This volume tells the largely unknown story of Holocaust survivors who founded Jewish historical commissions and documentation centers in Europe immediately after World War II.

• Note on Translations and Transliterations


• List of Abbreviations


• Introduction: Early Chroniclers of the Holocaust: Jewish Historical Commissions and Documentation Centers in the Aftermath of the Second World War


• 1. Khurbn-Forshung: History Writing as a Jewish Response to Catastrophe


• 2. Writing French Judaism's "Book of Martyrdom": Holocaust Documentation in Liberated France


• 3. Writing Polish Jewry's "Greatest National Catastrophe": Holocaust Documentation in Communist Poland


• 4. Writing History on Packed Suitcases: Holocaust Documentation in the Jewish Displaced Persons Camps of Germany, Austria, and Italy


• Chapter 5: Joining Forces to Comprehend the Jewish Catastrophe: The Attempt to Establish a European Community of Holocaust Researchers


• Conclusion: History Writing as Reconstruction: The Beginnings of Holocaust Research from the Perspective of Its Victims


• Appendix: Major Participants in the Jewish Historical Commissions and Documentation Centers


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

Laura Jockusch is a Martin Buber Society Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and teaches Holocaust studies at the University of Haifa.