Useful links
The following links and web resources have been identified as being of particular interest to, or relevance for, researchers using our collections.
ORT records in other archives:
ORT France Archives
Includes records of ORT France, some World ORT records and records relating to ORT activities in North Africa.
Contact Laure Fourtage: laure.fourtage@ort.asso.fr
Tel: +33(0)1 44 17 30 80
The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), now part of the National Library of Israel
Holds a significant collection of World ORT records.
Email address: cahjp@nli.org.il
Tel: +972 (0)2 6586249
Website: http://cahjp.nli.org.il/
YIVO Library & Archives, New York
Holds a significant collection of World ORT, ORT Vilna and American ORT Federation records.
E-mail address: archives@yivo.cjh.org
Tel: +1 212 2466080
Website: http://yivoarchives.org/
Relevant collections include:
World ORT Union, 1923-1955, RG252
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32630&q=%22ORT%22
ORT Society Vilna
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32531&top=1
Guide to the Records of the ORT Jewish Vocational School (Technicum) in Vilna, RG 21
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=23257&q
Israel Okun, Engineer, Director of the ORT Vocational School in Vilna, Poland, 1920s, 1920-1941
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32640&q=%22ORT%22
American ORT Federation, 1922-1960, RG380
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33751&q=%22ORT%22
Jewish Historical Institute Warsaw, Poland
Holds records regarding ORT’s work in post-war Poland.
E-mail: areszka@jhi.pl
Tel: +48 22 827 9221 ext. 124
Website: http://www.jhi.pl/en/inventories
Leo Baeck Institute, New York/Berlin
Holds records of World ORT Union and ORT Germany, as well as records relating to ORT in other countries including Latin America.
Tel: +1 212 7446400 or +1 212 2948340
See in particular:
ORT Collection, 1926-1930
http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1711697&custom_att_2=simple_viewer
William Graetz Collection, 1915-1974. William Graetz was the Chairman of ORT Germany.
http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=401473&custom_att_2=simple_viewer
Information about the Holocaust, the post-war period and the Displaced Persons (DP) camps:
“ORT and the Displaced Person Camps”, World ORT
"Music and the Holocaust", World ORT
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/
"Learning about the Holocaust through Art", World ORT
https://art.holocaust-education.net/
UNRRA and IRO
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was the agency responsible for the DP camps as a whole until 1947, when it was taken over by the International Refugee Organization (IRO). The following link gives information these organisations’ respective archives:
https://search.archives.un.org/international-refugee-organization-iro-9
JDC archives
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/search-the-collections
YIVO Library & Archives, New York
Displaced Persons Camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Records, 1945-1952, RG 294
Records related to the administration of the refugee camps established in the American and British zones of Austria and Germany, and in Italy, shortly after the end of World War II. Material related to cultural, educational, political, and religious life in these camps.
Germany RG294.2: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32678&q=%22ORT%22
Italy RG294.3: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32684&q=%22ORT%22
Wiener Library, London
http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/
Includes document collections on the Nazi era, the Holocaust and related subjects; significant collections relating to the rescue and rehabilitation of Jews in Europe, pre-war antisemitism and the racial and political persecution of victims of Nazism; the International Tracing Service (ITS) digital archive; and refugee family papers. Among these, the Henriques Archive comprises the working papers of Rose Henriques from 1945 to 1950, when she served as head of the Germany Section of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad (JCRA) and led one of the Jewish Relief Units (JRU) into the former concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
Also provides further useful links for research into the Holocaust and Nazi era:
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/survival-and-legacy/survivors-and-dp-era/
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/educational-resources/
The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR)
Provides social, welfare and care services to Jewish victims of Nazi oppression living in Great Britain.
Email address: enquiries@ajr.org.uk
Tel: 020 8385 3070
Website: http://www.ajr.org.uk/
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
World centre for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust.
Includes many resources, including the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names.
Tel: Reference and Information Services +972 (0)2 6443745
Website: http://www.yadvashem.org/
The International Tracing Service (ITS), Bad Arolsen, Germany
Email address: email@its-arolsen.org
Tel: +49 (0)5691 6290
Website: https://www.its-arolsen.org/en/archives/index.html
Kitchener Camp: Refugees in Britain in 1939
http://www.kitchenercamp.co.uk/
Jewish DP Camps and Communities in West Germany
https://www.after-the-shoah.org/
Online photographic collections related to ORT’s work, places and periods of operation:
"People of a Thousand Towns"
YIVO Online Catalog of Photographs of Jewish Life in Prewar Eastern Europe
YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland
http://polishjews.yivoarchives.org/
Includes selected photographs of Jewish life in Poland before World War II from YIVO’s collections:
Roman Vishniac Rediscovered, International Center of Photography (ICP), New York
JDC photographic collections
http://archives.jdc.org/photographs/
Online exhibitions related to ORT’s work and history:
"Educating for Life: ORT in Lithuania", World ORT & the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum
An online version of an exhibition held at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in 2013-14. The exhibition illustrates the day-to-day activities of the trades courses and schools set up by ORT all over Lithuania between the two world wars.
http://ortinlithuania.ort.org/home.htm
"The Hope and the Illusion", World ORT
Chronicles ORT’s role in the little known but historically significant story of the Jewish autonomous regions in Ukraine, Belorussia, the Crimea and Birobidzhan during the period 1921-1938.
http://www.ozet.ort.spb.ru/eng/
"Stalin’s Forgotten Zion: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996", Swarthmore College
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/
General resources for research, education and genealogy:
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/
JewishGen
ANU – Museum of the Jewish People [Beit Hatfutsot]
Hidden Treasures - Celebrating Jewish Archives
A portal that celebrates Jewish archives in Britain and showcases collections from across the UK that tell the story of Jews and their experiences in Britain.
https://celebratingjewisharchives.org/
The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS)
Jewish Records Indexing (JRI) - Poland
Searchable database of indexes to Jewish vital records accessible online.
ORT Alumni Network