On the Foundation’s website standard search and search using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex Coding method (see wikipedia) (limited to name and surname) is available. The DM Soundex is a phonetic search, specifically for Slavic and Yiddish languages, which finds results that sound similar.
The screen for entering the search criteria is divided into two parts. The first one contains only fields for entering the name, surname, city (residence or deportation) and date of birth. The second contains 14 fields to help you find the information you are looking for more precisely. How all the fields work is described below.
- First name– there are two fields and two search methods: Name (standard) and Name (DM Soundex). Standard search finds names which contain the text regardless if capital or lower case letters are used (e.g. searching for “ewa” gives “Ewa” “Batszewa”, etc.). Entering this name in the field Name (DM Soundex) will additionally result in names which sound similar, e.g. “Ahuwa”, “Jehoszua” and others.
If you want to search using the DM Soundex, fill in only the DM Soundex field. - Surname– there are two fields and two search options (similar to the name field): Surname (standard) and Surname (DM Soundex). The first one finds names which contain the text regardless if capital or lower case letters are used (e.g. searching for “gold” will give results such as “Gold”, “Goldman” or “Ningold”). The field Surname (DM Soundex) will also give as results surnames which soud similar (e.g. searching for “lipszyc” will also result in “Lifszyc”, “Liwszyc” or “Lipska”). If you want to search using the DM Soundex, do not fill in the field Surname (standard) – and vice versa.
- Date of birth – searching for people whose given birth year (date) contains the searched value; when you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt (all the possibilities that are in the database will be displayed); you can choose one of them to search.
- Gender– allows you to search for women or men; the number of database records for both of these field values is displayed as information in the field.
- Father’s name –when you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt (all the possibilities that are in the database will be displayed); you can choose one of them to search.
- Mother’s name and maiden name – Search by mother’s first name and maiden name. When you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt (all the possibilities that are in the database will be displayed); you can choose one of them to search.
- Cities– searches for people whose city of birth, city (or cities) of residence before the war and the city (or cities) of residence during the war meet the input; the search for “warsaw” will result in all those who were born in Warsaw, lived in Warsaw or were deported from Warsaw; when you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt.
- Profession – when you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt – all professions containing the letters entered in the field.
- History – when you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt – notes containing the given letters. Notes are additional information relating to the given individual.
- Method of escape (from the transport / from the camp / during the uprising / no data) – you can search for people who escaped on the way to the camp, from the camp itself or during the uprising on 2 August 1943.
- Did they survive the escape (yes / no / no data) – you can search for people who meet one of the criteria: they survived the escape or not, or their fate is unknown.
- Date of death – if only the date of deportation is known and it is known that the person died while escaping from the train, the date of their deportation is given as the date of death. Dates are in the format DD.MM.YYYY. When only the month is known, it is written out in words.
- Place of death – if known.
- Source– from whom or from where does the information originate.
When you enter the first three characters, the system will show you a prompt– sources containing the letters given in the name. More information about the sources and their abbreviations can be found in the source description [link: list of Sources].
Results presentation fields:
Sort (ascending or descending) by:
a) the date of when the person was added to the base,
b) surnames,
c) places of residence.
Per page – number of records shown on one page.
Buttons:
Search – start searching.
Clear – delete results and search input.
Return – return to the “Book of Names” page and exit the database.
Add person– move to the “Book of Names” page, where you can add a person to the database or complete the information provided in the database.