Memorial volumes to Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust :

a bibliography of British Library holdings. by Ilana Tahan; introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert.

London: The British Library, 2004 (ISBN 0712348204)

This important bibliography, which has taken several years to complete, provides entries to nearly 300 memorial volumes held in the British Library's Hebrew collection. This is the very first bibliography of Yizkor books to be published in the UK.

Memorial volumes to Eastern European Jewish communities- Yizkor books - were written in the post- WWII period by fraternal societies of Jewish immigrants and Holocaust survivors originating from the same locality.

Their chief mission is to record, remember and commemorate Jewish towns and their inhabitants who were annihilated during the Holocaust. Each memorial book listed in the bibliography has been thoroughly examined prior to entries being created.The main entries are arranged alphabetically by place name and comprise important bibliographic data about individual volumes.

The titles of the Yizkor books which were published in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, have been provided in both Hebrew characters and in romanized form.

The bibliography is complemented by 4 appendixes and 4 indexes from various angles of approach, thus offering the user additional valuable information on the books dealt with.

The Towns and villages Index for instance, lists Jewish localities which were much too small to warrant a memorial book of their own, but which nevertheless were briefly mentioned or described in specific Yizkor books. This vital information which would have been lost otherwise, has thus been archived by creating cross-references to main entries in the bibliography.

The bibliography comprises a series of photographs, including some poignant portraits of individuals that have perished in the Holocaust.

This publication has been generously funded by various organisations which the author has fully acknowledged in the book. One of the sponsors was Mr Naim Dangoor.

It is hoped that the bibliography will serve as a useful aid to researchers of the Holocaust and those interested in genealogical research.

About the author:

Ilana Tahan, M.Phil. has been educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, and at the Aston University in Birmingham, England where she was awarded a Master of Philosophy degree. She is also a professional librarian and has been a member of the Library Association of Great Britain (re-named CILIP) for almost twenty years.

Since 1989, Ilana Tahan has been Hebraica Curator at the British Library where she is responsible for a remarkable collection comprising over 3000 Hebrew manuscripts, 10,000 Genizah fragments and around 80,000 printed books.

Ilana Tahan has contributed to various books and has written a number of journal articles all based on the Hebrew collection.