The Mazal Holocaust Collection is a Holocaust-related archive at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
The Mazal Holocaust Collection is the largest privately owned Holocaust-related archive in the world. [1] It comprises 500,000 items, including 20,000 books. [2] Some of its items include aerial photographs of the Auschwitz concentration camp and transcripts of the Nuremberg Trials. [2] Additionally, it includes old copies of Der Stürmer, books of Holocaust denial, and material published by the American Nazi Party in the 1930s. [2] As of March 2015, the full extent of the collection was unknown. [2]
The collection was established by Harry W. Mazal, a businessman of Turkish-Jewish descent who was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and subsequently lived in San Antonio, Texas. [2] [3] Mazal only found out he was Jewish as a teenager, and he began collecting documents related to the Holocaust then. [2] His primary aim was to counter the discourse of Holocaust deniers. [4] In 2011, Mazal discovered one of his employees was stealing and selling some of his collection; the thief was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2014. [5]
With the help of Professor David Shneer, it has been based at the University of Colorado Boulder since January 2014. [1] Students act as volunteers to categorize and digitalize the collection. [2]