About EHRI-BE
The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), which was launched in 2010 and has evolved over the course of several EU-funded projects, is working towards establishing itself as a permanent distributed research infrastructure. Leading Holocaust research, education, and commemorative institutions from more than 20 countries, spread across three continents, will come together under one legal entity to continue their mission of bringing together widely dispersed sources by connecting information, institutions and people.The EHRI Belgium National Node (EHRI-BE) supports EHRI’s overarching aims by carrying out research, remembrance and educational activities that are relevant to Belgium while also taking into account regional particularities and promoting transnational research.
EHRI-BE aims to facilitate advancements in fields such as access to archives, archival sciences, scientific research, networking, education, commemoration and remembrance, digital humanities and AI.
EHRI-BE contributes to the long-term sustainability of Holocaust research within Belgium and beyond by
- representing Belgian institutions active in the field of documentation, commemoration and research on the Holocaust;
- establishing and developing a strong and varied research consortium;
- exchanging and sharing expertise on digital developments and connecting resources through a state-of-the-art digital infrastructure;
- disseminating, implementing and developing innovative digital research tools;
- offering fellowships and training opportunities for researchers, archivists and heritage professionals.
EHRI’s impact is primarily scientific, however, the infrastructure also pursues a broader social and political agenda. The recent rise of antisemitism, xenophobia and aggressive nationalisms in Europe and beyond demonstrate that Holocaust research is never a purely academic concern but a prerequisite for open and non-discriminatory societies across Europe and the world.
EHRI-BE Objectives information
Research topics: transnational refugees (Belgian borders, Central/Eastern Europe); bystanders/helpers (individuals and networks); orphanages and retirement homes; second/third generations; liberation condition/repatriation of Jews/return of people; recognition of death; administration of survivors; Jewish spoliation. Approaches: sociological; oral history; art, photography; geo-localization studies; statistical analysis; microhistory.
Archival sources: photos, diaries/testimonies/interviews; micro-archives; trial/judicial files, lost/forgotten collections, ‘mixed’ collections. Gathering/Analysis tools: crowdsourcing; archival preservation technology; digitization; Wiki data; geo-localization, DH/AI tools; Holders: small/private run with personal/family collections; Users: wider audiences, citizen science, youngsters; policy makers, professional communities (e.g., genealogists).
Networking (international outreach): countries with a connection to Belgium, transnational connections, cross-border regional connections, refugees, Belgium as a transit country, connecting with Holocaust research and remembrance initiatives abroad, linking different types of institutions and organizations, multilingualism, fellowship program.
Training: information on and usage of tools developed by existing ERICs, archival guide, data integration, data curation, digital humanities, access to and protection of (sensitive) personal data, trends in Holocaust research, interdisciplinary approaches to Holocaust research, courses for educators, dissemination of information and knowledge on Belgian case, democratization of knowledge, funding opportunities.
Remembrance: sustainable coverage of Belgium; providing support to and organizing commemorative projects; directed towards a broad audience; educational, with room for personal connection and emotions; opportunity to provide visibility for initiatives within the network; create dissemination options via blogs, articles, newsletters, etc.; generate public resonance.
Digital humanities and AI: data integration; data validation; EAD-XML; Knowledge Graphs (KGs); Linked Open Data (LOD); Records in Contexts (RiC); thesauri; Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS); taxonomies; authority files; Named-Entity Linking (NEL); Large Language Models (LLMs); ontology engineering; subject indexing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), text summarization.