Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1953. Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of the victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust for generations to come through its archives, library, museums, school, and recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations.

The Need

Yad Vashem’s main archive includes approximately 65 million pages. Yad Vashem wanted to computerize the archive, enabling maximum information retrieval and maximum access to the material. The Pages of Testimony commemorate Jews who perished during the Holocaust. So far, approximately four million Pages of Testimony have been digitized. Yad Vashem looked for a way to catalog and index all the names from the pages, enabling easy retrieval and Web-enabled access. In addition to the main archive and the Pages of Testimony, Yad Vashem decided to computerize the photo archive, the Righteous Among the Nations repository (those who risked their lives to save Jews), the Holocaust Art Repository and the Holocaust-Era Artifact Repository. They also decided to build a video on-demand system.

In March 2005 Yad Vashem inaugurated the new Holocaust History Museum, which occupies over 4,200 square meters. Yad Vashem looked for a comprehensive museum management system.

The Solution

Yad Vashem selected IDEA@ALM, which comprises the necessary components for archive, library and museum (ALM) management. Over 30 virtual databases are managed using IDEA@ALM, containing approximately 500 terrabytes of data.

Implementation and Benefit

Using IDEA@ALM, IDEA provided an integrated system that enables users to locate each of the 65 million pages as well as different items in the various databases. These include:

• All the information in the Pages of Testimony: the pages were cataloged and the
  names were indexed. Today, all Pages of Testimony are available and searchable
  on the Web.
• The photo archive, which is comprised of 300,000 scanned photos. Users can
  locate and view photos according to different categories.
• The Righteous Among the Nations repository
• The Holocaust Art Repository
• The Holocaust-Era Artifact Repository
• The multimedia center video on-demand system, which already includes over 20,000 video hours. 2,000 new hours are added each month.
• The system is also used to manage the new Holocaust History Museum.

The Technology

IDEA@ALM, IDEA Internet module, IDEA Multi Dictionary module, Oracle DB, Sybase Enterprise Application Server, Websphere portal, EMC storage, IIS web server.

“Using IDEA@ALM we built an integrated system that enables us to locate each of the 65 million pages. The system is very flexible and the text retrieval is smart and powerful, enabling each user to search freely across the databases. IDEA@ALM is our information ERP system".
Michael Lieber, Yad Vashem’s Chief Information Officer