Holocaust details go online

The world’s largest collection of Holocaust documents went online today.

Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, has joined with Google to make its photographs and documents available and searchable on the internet. The first 130,000 photos were put up today.

Viewers can also contribute to the project by adding their own stories and documents about family members who appear in the online archives.

Google said it used experimental optical character recognition technology to make documents searchable and easier to navigate. The new feature upgrades Yad Vashem’s already formidable website.

The launch comes a day before the UN marks its annual Holocaust remembrance day.