The interactive map is a new and exciting feature permitted by the digitization of The USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. It serves as both a companion and a portal to the series' narrative documentation of Nazi-era camps and other persecutory sites.
The Map as a Companion
The map allows users to visualize, in parts or in its entirety, the Nazi camp universe documented in the Encyclopedia series. Users have the ability to filter their map searches by camp names, camp types and subtypes, current country locations, and corresponding Encyclopedia volumes. Moreover, users may download these data, including geocoordinates, directly from the map to incorporate into their own projects.
The Map as an Entry Point
The map's pins and pop-up boxes allow readers to quickly assess basic characteristics of any given persecutory site and directly access the corresponding narrative Encyclopedia entries online. The pop-up boxes also suggest related entries, helping uncover some of the many interconnections and intersections of the vast Nazi camp universe. Camps and other persecutory sites documented in future volumes of the series will be incorporated into the map on a rolling basis as new Encyclopedia chapters and entries are published to the site. Readers will also still find the analog maps that accompanied Volumes I through IV — originally published in print — in the PDF versions of the series.
Looking Ahead
The possibilities of digital visualizations are endless, but their utility depends on the rigor and transparency of the supporting data. In future years, we hope to build out the map's data sets to enable more advanced visualizations. Goals include enhancing geographic features by incorporating historical country borders and the opening and closing dates of camps to support visualizations of the evolution of the camp universe over the course of the Nazi period. Other data that might be incorporated in future iterations of the map may relate to inmate demographics and camp authorities.
For now, we hope that our map significantly enhances the user experience on this site by making persecutory sites easily discoverable while supporting a range of external research projects through standardized Encyclopedia data. We welcome user feedback and reports of issues here.
