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Centropa: The Story of Europe's Jewish Heritage

Before World War II, 15 million Jews lived in Eastern Europe. Most of their stories were lost through war and migration. But now, a group of researchers from many nations is compiling the largest regional online archive of Jewish life, past and present.

NPR's Guy Raz recently visited the Vienna, Austria headquarters of the Centropa project, where the photos and personal accounts of Jews still living in Europe are put into an electronic archive.

Researchers from cities in Vienna, Moscow, Belgrade, Riga and regions all over Eastern and Central Europe search for a new story to add to the archive. They are finding elderly Jews, and chronicling their lives -- not as victims of the Holocaust, but how they lived. The researchers ask about their rituals, jobs, family life, marraige and the everyday things that took place in Jewish neighborhoods.

Under the guidance of renowned photographer Edward Serotta, the Centropa Organization’s "Witness to a Jewish Century" project will eventually include an online, searchable database of more than 70,000 photos and personal accounts of life in the old country. Currently, vistors to the site can search names, places, years -- even professions.

"It's not a Holocaust project," Serotta says. "It's about normal life -- the person who was the local scoundrel, the beauty that all the young men wanted to marry.

"There is real history in between the lines," he says. "There is real history in between the great events, and these people who have been deprived of even speaking about these things are the ones who are clogging the doorways of our offices."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.