I don’t know why, but it hadn’t occurred to me that we could donate to more than one place. I see Quartz’s point that a major archive wouldn’t necessarily display any of them, so a smaller place might benefit more. Giving them to more than one place – or dividing the cache, even – might have more impact.
I need to ask Gene if the film is with the photos or not, too. Thanks for the ideas, everyone.
I wouldn’t think that splitting up the collection is a good idea; there’s a lot of value in a coherent collection of items that is lost when you split them up and treat them as bits and pieces.
Agreed, especially to a historian.
the granddaddy of all Holocaust memorials is in Israel.
http://www.yadvashem.org
But since your material is specifically linked to the US Army, the holocaust museum in Washington may be a better place for it.
Whatever you do, please don’t keep the information private.
(It may be a good idea to professionally scan/copy the photos, and give the copies to the local or state historical society. But it sounds like you have serious material that should be seen by professional historians/curators whose expertise is the Holocaust, not Minnesota)
And think about also giving copies to local high schools.