Note: CHGS collections sites are in the process of being updated. For user-related questions, or to report any problems or inaccuracies, please email chgs@umn.edu

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Collection

Welcome to the University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ Collections website. Explore our approximately 7,000 digital and physical records--including artwork, photographs, oral testimonies and interviews, film, music, books, and exhibition materials.

The Center has also created this subject guide that provides a thorough overview of the materials below.  

CHGS Physical Collections

'Arts and Crafts in the Third Reich,' by Fritz HirschbergerOur permanent collections have been exhibited throughout the United States, and allow us to extend the Center's mission beyond the UMN campus and local community. We are happy to partner with relevant organizations on future exhibitions. For more information, contact us by phone at 612-624-9007 or by email

CHGS Physical Collections currently include the following works: 

Oscar Arrendondo - Welcome to Cleveland, Home of the...

Felix De La Concha - Portraying Memories: Portraits and Oral Testimonies of Minnesota-based Holocaust survivors 

David Feinberg - Voice to Vision

Fritz Hirschberger - "The Fifth Horseman" & "The Sur-Rational Holocaust" Collections

Jordan Krimstein - "Choosing One's Way" Watercolors

Lucien Philippe Moretti "Un Sac de Billes" (A Bag of Marbles) Lithographs 

Betty Mittleman - Mixed Media Works

Maxine Rude - UNRRA Photographs and Other Photojournalism 

CHGS Book and Video Library

The Book and Video Library is located in the Social Sciences Building on the University of Minnesota (West Bank) campus. The library is available for browsing (both online and in-person). To request a time to use the library, please contact us as chgs@umn.edu. 

 

CHGS Digital Collections

Painting by David Friedmann

A collection that includes the Feinstein Digital Gallery (artwork made in response to the Holocaust, other genocides, and mass violence--only available digitally), as well as photographic materials, numismatic and philatelic artifacts, and photograph series of genocide memorials

  

CHGS Past Exhibitions

Piece from the Coexistence Exhibition

Digital records (including images, artworks, and other materials) from past CHGS exhibitions, including Witness & Legacy, Absence/Presence, Coexistence

 

 

Subject-Specific Collections:

Minnesota and the Holocaust: Survivors, Witnesses, Liberators

Ruth Margot Lustig and Lodewyk (Lowe) MeyerVisual and oral testimony, documents, and photographs from survivors, liberators, and witnesses who made Minnesota their home.

 

 

 

Armenian Genocide

Relief poster for Armenian victims from 1915The Center collections include various media from the time of the Armenian genocide (1915-1920) and from the 1940’s; the collection includes relief posters, editorial cartoons, and Minnesota newspaper articles. 

 

 

Global World War II

Letter from Polish Prisoner Georg SwierczynskiIncludes personal narratives, documents, and other materials relating to life during the Second World War. Please Note: Some materials are only accessible to UMN faculty, students, and staff.  

 

 

ABOUT: Since its founding in 1997 by Professor Stephen Feinstein, CHGS has collected primary sources that provide faculty, students, K12 educators, and members of the general public with unique access points to Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Under the current CHGS director, Professor Alejandro Baer, the Center has commissioned additional artwork and collections, including portraits of Holocaust survivors by Felix de la Concha. Center staff, including Jodi Elowitz, Jennifer Hammer, Taylor Johnson, Dana Queen, Olivia Sailer, Demetrios Vital, and Meyer Weinshel have managed the various holdings, and continue to migrate the content to new, more accessible platforms. Our Collections content has also appeared in on- and off-campus exhibitions, education materials, blog articles, and on social media.

 

To ensure the materials’ continued use, CHGS currently makes its collections available on this Elevator site. The Center is in the process of designing new web pages that more accurately reflect the scope of its collections, and as a result some of the information listed on this site might no longer be valid. Please contact us directly if you have questions about access or item descriptions, or if you have other general inquiries regarding the center’s holdings.