Help Add Profiles and Collaborators to the Auschwitz Project

Very commendable initiative indeed.
How is truth served if profiles of people are adde not being DIRECT Ausschwitz victims or Ausschwitz camp survivors?

Randy, I am about to put a piece up about my grandmother, Alice, who was an Auschwitz victim. Regards, Herbert.

Randy Schoenberg
If just a handful of the more active members add their Auschwitz victims to the project it will become the largest in no time.
I myself can probably add a few hundreds from the profiles I manage.
Many times though we don't have an assurance that our relatives were murdered in Auschwitz. Sometimes they were on their way there, but diverted and murdered elsewhere. Other times the relatives who submitted testimonies were not sure and entered "probably" Auschwitz.
If we are going to be overzealous, by the time we finish the project it will have 2 million names (not counting duplications).
Maybe someone can come up with an idea of how to proceed with the project a bit more "scientifically" in order to minimize those problems.

There is no good way to "police" the profiles that get added, but I do not think we should worry about the few mistakes that sneak in. The overall benefit of compiling these trees in one place is clear. And there are other Holocaust projects for the other camps and ghettos and one also for general victims whose fate is less well-known. See the umbrella project at http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996

I couldn't agree more, Dear Mr. Randy, SIr, and before "time" is lost to us forever. We must keep these people alive in our hearts and prayers, ALWAYS, Sir!

Please do all you can to invite other users to collaborate in the Holocaust projects. http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996

questions: how do u deal with multiple entries for same person with slightly different names, i.e marcus/moshe saidman/sjaidaman
2. entries that are wrong, i.e. entered into yad vshem by a relative who mixed up, or guessed at names, info.

3.entries by yad vshem that are wrong, i.e. based on tombstones, where names are different than the realnames entered earlier

it is a reat project, but wrong info can cause BAD outcomes.
i have the same problem when do-gooders try to?fix[sic] my family tree under the illusion they are correcting my/our info[in the least causing corrective work, at worst chutzpah, rishut and messing up hard work]

i think there must be a technical way to load the yadvshem database to geni if thats your goal speak to them & geni it'll be quicker easier and more accurate

1. If there are identical profiles (even with different spellings) they should be merged. The goal of geni is one profile per person. A pro user can initiate a merge, and the merge can be completed if the managers are in your family group, or the profiles are public and you are collaborators. Ask me if you need help.

2. If you believe an entry is wrong, contact the manager to resolve the issue. The great thing about Geni is that there are thousands of us working together, collaborating, finding errors and correcting them. it is like having 1,000 proofreaders for your work. So we find and correct mistakes. If the data sits on your home computer, no one sees it, and no one finds mistakes (so you think it is perfect, even when it is not). The Geni tree actually has far fewer mistakes than private trees, because we find the mistakes that others never see,

3. Same as number 2. Geni is a place where you can discuss problems and work them out with the others who are interested. You can start a discussion about a particular profile. If there is a dispute that cannot be resolved, let me know and as a volunteer curator, I can sometimes help. With very difficult areas, where new users relying on published (but incorrect) sources make repeated mistakes, we can "lock" profiles so they do not get changed incorrectly.

4. Unfortunately there is no way to upload to geni. We have to do it by hand. Yad Vashem and all other databases only identify the individual and perhaps the immediate family. On Geni we have the whole tree. This is something new and exciting. With the help of everyone, we will be building something very valuable, I am sure.

Don't quite understand the "rules" and facets of the geni site - e,g, what defines a profile, what the discussions are meant to do, where the current list of Auschwitz victims is located, etc. - but re the Auschwitz Project, if you are seeking names of victims, here is a list from my Pollenz Family History/Genealogy at pollenz.net. of those known to have perished there - @Arnostka Pollenz, Erna Steckerl Pollenz, Eva Pollenz, Hanna Pollenz, Hans Pollenz, Jan Pollenz, Olga Beamt Pollenz, Flora Pollenz Winkler, Karl Pollenz, Rosa Pollatschek Pollenz

Each person has his/her own "profile". You can view the tree in tree view mode, and on each person there is a button to view that person's profile, where you can add all sorts of information (as long you have access and it isn't managed by someone else and private). On the right hand side there is a button to add a project, which you can also do from the Actions menu. You can add a project after you are a collaborator on the project. I just sent you an invitation to join the Asuchwitz project. You can also search for projects and request to join them as a collaborator, to give yourself the ability to add profiles to the project. It all sounds more complicated than it is, so give it a try and let me know if you have any problems.

