This year, Yad Vashem and Google announced a partnership that will help preserve and ensure access to the world's largest historical collection on the Holocaust. Yad Vashem, which can be translated to “Holocaust Martyrs”, is Israel's official memorial museum dedicated to victims of the Holocaust.

 

Google has used experimental new optical character recognition (OCR) technology in the project, making previous difficult to locate documents searchable and discoverable online. “We're focused on finding new and innovative ways to make the enormous amount of data in our archives, accessible and searchable to a global audience,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem.

 

The Yad Vashem archive is based in Jerusalem and is devoted to the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust. Under the new partnership its gigantic photo collection will be made more accessible and will allow people around the world to search through its ranks, finding family members, identifying their stories or simply learning out of general interest.

 

There are now 130 000 photos from the archive available online and in full resolution, the first step in migrating the vast archive to the internet.

 

“Google is an integral partner in our mission, as they help us to reach new audiences, including young people around the world, enabling them to be active in the discussion about the Holocaust,” he continued.

 

“For some time, Google has been working to bring the world’s historical and cultural heritage online. The Internet offers a great opportunity to preserve and share important materials stored in archives,” said Yossi Matias, director of Google’s R&D centre in Israel. “We’re pleased to be able to work with the world’s foremost Holocaust archive on this project.”

 

The partnership forms part of an ongoing collaboration between Google and Yad Vashem, with a YouTube channel showcasing videos of Holocaust survivor testimonials launched two years ago.