EU making sure Holocaust never happens again
The Holocaust, the genocide of some 11 million Europeans, including
Jews, Romani and homosexuals, during the Second World War will forever
remain in our minds and history books as one of the most horrific events
of our world. Seeking to get a handle on the dispersed information
available for Holocaust research across Europe and elsewhere is a key
objective of European researchers. Enter the European Holocaust Research
Infrastructure (EHRI) project, whose partners will consolidate existing
Holocaust archives into a single online database. This latest venture
will enable historigraphical progress and collaborative research in one
of the most significant areas of history.
Backed with EUR 7 million in funding from the EU and 20 partner
organisations from 11 EU Member States as well as Israel and Norway, the
EHRI will create a database for researchers, educators and students who
seek to understand the history of modern Europe. It is the first time
that the EU Framework Programme for Research offers financial support to
a large-scale European research infrastructure initiative on Holocaust
archives.
Various Holocaust material, such as documents, objects, photos, film
and art, will be made available to the public. 'This joint effort of
highly respected institutes worldwide, is about giving access to
archives and connecting collections,' explained EHRI Director Dr Conny
Kristel. 'In this way, many more researchers but also the public at
large, will profit from and contribute a higher level of Holocaust
knowledge and awareness.
One of the key objectives of the project is to stimulate and
facilitate research into areas of the Holocaust that are not yet known,
with particular focus given to eastern Europe. The project will also
contribute to efforts made by the relatives of Holocaust victims who
seek to trace information on them.
Speaking at the launch of the EHRI in Brussels, Belgium on 16
November, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire
Geoghegan-Quinn said: 'It is very timely that we are launching the EHRI
initiative in 2010, a year during which the world commemorates the 65th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a potent symbol of the
Holocaust. It is now a little more than 20 years since we witnessed the
reunification of Europe, and with this, the opening up of many archives
in the countries of central and eastern Europe.'
It is important that the EHRI ensure that the proof of the Holocaust
is entrenched in the minds of everyone, young and old, both in Europe
and abroad. 'There are, unfortunately, still some people who, in the
guise of promoting research and debate, question the scale, if not the
very fact of the Holocaust,' the Commissioner underlined. 'Our resolve
that we must never again witness atrocities such as those of the
Holocaust lies at the very heart of the foundation of the EU.'
Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn also recalled how the European
Commission and 46 nations signed in 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic the
'Terezin Declaration on Holocaust-era assets and related issues'. This
declaration is a non-binding set of guiding principles targeting faster
and transparent restitution of art, private and communal property taken
by force or under duress during the Holocaust. It also puts emphasis on
the potential of Holocaust archives for driving research and education
on the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes.
The EHRI is coordinated by NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)
