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🏛️ Shoah Research: Getting Started and Advanced Strategies

Updated: November 2025

Are you embarking on Shoah (Holocaust) research? Would you like a little coaching in this area of research? This guide expands upon foundational principles and integrates the most critical online databases and research strategies for tracing victims and survivors of Nazi persecution, ensuring no material is reduced.

Jewish Family eviction from their home on Wilhelm Straße in Elbing

Jewish Family eviction from their home on Wilhelm Straße in Elbing

Part 1: Over-Arching Principles and Research Mindset

The following principles, derived from extensive genealogical and historical research in this difficult field, should guide your investigation:

  1. Be prepared to learn, a lot! The history is vast, geographically complex, and requires continuous education to understand the context of the records you find.
  2. Do not give up. A lot of data is missing due to the NSDAP (Nazis) efficient destruction of records as part of their goal to eradicate Jews, as well as homosexuals, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other targeted groups.
  3. Each search is difficult, challenging, and filled with sadness. Try not to be overwhelmed and remember the ethical and moral imperative of this work.
  4. Do not limit yourself to searching in English. Many non-English records are available in German, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, etc. You never know who wrote what and where you might find something useful.
  5. Recognize that much data will be imprecise and even contradictory; such is the nature of first or second person accounts and remembrances, compounded by trauma, forced displacement, and the rapid, disorganized nature of record-keeping in camps and ghettos.
  6. Be aware that any picture you develop will have many ‘holes’. Do not expect to find a complete picture of the data. You will need to use your best analysis and logic to try to connect the dots. Think of it as a puzzle with many missing pieces.
  7. Be ready to read documents written in many languages and scripts (and sometimes all within a single document), including Sütterlin or Kurrent (Old German script).
  8. Do not expect your search to proceed in a linear fashion. You will need to bounce around, follow leads from unexpected sources, and revisit prior assumptions regularly.
  9. You will need to employ almost every trick in the book including: collateral searches (FAN Principle), cluster searches, image searches, reading trial records/statements, memorial searches, and more.
  10. Above all remember to both “follow your heart and use your head”.

Part 2: Advanced Research Strategies

Challenge Strategy & Tool Rationale
Spelling Variants Use the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex (available on JewishGen). Search for multiple phonetic spellings (e.g., Izak, Isaac, Yitzhak). Names were often transcribed phonetically by people of varying linguistic backgrounds (German, Polish, Russian, etc.).
Geographic Fluidity Use JewishGen’s Town Finder (KehilaLinks). Search for the town under its German, Polish, or other historical name. Towns often changed names and administrative control before, during, and after the war (e.g., Lódź was renamed Litzmannstadt).
Maiden Names Prioritize searching for a woman's maiden name, especially in pre-war and deportation records. Married names may not appear on key records from the persecution period, which often required original birth documents.

❖ The FAN Principle (Friends, Associates, Neighbors)

When records for an individual are sparse, search for the people connected to them:

  • Neighbors/Street: Search for other families who lived on the same street (e.g., Wilhelm Straße in Elbing). They may have been deported on the same transport or appear in the same ghetto census.
  • Witnesses: Look up who submitted a Page of Testimony (Yad Vashem) for your relative. The witness is often a close family member or friend who survived and can provide additional clues.
  • The Yizkor Book Connection: Search the Yizkor Books (community memorial books) for your ancestral town. If your family member's name is not listed, search for the names of their neighbors or extended family who were close to them.

Part 3: Essential Online Databases

This work relies heavily on the digitized collections held by major memory institutions. Always start your search in these key locations:

Institution & Database Focus & Content Search Strategy
Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names Search for victims and survivors using multiple criteria. The Pages of Testimony are critical sources, often submitted by immediate family members who survived.
Arolsen Archives (ITS) Online Archive (International Tracing Service) The world's most extensive collection of documents on victims. Contains concentration camp records, transports, forced labor, and post-war Displaced Persons (DP) records.
USHMM Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names Database & ITS Digital Archive The U.S. repository for the Arolsen/ITS Digital Archive records. Use their Collections Search to cross-reference multiple documents types simultaneously.
JewishGen Holocaust Database (100+ Datasets) & Yizkor Books A massive index aggregating lists from smaller archives, ghettos (e.g., Lwów, Krakow), transports, and survivor registries (like the Aufbau Newspaper).

❖ Secondary & Contextual Resources

  • USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945: The authoritative reference work for understanding the operations, locations, and administration of any camp, subcamp, or ghetto mentioned in a document.
  • Archival Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe: Once a town, ghetto, or Kreis (district) is identified, pivot to the national archives of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, etc., to find local civil and Jewish community records.

Credits

Compiled and Expanded by Mark Rabideau (Opa & Professional Genealogist) and Gemini (Google).

Sources