The gates of hell

September 29, 5:34 PMGenealogy ExaminerSusan E King

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Entrance to Auschwitz, one of many death camps.
The sign reads: "Work will make you free".
Courtesy Footnote.com
 

As a genealogist by trade, born into a Jewish family, there is no question that the Holocaust has been a topic of great interest for many years.

In fact, 23 years of this ones life has been dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust and facilitating connections of families separated during one of the darkest periods in our worlds recent history.

There is no wonder why these gates have become symbolic of hell for some despite the face that Auschwitz was just one of many death camps.

Today, The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Footnote.com announced the release of the Internet's largest Interactive Holocaust Collection to date. For the first time ever, over one million Holocaust-related records, including millions of names and 26,000 photos from the National Archives will be available on-line at http://www.footnote.com/holocaust.

"These pages tell a personal story that is not included in the history textbooks," said Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. "They give visitors a first-hand glimpse into the tragic events of the Holocaust and allow users to engage with content such as maps, photos, time-lines and personal accounts of victims and survivors through over 1 million documents."

Included among the National Archives records available on line at Footnote.com are:

•  Concentration camp registers and documents from Dachau, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, and Flossenburg.
• The "Ardelia Hall Collection" of records relating to the Nazi looting of Jewish possessions, including looted art.
• Captured German records including deportation and death lists from concentration camps.
• Nuremberg War Crimes Trial proceedings.   

Access to the collection will be available for free on Footnote.com through the month of October.

The collection also includes nearly 600 interactive personal accounts of those who survived or perished in the Holocaust provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The project incorporates social networking tools that enable visitors to search for names and add photos, comments and stories, share their insights, and create pages to highlight their discoveries.

There will be no charge to access and contribute to these personal pages.

Hidden within the links on this new interactive site is a most compelling quote from one of the most well known victims of these atrocities. It reads...

"..if I look up into the heavens I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too, will end and peace and tranquility will return again." - Anne Frank

There is indeed no textbook to that which Anne speaks.

We need to all look to the heavens and pray that tranquility and peace will reign.

Hats off to NARA and Footnote.com for an important reminder of what evil and ego can do to the people of this world. It is a reminder of what can happen again, if we let it.

Let us insure that neither our names nor our image, nor those of our children and their children end up on such lists for future generations to study. We need peace in our homes, peace in our families, peace in our communities, within our countries and throughout the world.

Surely, one glance at these horrific images, read just one name off these lists and think about how it could have been you or me or someone we love. One could only marvel, looking at some of the Dachau records of how perfect the penmanship was as prisoner's names were entered overwhelmed perhaps by the numerous listings appearing on some of those pages, that read "unbekannter tote". Look it up! Perhaps there is one thing we can all agree on. If this is not compelling enough to turn us all into peacemakers,  perhaps nothing is!

Here's a challenge! Share this with one other person and let's agree to all be co-creators of our world as Dr. Jude Currivan expounds in her book CosMos: A Co-creator's Guide to the Whole World and let's create a peaceful world. That is what Anne Frank wrote about in Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl .  Remembering our past can indeed heal our future.

Next week we will have an opportunity to discuss this new collection and its importance to the world with Justin Schroepfer from Footnote.com. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 11 am Pacific time, BBSRadio.com Station 1, "Where genealogy and spirit connect". We will be taking your calls.

About Footnote.com

Footnote.com is a subscription website that features search able original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About the U.S. National Archives

The National Archives alone is the archives of the Government of the United States, responsible for safeguarding records of all three branches of the Federal Government. The records held by the National Archives belong to the public - and it is the mission of the National Archives to ensure the public can discover, use, and learn from the records of their government.