M.9 - Simon Wiesenthal Collection, Archive of the Juedische Historische Dokumentation (Center for Jewish Documentation), Linz, 1938-1951

M.9 - Simon Wiesenthal Collection, Archive of the Juedische Historische Dokumentation (Center for Jewish Documentation), Linz, 1938-1951
 
 The Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Linz was established in 1947 by Simon Wiesenthal, an engineer from Buczacz, Poland. After his liberation from Mauthausen camp in Austria, Wiesenthal worked toward locating and arresting war criminals. He was also the moving force behind the Association of Former Inmates of Concentration Camps in Austria, and among the founders of the International Organization of Former Inmates of Nazi Camps. As the chairman of the Jewish community in Linz and a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Wiesenthal served as a leader of the survivors in the US Occupied Zone, fighting on behalf of their rights. Additionally, Wiesenthal coordinated the vocational training programs throughout Austria. He continued his activities locating war criminals and bringing them to justice even after he donated his archive to Yad Vashem in 1955. In 1961, Wiesenthal was invited by the Association of Jewish Communities in Austria to administer the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna.
 
 The documentation that Wiesenthal submitted to the Yad Vashem Archives includes administrative documentation of the Jewish Historical Documentation Center and mainly original Nazi documents and signed copies of the documents regarding various subjects such as: Nazi policy, the planning of the anti-Jewish legislation and its implementation, the planning of the "Final Solution" and its implementation including much documentation regarding deportations and the arrangement of the Nazi concentration camps. The Archive also includes: lists of war criminals and card indexes with the names of criminals arranged according to the concentration camps and the places where the crimes were carried out; correspondence with Jewish organizations, Jewish committees and institutions regarding war criminals and their capture; testimonies against Jewish collaborators and documentation regarding trials against Jews accused of war crimes. In addition, the Archive contains original material regarding the lives of the survivors in the DP camps, the emigration of Jewish survivors within Austria and the settlement of Jewish survivors in Austria after the war, the establishment of the Jewish community in Vienna, and activities to commemorate the Holocaust.