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EHRI IS EXPANDING.
NEW PARTNERSHIP
AGREEMENTS SIGNED
EHRI
The first major activity of the Consejo Interuniversitario Nacional (CIN) will be
a comprehensive survey of Holocaust-
-relevant archival sources, institutions and individuals across Argentina, a very significant but underexplored area.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is one of the globally leading and most recognised institutions dedicated to the Holocaust. It holds unparalleled archival documentation on the Holocaust (more than 110 million archival pages, 125,000 photographs, 5,300 historical films and more than 25,000 hours of oral testimony), hosts
a state-of-the-art research programme and is a recognised leader in innovating access to, and analysis of, Holocaust sources by means of digital tools. The USHMM has, moreover,
a long and successful history of cooperation with EHRI during the project phases, before the establishment of EHRI as an independent ERIC. In the first EU-funded EHRI project (2010-2015), the museum contributed data and expertise as an unfunded associated partner. Following a recommendation, USHMM has been included as a fully funded participant in all subsequent EU-funded EHRI projects, exceptional for a US based organisation, providing critical access to infrastructure and scientific and technical expertise. The goal was always to establish a long-term bilateral cooperation agreement between EHRI and USHMM, so that the fruitful partnership continues after the establishment of EHRI as an ERIC. The cooperation agreement between EHRI and USHMM provides a framework that enables USHMM to participate again in the CK Fellowship Programme, thereby giving access to its facilities to selected fellows. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum can now also join EHRI-ERIC Working Groups and provide unique expertise. In the future, USHMM and EHRI-ERIC may develop other joint activities such as events or workshops.
The USHMM’s participation in CK Fellowship Programme is particularly important. Given the breadth, depth and uniqueness of USHMM’s archival collections, access to its archives is of very high importance to European researchers and EHRI is pleased that in the 2026 CK Fellowship Call, the museum was again included.
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is a pioneer in the usage of video testimonies to record eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust. It grew out of the Holocaust Survivors Film Project that started recording Holocaust survivors and witnesses in New Haven, Connecticut in 1979. Hosted by Yale University, it today holds a collection of more than 4,400 Holocaust testimonies from individuals across the world and has served as an inspiration and model for projects aimed at recording eyewitness accounts of major historical events, including the genocides in Armenia, Bosnia and Cambodia. It is a recognized leader in a variety of fields including interviewing techniques, cataloguing methods, digital editions of eyewitness accounts, and using digital methods to analysis testimonies. All its collections are digitised and freely available to researchers, educators and the general public.
EHRI has a long tradition of cooperation with the Fortunoff. It has been a data provider to EHRI for many years, and detailed descriptions of its collection are available on the EHRI Portal. EHRI and Fortunoff have further fruitfully collaborated across a variety of events and activities.
An important short-term outcome of the renewed cooperation will be the launch of an innovative Fortunoff-EHRI Fellowship scheme, which will be running parallel to the EHRI CK Fellowship Programme. In the proposed Fortunoff-EHRI Fellowship scheme, European early-career researchers will be provided with a year-long stiped to undertake research on testimonies. The first call for this new fellowship opportunity is expected in 2027.
In the first six months of 2026, EHRI has negotiated and signed agreements with three important stakeholders in the field of Holocaust research. This is good news for the consortium and for everyone using EHRI’s resources and services, especially the Conny Kristel Fellowships. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum will contribute to the Conny Kristel Fellowship Programme as a host, while deepening cooperation between EHRI and Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies will open up new fellowship opportunities for testimony research.