After our conversation about the Holocaust and Holocaust related archives I decided to do some investigation. Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as I was saying last week actively collects information on Jewish towns in Eastern Europe. The have a central database of names of those who died in the Holocaust. The database has both a basic search and an advanced search function. There is also a way to add names with instructions and a user guide for search the database. Here is a sample record from the database:
http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_2KE/.cmd/acd/.ar/sa.portlet.VictimDetailsSubmitAction/.c/6_0_1L5/.ce/7_0_2KI/.p/5_0_2E6?victim_details_id=3772885&victim_details_name=Ackermann+Franziska&q1=f%2F2RcOJJBB4%3D&q2=l1P2RDClIqOMiTH1IF9G0nRAYde22qgY98e%2FQwYaMiw%3D&q3=w7P%2FS52L01M%3D&q4=w7P%2FS52L01M%3D&q5=4cM1ueY0IEc%3D&q6=IuucU5Fj1rE%3D&q7=2jck5XaI%2B7yJ8KvGDkAKFsyatHmP38xa&frm1_npage=1
You can see that the record is also tagged with links to other records. For example, this woman was in a camp called ‘THERESIENSTADT’ and if you click on the tag, you are linked to infomation about the camp. I suggest looking around on the database it was interesting to see how everything was oganized and classified. One thing I wanted to mention was how the archive almost depends on user contribution and welcomes it. There is a place for corrections about the botttom of the page. The other thing I wante to mention was this is the type of archive that would greatly benefit from FOAF relationships as the records are people.
There is also a photo archive on the site which has a basic or advanced search. I searched the subject ‘women’ and came up with quite a few results. I clicked on one of the records and looked at the record. The museum has linked a Google map with a geo reference of the place the photo was taken. They also use related terms to link the photo to other subject headings. Here is a link to the record I looked at: http://www6.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os_hAEws_NzcPIwML_zA3AyOvQBcLH8cQQwMLU6B8JJK8gaG_OUje3yzQzMLQwN2IgO5wkH24VbgboMljMR8kb4ADOBro-3nk56bqR-pHmeO0xdtMPywvvygX6NsQ_Ugn_YLcCIPMgIxMAGCHxM0!/dl2/d1/L0lDU0lKSmhtS2FZIS9JSFNBQ0lpTXlDSkF5SW9rRElodUpBeUFZWTRCL1lBNDU0NTAtNUZ5dHdBISEvN19RNDhORkZIMjA4T1ZGMDJKUUQ4TEFUMTBLNi9hb19fXzI1L2RldGFpbA!!/