The Holocaust Museum in Israel has released on the internet biographical information on half of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.
The database, at www.yadvashem.org, is partly based on more than two million “pages of testimony” submitted to the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem since 1950 by survivors or family members and friends of Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Information was also gleaned from historical documentation, such as correspondence of Nazi officials and lists of inmates at death camps, Yad Vashem said on the Web site.
“Building the database is a work in progress,” the Web site said, calling the project — which will be formally launched on Monday — a final act of respect.
I got to visit Israel’s Holocaust Museum in 1992 and it was an experience I’ll never forget. Honestly, the one in Washington D.C. doesn’t even compare.