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Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies

Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies @ The Evelyn S. Field Library

With a mission of promoting tolerance, combating bigotry, educating the community, and evoking remembrance, the Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies has been serving educators, students, and the community since 1981.

The Morris and Dorothy Hirsch Research Library of The Holocaust, Genocide, and Racism is located on the second floor of the Evelyn S. Field Library at Raritan Valley Community College. Established in 1999, the library offers a place for quiet study and reflection. Teaching materials, reference materials, a multi-media collection, and wifi are available. This Resource Room serves as an instructional center for classes, workshops, lectures, traveling exhibits, and presentations.

The mission of The Morris and Dorothy Hirsch Research Library of the Holocaust, Genocide, & Racism, an integral and active component of the Evelyn S. Field Library, is to empower students and community members through vital resources made available in our collection of materials and programming.

More information on IHGS can be found on their page of the RVCC website: https://www.raritanval.edu/community-resources/holocaust-institute

Morris & Dorothy Hirsch Research Library of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Racism Collections

The Institute's Morris and Dorothy Hirsch Research Collection features several subcollections, divided by format or audience. Each link below will launch a search in the library catalog for that collection, which you can browse through. To search within the collection, go to Advanced Search, change the second Search Index dropdown menu to also say Keyword, and type your search terms.

Also in the IHGS Center are book displays located on the tops of the shelves:

IHGS Display - this display changes to shine a spotlight on certain subjects
IHGS New Book Display - new additions to the collection are available here

Online Library Resources

The Evelyn S. Field has many digital resources that, while not part of the official Hirsch Collection, are relevant to the topics of the Holocaust, genocide, and racism.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies Journal
Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this is the premier forum for work on the extensive body of literature and documentation on the Holocaust and genocide. It features essays and reviews that cut across the disciplines of history, literature, economics, religious studies, anthropology, political science, sociology, and others. HGS is the only publication to address the related study of how insights into the Holocaust apply to other genocides.

Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library This link opens in a new window
Testaments to the Holocaust is the online publication of the archives of the Wiener Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party.
It contains documentary evidence collected in several different programmes: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of ‘educational’ children’s’ books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included. 75% of the content is written in German.

Internet Resources

Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context
Learn about the Holocaust from selected primary sources with historical context in this free online resource from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Testimonies of Roma and Sinti
A database of firsthand accounts of the Holocaust by Roma and Sinti individuals from the Czech Lands and Slovakia. Abstracts for some testimonies are available on this page; all have information about where the full text can be found.