Archive

Using the Archive / Contact Information

Opening hours 

Monday: 9-13
Tuesday: 9-13
Wednesday: 11-15

To visit or use the archive a registration is required.

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Please bring an ID with you.

If you have questions concerning the collections in the archive or are interested in planning a visit, please contact us in writing or by telephone.

Due to the large number of queries as well as visitors we kindly ask for your patience in dealing with your query.

The archive includes one workstation with a computer for research purposes as well as several laptop workstations with free Wi-Fi access. Archival material that does not pose any data protection concerns may be photographed or scanned. The archive is accessible for people with disabilities.

The user form can be accessed here.

The user regulations can be accessed here.

Contact Information

For specific queries regarding holdings and collections of the Archive of the VWI:
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Address:
Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)
Rabensteig 3
1010 Vienna
Austria

The Archive of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) is comprised of several holdings and collections of varying provenance and with their own histories. It is thus of eminent value for numerous aspects and perspectives of Holocaust research – including for example both victim and perpetrator research. Additionally, the video testimonies accessible at the archive offer a thematic focus on forced migration (often due to persecution) and the lives of those affected after 1945.

Specifically, the VWI Archive comprises the collections of the Archive of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime (= Simon Wiesenthal Archive) from Simon Wiesenthal’s former offices in Linz and Vienna. This is augmented by the Holocaust-related historical holdings of the Archive of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (Jewish Community Organisation, IKG) of Vienna, which have been housed and made accessible at the VWI in the framework of a loan agreement since 2018. Moreover, the VWI Archive offers on-site access to the video interviews of the Austrian Heritage Archive (AHA), the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, and the Video Archive of Refugee Voices.

Aside from further acquisitions, the VWI Archive aims to gradually digitise individual parts of the collections that are frequently requested and/or vulnerable from a conservationist standpoint. The archive endeavours moreover – in accordance with its thematic and archival focal points – to acquire further holdings such as private estates and other relevant collections.

Simon Wiesenthal Archive (SWA)
Archive Collection (SWA)
Archival Projekt: Early Wiesenthal
Archive of the IKG Vienna
Austrian Heritage Archive
Fortunoff Video Archive
Refugee Voices

Effective from January 2020

The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

The Fortunoff Video Archive comprises more than 12,000 hours of video interviews with Holocaust survivors. The archive emerged from the collection of 183 interviews created in 1979 as part of the Holocaust Survivors Film Project and today comprises more than 4,400 interviews in 22 languages that were either recorded at Yale University or in the framework of partner projects. The individual recordings can be browsed via the online catalogue.

For a long time, these recordings could only be viewed on site at Yale University. In the framework of an agreement concluded between Yale University and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) in January 2017 the interviews can now – following registration and ordering of materials – also be viewed at the VWI. A tutorial explains the procedure and includes tips for expanded searches.

Over the last three years, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute (VWI) have cooperated on a number of joint projects, including events, conferences and a shared fellowship program based in Vienna. Now, the two institutions are launching a new initiative to open a temporary "European Outreach Office" for the Fortunoff Archive in Vienna. Many of the Archive's researchers are based at universities, museums and cultural institutions in Europe. VWI has kindly offered to host the Fortunoff Video Archive’s European Outreach Office at its Vienna location at no cost during the two-year program. The new office will help the Fortunoff Archive deepen its cooperation with the European research community, allow it to participate actively in VWI's vibrant programming, and embark on its own ambitious outreach effort in Europe.

The European Outreach Office will not reduce the Fortunoff Archive's commitment to Yale, but expand it, while embracing the collection's international origins, as it was born as a collaborative worldwide effort. It will serve our researchers in the places where important Holocaust research is being conducted – primarily in Europe, where scholars are grappling with each country's role during the Holocaust.

Using the Archive / Contact Information

Effective from March 2022

Documentation

The two cornerstones of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) in the area of documentation are its publicly accessible archive and its publicly accessible library. The location at the Rabensteig allowed for various partly extant, partly new archival and library holdings on antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust, including its origins and aftermath, to be collected in one place with unitary conditions of storage, access, and use. The discovery and preparation of archival materials as well as the acquisition of literature are conducted in accordance with the running research and education projects and with the research activities of the fellows at the institute.