We are up to 1,446 profiles, up 250 in 2 days. Keep up the good work everyone.

If you could add me to the Sobibor project I might be able to add profiles...

If we are doing Auschwitz, what about all the other camps - Buchenwald, Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, Chelmo - to name just 4 - aren't these victims just as deserving of being remembered? Shouldn't we have a project for each of them, plus one for people of unknown fate?

Ray,

Done.

You are now a collaborator on the Sobibor project.

Judith Nathan Elam Excellent point, and for exactly this reason as many camps and Holocaust projects are being created in order to be able to memorialize and honor the memory of all who perished in the Holocaust.
eg. Currently there are over 100 such projects-

1. http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996
2. Anne Frank
3. Arbeitslager Riese
4. Auschwitz Concentration Camp
5. Babi Yar
7. Bergen-Belsen
8. Bialystok Ghetto
9. Bilgoraj Ghetto
10. Bochnia Ghetto
11. Brody is no more
12. Buchenwald
13. Chelmno
14. Children of the Holocaust
15. Częstochowa Ghetto
16. Dabrowa Ghetto
17. Dachau
18. Dereczyn Ghetto
19. Displaced Persons Camp
20. Dora-Mittelbau (Nordhausen)
21. Drancy Internment Camp
22. Duderstadt, Lager Steinhoff (Polte-Werke)
23. Dvinsk (Dünaburg, Daugavpils) Ghetto
24. Ebensee
25. European Resistance Movements
26. Flossenbürg concentration camp
27. Geni Curator Projects - Guide
28. Grodno Ghetto
29. Gurs Internment Camp
30. Heroes behind Nazi lines - Jewish Paratroopers of British Mandate Palestine - צנחני היישוב
31. Heroes of the Holocaust - The Courageous Fighters against Hitler's Nazi Regime
32. Hitler's Foreign Divisions: Foreign Volunteers in the Waffen-SS 1940-1945
33. Holocaust Survivors
35. Holocaust in Ukraine
36. Izbica Ghetto
37. Jasenovac
38. KL Gross-Rosen
39. KZ Kaiserwald
40. KZ Treblinka
41. Kielbasin Transit Camp
42. Kielce Ghetto
43. Kovno Ghetto
44. Kraków Ghetto
45. Lithuanian Massacres
46. Lodz Ghetto
47. Lublin Ghetto
48. Lutsk (Luck) Ghetto
49. Lvov Ghetto
50. Majdanek
51. Maly Trostinets extermination camp
52. Mauthausen
53. Memorial to European Rabbis that Perished in the Holocaust
54. Minsk Ghetto
55. Natzweiler-Struthof
56. Nazi Germany
57. Nazi concentration camps
58. Neuengamme Concentration Camp
59. Nisko Reservation
60. Opole Ghetto
61. Otwock Ghetto
62. Plaszow
63. Ponary Massacre
64. Przemysl Ghetto
65. Radom Ghetto
66. Ravensbrück
67. Riga Ghetto
68. SCHINDLER's LIST: The little girl with the red coat - the true story
69. SS Death Squads - Einsatzgruppen
70. Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg
71. Secret Swiss Holocaust-era Lifesaving El Salvador Citizenship Certificates
72. Shanghai Ghetto
73. Shoah in Belarus
74. Siauliai (Shavli) Ghetto
75. Stutthof
77. Swieciany Ghetto
78. Szczebrzeszyn ghetto
79. Theresienstadt Ghetto
80. Victims of the German NAZI Holocaust
81. Vilna Ghetto
82. Warsaw Ghetto
83. Westerbork
84. http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-Survivors/2509
85. Brody is no more
86. European Resistance Movements
87. Genealogy Specialists on Geni
88. Geni World History Timeline
89. Heroes of the Holocaust - The Courageous Fighters against Hitler's Nazi Regime
90. Hitler's Foreign Divisions: Foreign Volunteers in the Waffen-SS 1940-1945
91. Holocaust in Poland
92. Holocaust: "The Final Solution"
93. Jewish Ancestry Research Guide
94. Memorial to European Rabbis that Perished in the Holocaust
95. Reichbart Family
96. SCHINDLER's LIST: The little girl with the red coat - the true story
97. Shanghai Ghetto
98. The Story of the Jews of Europe in the 20th Century- a Family Perspective
99. Victims of the German NAZI Holocaust
100. http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-in-Poland/11641
101. Auschwitz Concentration Camp
102. Belzec
104. Chelmno
105. Częstochowa Ghetto
106. European Resistance Movements
107. Heroes of the Holocaust - The Courageous Fighters against Hitler's Nazi Regime
108. Holocaust Survivors
109. Holocaust: "The Final Solution"
110. Kiev
111. Opole Ghetto
112. Przerośl, Poland
113. Radom Ghetto
114. SS Death Squads - Einsatzgruppen
115. Sobibor

Can one starting posting in them yet, Malka?

