Central Historical Commission

Jewish survivors from Eastern Europe founded the Central Historical Commission in Munich in November 1945 with the aim of documenting the annihilation of Jewry in Europe. Despite their precarious living conditions and their very heterogeneous backgrounds, Jews were encouraged by historians and activists to provide direct witness accounts of events during the Shoah, using questionnaires and interviews.

During World War II and in the years that followed, Jewish survivors throughout Europe endeavored—partly under extreme conditions—to collect documents on the extermination of European Jewry and to make them public. Beginning in November 1945, the Central Historical Commission in Munich and numerous local Historical Commissions collected documents, artifacts, mementos, and visual and audio material.

Those working on the commissions regarded the documentation of the crimes as an obligation to the millions of victims of the Shoah. The collection of documents and reports also aided the conviction of perpetrators.

The Commission’s holdings that where stored in Munich until early 1949, were shipped bit by bit to Israel after the founding of the State, where they were later integrated into the archives of Yad Vashem.