fine Arts Library, and/or adding this subject term to your search: pictorial works
If you don't find enough information in IUCAT, you can also search WorldCat, a database that includes records from most of the libraries in the US--over 52 million items. Use the subject headings and/or keywords that worked best in IUCAT. Most materials in WorldCat can be borrowed from a library that owns them (remember to allow about 2 weeks for materials to arrive). Academic Search is multi-disciplinary. It includes both popular magazines and scholarly journals. Limit your search to “peer reviewed” articles for results from scholarly journals only. Contemporary (Holocaust-era) English-language magazines and newspapers may provide different perspectives, eye-witness accounts, or other useful information.
Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 is an online index to 100+ widely-read American magazines. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the Times Digital Archive, are online archives of these core English-language newspapers. Searching tip: remember that the events we think of now as "front page" may not have attracted much attention initially. Also remember that events, persons and places may have had different names at the time. Web Resources United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - has a huge collection of photographs, documents, taped testimonies, oral histories, etc. Some of this material is available online (including 14,000 photographs); tapes/transcripts can be ordered from the web page. Celestina Wroth
Library Catalogs
If you're researching a specific place or an event with a distinctive name, a Keyword Search should work well. For a personal name, you'll usually want to search it as Subject or Author (depending on whether you want materials about the individual or by him/her).
When searching for a broader topic or concept, use the Advanced Keyword search screen to combine keywords and Library of Congress Subject headings for better results.
germany politics and government 1933-1945 sources
holocaust jewish
holocaust jewish biography
holocaust jewish personal narratives
holocaust jewish juvenile literature
holocaust survivors biography
jews germany history 1933-1945 sources
war crime trials
war criminals germany biography
world war 1939-1945 atrocities
world war 1939-1945 prisoners and prisons german
A note about Government Publications: extensive documentation of the Holocaust, war crimes trials and related topics can be found in the official publications of the US and other governments. You will encounter some of this material in your IUCAT searches, but you should also consult with the Library's Government Publications staff.
Journals, Magazines and Newspapers
Journal article databases help you find scholarly journals on your topic (secondary sources). Some cover journals published during your period (so they may be useful as primary sources as well, depending on your topic).
Historical Abstracts covers scholarly journals in history. Use the Advanced search option: you can limit by time period and language (it includes many non-English language journals) and browse subjects (HA does not use Library of Congress subjects headings, although the vocabulary is similar. Use world war ii, nazism, war crimes, geocide, etc.)
PsycINFO covers the field of psychology, ATLA Religion Database covers religious studies, and Sociological Abstracts covers sociology. All of these may help to provide insights on your topic.
JSTOR is an electronic archive of scholarly journals in many fields, with coverage back to the first issues of each journal. It’s an excellent resource for contemporary studies of your topic (what scholars/intellectuals were writing about events as they unfolded). Periodicals Index Online is similar, except that it is an online index only (JSTOR is a full text archive), it covers thousands of journals, and includes materials in several languages other than English (its companion database, Periodicals Archive Online, has full text of more than 400 journals).
IBZ - Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur is an online index to journal, magazine and newspaper articles in German and other western European languages, back to 1984 online, but also available in print going back to the late 19th century.
Hundreds of other newspapers (including newspapers from Germany and other European countries) are available on microfilm: a good strategy is to use the major papers archived online to determine specific dates, then browse other newspapers on microfilm for those dates.
AP Photo Archive is a picture archive (the photo collection used by the Associated Press).
Holocaust/Shoah - good collection of links to other Holocaust-related web resources
Nuremberg Trials - selection of documents from the trials, but see Nuremberg war crimes trials, on CD in Government Documents (GIMSS), for a more complete and authoritative set of documents
cewroth@indiana.edu
February 9, 2005
updated September 12, 2006
