Research Guides: HIST 417W: Germany After 1945: Reconstruction and Memory: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

A primary source is a document, recording or other source of information created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described.

Primary sources include diaries, letters, family records, statistics, speeches, interviews, autobiographies, film, government documents, or original scientific research.

You can find many primary source materials via Library Search. Primary sources can also be found in Rose Library.

For more detailed information, see the Primary Sources Research Guide.

Primary Source Databases

Emory University makes a good deal of primary sources available to students in a digital format. To see the complete list of primary source databases available to students, click here

Below you will find a select list of databases that are particularly appropriate for your coursework. This list is not exhaustive.

Primary Sources @ Emory

Archives Unbound, East Germany from Stalinization to the New Economic Policy, 1950 - 1963
Access the U.S. Department of State records related to the internal affairs of East Germany. Prominent topics include the creation of the East German state, living conditions, and its people.

Content: 34,479 images Source Library: National Archives II, College Park, MD
Archives Unbound: Nazi Bank and Financial Institutions: U.S. Military Government Investigation Reports and Interrogations of Nazi Financiers, 1945-1949
Access the U.S. Military Government’s investigation reports and Interrogations of Nazi Financiers, 1945-1949.
Archives Unbound: SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries Hosting (1944-1945)
Contains material from the Foreign Economic Administration’s SAFEHAVEN project to block the flow of German capital across neutral boundaries and to identify and observe all German overseas investments during and after World War II.
Digital National Security Archive
Contains declassified U.S. government documents covering policy towards world events, especially in the areas of foreign policy and intelligence.

Foreign relations of the United States
This is an option for searching through this set is to use the version made freely available by the U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/. Note, that the Department of State version may be incomplete for certain years.

Archives Unbound: SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries Hosting (1944-1945)
Contains material from the Foreign Economic Administration’s SAFEHAVEN project to block the flow of German capital across neutral boundaries and to identify and observe all German overseas investments during and after World War II.
Hein Online
Contains over 100 million pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. The most popular HeinOnline libraries include the Law Journal Library, the Session Laws Library, and the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, with exact page images of the documents in PDF format just as they appear in the original print.

For help using this resource, contact Chris Palazzolo, Political Science and International Documents Librarian.
Macmillan Cabinet Papers 1957-1963
Access documents from the British Government during the Macmillan Administration. Covers domestic politics, foreign policy, British empire, and more. Includes scholarly essays to provide context.
Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century, Part 1: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in the U.S., Europe, and Australia
Contains documents on radical right and fascist movements, communist and socialist groups, and new left activism.

Encompasses the rise and fall of a number of peripheral groups deemed ‘extreme’ or ‘radical’ by contemporaries, such as anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-war, communist or socialist, fascism, fascist, creationist, environmentalist, hate, holocaust denial, new left, survivalist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Focuses on the United States and Britain.
Post-War Europe Series I: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950
Contains documents from British government files and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad and the Jewish Relief Units concerning lives of survivors — Jewish and non-Jewish — of the Holocaust and World War II. Includes surveys, U.S. zone reports, War office memos, Exodus Camp records, Displaced Persons Assembly Centre weekly reports, and more.
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
Testaments to the Holocaust

Collections personal accounts of life in Nazi Germany along with photographs, propaganda materials, serials, and other publications from 1933 to after the war.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers
Access British Parliamentary publications including Hansard, official parliamentary debates, and the British sessional papers, the working papers of government.

Sample categories: East India Company Reports; Government and Administration; Indian army; Indian society -- Christian churches, education, famine, population statistics, the press, public health, religious affairs, slavery.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Comprised of the reports, documents, and journals, of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives since 1817.

For help using this resource, contact Chris Palazzolo, Political Science and International Documents Librarian.
Visual History Archive, Shoah Foundation
Contains audio-visual interviews from genocide survivors and witness, from the European Holocaust through the Central African Republic Conflict, and Contemporary Antisemitism. Requires registration with the VHA/Shoah Foundation. NOTE Emory users must register with the VHA/Shoah Foundation and log-in using their personal VHA username and password.

POL-69777; http://pid.emory.edu/s7kqx

Newspapers and the Press

Opinion Press

Opinion Archives

Opinion Archives provides access to current issues and backfiles of a number of leading U.S. opinion publications (from the left and right sides of the political spectrum) including the Nation (1865-present), Commentary (1945-present), the American Spectator (1967-present), the National Review (1955-present), New Republic (1914-present), Commonweal (1924-present), the New York Review of Books (1965-present), Harper's (1850-present) and the NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) Report (1966-present). The metasearch option provided by Opinion Archives allows one to search concurrently across issues. All issues are also available via eJournals@Emory.

Atlanta Constitution Historical
Full-text of every issues of the Atlanta newspaper.
Boston Globe Historical
Access the Boston Globe newspaper from 1872-1986
Chicago Tribune Historical
Access all editions of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Materials available in full-text and searchable.
Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971

Access newspapers in different languages and from different U.S. states related to the history of influential ethnic groups in U.S. history. Prominent themes include business, music, science, wars, and more.
Jerusalem Post
Access the Palestine Post/Jerusalem Post from 1932 to 2008 in full-text.
New York Times Historical
Access New York Times articles dating back to 1851. Materials from 1851-1980 are available in either full-text or partial articles. Full text articles are available for all content post-1980.

Full-text searching and browsing capabilities are available. Users may choose to display and download in PDF format either the full image of any page or just the individual article they need. Additional years of coverage will be added annually.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Wall Street Journal
Contains every page of every issue of the Wall Street Journal, including stories, editorials, photos, graphics, and more.

Tutorial available.
The Times Digital Archive
Full page and article images of the Times (London) with searchable full text, including searchable advertisements and photographs, back to the first issue.

The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. This archive does not include the Sunday Times, a newspaper independent of the Times. Coverage: 1785-1985. (Use Nexis Uni for Times issues July 1, 1985 to present)
Washington Post Historical
Access full-text issues of the Washington Post, including news stories, editorials, photos, graphics, and advertisements. Coverage begins in 1877.