JewishGen, Inc.
12 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1100
Houston, Texas 77046
Fax: (713) 522-7599

BACKGROUND:

In the evening hours of November 10, 1938, the world heard the shattering of glass throughout Germany. And with it, "Kristallnacht" as it is known today, left millions of lives in shambles.

On November 10, 1997, JewishGen launched its lastest endeavor, an effort to pick up the remaining pieces left from that horror of 59 years ago.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Susan E. King (susan.king@jewishgen.org) (713) 522-7599 (FAX)
Kathy Altman (kaltman@jewishgen.org)

JewishGen, Inc., the leading Internet site for Jewish genealogy, announces the opening of the Holocaust Global Registry, an interactive searchable database accessible worldwide at http://www.jewishgen.org.

The JewishGen Holocaust Global Registry provides a central place for all survivors to list themselves and to search for, and connect with, family and friends. Child survivors who do not even remember their surnames may enter whatever information they have in the hope of discovering their roots. Anyone may add names or search for lost ones who might still be alive. This Registry will fill an information gap that has persisted far too long.

The Holocaust took the lives of six and a half million Jews. After more than a half century survivors are still searching and occasionally finding each other or locating friends and relatives, often by chance. Others lack the physical and emotional strength to pursue the search especially since the odds for success have been poor. Thousands of Jewish children were saved and later adopted. They were given new names and often a new religion. As adults, many of them are still unaware of their true identity and Jewish heritage.

On the heels of the JewishGen Family Finder which, in one short year has experienced phenomenal growth, receiving submissions from over 4000 individuals worldwide resulting in numerous success stories, the Holocaust Global Registry could easily mirror this success. The hope is to reunite people separated more than half a century ago. Over the years, JewishGen has already facilitated many family connections. The Holocaust Global Registry, using the widely accessible tools of modern communication, could succeed where nothing else has.

While the names of the victims and oral testimonies have been collected, the one thing which has been overlooked is a worldwide mechanism for helping people reconnect with loved ones. Until now there has not been a central place to maintain the data on the Holocaust survivors living around the world. Without such a tool, searching has been extremely difficult, costly and relatively unproductive.

JewishGen recognizes that connecting the living is a high priority task, and long overdue. It is now a race against time. What good would it be if such a task were completed by historians in another fifty years when all survivors were long gone?

During the past few years, sporadic reports of joyous reunions of survivors have surfaced. The JewishGen Holocaust Global Registry was created in the hopes of significantly increasing the frequency of these reunions.

JewishGen, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporaton. The JewishGen website averages nearly 1,000,000 hits a month. Tens of thousands now utilize the internet services of JewishGen, spanning all continents.

For more information: http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen/factsheet.htm

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