February 19, 2008
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research New York, NY United States Dear Friends, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) is establishing a Worldwide Shoah Memoirs Collection in electronic form of previously unpublished or unavailable memoirs written by survivors of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is serving as Honorary Chairman for this program. Joining in this effort are Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the M?morial de la Shoah/Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, the Jewish Historical Institute and the Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Project. At this time, we are concentrating on the urgent collection of unpublished manuscripts in electronic form. Our concern is for previously unpublished or unavailable memoirs to be identified, preserved, and made available for future generations who will not be able to meet survivors first-hand. Simply put, time is running out and this is our last chance to collect as many Holocaust survivor written testimonies as possible. Documents in this electronic collection will be made available to appropriate organizations and individuals to assist them in their critical work of research and documentation of the Shoah. Ways in which memoirs may be made publicly accessible, after appropriate review, are under discussion. In order to achieve a truly international appeal to authors, their families, and rights-holders to submit manuscripts, we are asking for relevant organizations in all countries to join us in this effort. We need your help. We are requesting that you join us in this historic initiative. We are asking you to encourage all survivors and their families to submit their manuscripts. Your role would be to disseminate information about the program in any way you feel appropriate, for example, your website, newsletter, mailings to your membership, signs, discussions at meetings and gatherings, etc. We would like to be able to list your organization as one associated with us for this appeal. We do not anticipate that this will involve significant additional work on your part, although it is possible that some authors or their families may contact you regarding the project. Any specific inquiry can be directed toward our staff. This effort will be launched with multiple press conferences on April 15, 2008. Additional information about this initiative can be found at http://Memoirs.claimscon.org. It is our hope that you will join us in what we believe will be a truly worldwide last major effort in regard to memoirs dedicated to Holocaust knowledge and memory. We look forward to your response. Sincerely, To be listed as an Associate Organization of the Worldwide Shoah Memoirs Collection, please respond with the following information by March 15, 2008, preferably by email. Name and address of organization (The name will be listed exactly as it appears here. Please mark any changes.) Name of contact person As your organization will be listed in the Worldwide Shoah Memoirs Collection website, please indicate your organization's web address if you would like us to link to your site Your email address Send your response to: Stella Breckenridge Memoirs Outreach Coordinator Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +1-646-485-2130 Fax: +1-212-685-5299 Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