Judith Nathan Elam Absolutely! Sorry I couldn't get all the links working for you, but just copy the project of your choice into the Projects search projects box.

In fact, to find even more projects, if you simply add "Holocaust" into the search box you may come up with additional projects not on this list.

If you require any assistance in joining a project, just let us know on this posting.

I tried adding specific profiles to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp project, but without success, as this doesn't appear in the drop-down box options. Does one need an invitation? If so, do please include me as I have a ton (unfortunately!) of family members whom I have had to include merely under Holocaust "The Final Solution" which doesn't fully capture details that are available.

Malka Mysels
Jews in many areas were rounded up into a town (ghetto if you will) and executed.
I know for a fact that in the families of my in laws many were murdered in those ghettos that are not mentioned on your list, nor are they mentioned under the projects when I entered Holocaust or the name of town.
Two examples in the area of Tarnopol in Ukraine, ZBOROW, and a few miles north west from there LUBACZOW.
How do you add those names, and many others that are still not mentioned?

Alyson Banks

Done.

Alyson, it looks like you are a collaborator on the project so it should work. Is it still not appearing in your drop-down menu?

Private User Please feel free to start a project.

1. You go to - http://www.geni.com/projects -- and click on the green "start a project box"

2. As long as the bare bones of information eg. name of project has been created, then in the new project page on the right click on "related projects" and add the Holocaust Umbrella Project --http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996 , and any other project you want to link too.

You can also invite others to collaborate via the "actions" pull down menu on the upper right.

However, if you wish we can start the projects for you. I am in the midst of moving right now so I won't be able to do too much for a while.

Goodluck.

Daniel,

First, if you want it, make it happen. There's no stopping anyone form making new projects, Holocaust-related or otherwise.

You can also use the new tagging feature to add a Holocaust tag to any project.

When we set up the master project at http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996, the thinking was not necessarily to exclude all the towns where the Einsatzgruppen killed everyone. But we focused on the "major" centers and those were the large camps and ghettos. My thinking was that for people killed where they lived, the first order of business would be to set up a town project (not exclusively about the Holocaust). See http://www.geni.com/projects/Jewish-Families-from-Bohemia-and-Morav... for what I am doing for towns in Bohemia and Moravia. After all, the important thing is that they LIVED there, not that they were killed there.

I can imagine that a good town project would have a subproject about the Holocaust victims form that town. Organizationally, we could list/organize all of these town Holocaust projects (a) alphabetically, or (b) by region. I favor a regional approach, I think. We have on the main Holocaust page, a list of sub-projects devoted to the Holocaust in Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, a project for Einsatzgruppen, etc. etc. I would favor putting the individual towns under those sub-projects, so that the master index does not become too large to be workable. So Zborow and Lubaczow could be put at http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-in-Ukraine/11076, or you could even set up a Tarnopol sub-project on the Ukraine page and place the towns under there.

But the main message is -- just go ahead and do it. If you are interested, that's enough. If you can get others interested, that's even better.

Malka Mysels
First happy moving. I hope it is to that famous $50 million mansion that was on the market for a while and the price dropped to about $16 mil.
Thank you for the info.
I will do it as soon as I can.

Randy Schoenberg
Thank you as well.
Both you and Malka gave me all or most of the necessary tools to try and do it... and I shall try!

Hi Pam and Randy! Thank you for resolving the issue! I can now attach profiles to the right project; it only remains to take the time to plow through them all.
Regards,
Alyson

Excellent. I think it is great that these projects are taking off. Make sure to invite other collaborators to join in building the projects. The more people know about the projects, the faster and wider the news will spread.

Randy Schoenberg
I encountered one profile that did not have the prompt "add to project" on the page nor the drop down mwnu of "actions". WHY?
I will try to do it via the projects themselves, but if there are many profiles like this, it will become a pain in the you know what.

It may not be public. Or it may already be a member of a different project, in which case you need to look under "Actions" to add a new one.