This site integrates digital maps and digitized documents so that teachers and students can delve more deeply into the subject of the Holocaust.

The maps and documents contain links, and these links lead to sources that help us read Nazi documents “against the grain”– often by confronting these inhumane documents with the voices of the very people, primarily Jews, whom the Nazis marginalized, persecuted, and murdered.

The site also emphasizes persecution and resistance in individual communities as a way to understand the Holocaust more broadly.

Below please find a sample of topics. A live (clickable) image, which turns red when the cursor passes over it, means that the topic is ready for use. Simply click the image to enter into the particular subject. There you will find a brief introduction to the topic, followed by digitized documents and maps, a scholarly commentary, and an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

April 2023: “The Nuremberg Laws,” “The November Pogrom 1938,” “The Jäger Report,” “The Wannsee Protocol,” and “Death Trains” are complete and ready to use.

Site author: Helmut Walser Smith, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History, Vanderbilt University (Contact: Helmut.W.Smith@Vanderbilt.edu)