Method and responsibility
Editorial Principles
Memory is testimony. Documents are evidence. Interpretation is labeled. Uncertainty remains open.
This archive was built from a family letter, surviving objects, public records, institutional collections and memories carried by descendants. Its purpose is to make that material useful without making it say more than it can.
01
People before conclusions
The archive begins with named people and the records that survive around them. Historical context can explain a document, but it cannot replace personal evidence. We do not assign a fate, relationship, motive or identity because it seems likely. Where the record ends, the narrative says so.
02
Documents and testimony remain distinct
A contemporary document is evidence of what it records and of the institution that produced it. A later memory is testimony: valuable, personal and sometimes the only surviving account. Neither is treated as infallible, and one is not quietly converted into the other. Captions identify who supplied a memory and when it was recorded whenever that information is available.
03
Uncertainty stays visible
Conflicts, provisional identifications and missing dates remain in the public record. We prefer a precise statement of what is unknown to a smooth story that outruns its sources. Corrections are dated, documented and incorporated when stronger evidence changes what can responsibly be said.
04
Primary text is not silently rewritten
Transcriptions preserve the wording and meaningful spellings of their sources. English and Hebrew translations are labeled and credited separately. In narrative prose, current German spelling is used, including ß in names such as Breite Straße and Dominikanerstraße; historical variants remain as written when quoted or transcribed.
05
Treatment is part of the record
Cropping, rotation, tonal correction, restoration and other presentation work are described at object level. Original scans remain available wherever publication rights allow. A clearer derivative may aid reading, but it does not replace the source image.
06
AI-assisted material is never evidence
AI-generated or AI-assisted images, animation, audio and translation support are labeled where they appear. They are interpretations or access tools, not historical photographs, recordings or proof. They remain paired with the documentary source that prompted them, and the source keeps evidentiary priority.
07
Access carries responsibility
The archive publishes for family history, education and research. Object records name sources, credits and known reuse terms, and link to holding institutions when possible. Privacy for living people, explicit restrictions and takedown requests are considered individually rather than hidden behind a single sitewide claim.
Object-level evidence notes govern when they are more specific than this page. The archive’s public finding aid and research pages record the present catalog and the work still in progress.