Amateur historians are finding how local newspapers reported on the Holocaust

Did you miss the Daily Reformer issue featuring Adolf Hitler?

You probably did, because it was published in 1933. It's one of seventeen articles and images related to the Second World War and the Holocaust I recently unearthed in the Brooks Memorial Library microfilm room as one of many volunteers working across the nation for "History Unfolded," a project of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The program is designed to uncover local news articles about the Holocaust during the period of 1933 through 1945.

To put it in the museum's words: "What did American newspapers report about the Holocaust during World War II? Citizen historians participating in 'History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust.' will help the US Holocaust Memorial Museum answer this question."

As of this writing, more than 2,000 articles have been submitted to newspapers.ushmm.org. But when I first contacted the project's coordinator, I discovered two significant gaps: no articles had been uploaded yet from either Vermont or Hawaii. ...