ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As with any volume, and especially in connection with a work of this kind, there are a great many people and institutions who have contributed, and we would like to thank them.
Paul A. Shapiro, director of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies until Spring 2016, brought the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos project into existence and devoted his expertise and influence to keeping it going. As the project grew in scope and complexity, and, as the time necessary for completion expanded beyond anyone’s expectations, he never wavered in his commitment to the idea that we should produce the most comprehensive, highest-quality work we could. Wendy Lower and Lisa Leff, Paul’s successors, maintained that commitment.
The Museum’s Academic Committee has also continued to provide firm support, encouragement, and advice to the Encyclopedia team.
The Mandel Center’s director of Applied Research, Jürgen Matthäus, has been a key source of reasoned guidance, perspective, organizational backing, and comradeship.
My coeditors, Rüdiger Overmans and Wolfgang Vogt, were the subject experts behind the prisoner of war camp section, which makes up the bulk of the volume. Rüdiger has been involved in this project since 2002, and Wolfgang since 2003. Without them, if the volume had come out at all, its accuracy and comprehensiveness would have suffered tremendously. They shaped the section’s organization and content, and they reviewed every entry, contributing corrections or additions of vital importance in almost every instance. Rein-hard Otto also lent his expertise to the section.
Mel Hecker, the Mandel Center’s Publications Officer, deserves special mention. As with the previous three volumes, he was our go-between with Indiana University Press. He read every single word of the manuscript, made sure it was ready for the publisher, then reviewed the copyedits and the page proofs. The concentration, dedication, and attention to detail that his job required would be difficult to overstate.
Dallas Michelbacher, who contributed greatly to this volume, wrote a good number of the essays and was instrumental in helping to ensure the historical accuracy of the text. His positive attitude and unflagging energy were always appreciated, as was his scholarship.
The contractors who worked on this project over the years deserve a great deal of credit. The volume would never have reached completion without their efforts, which included research, writing, editing, photo research, mapping, translation, and administration. We offer our thanks to Guy Aldridge, Jen Burton, Leslie Curley, Robert Hyam, Jolanta Kraemer, Kathleen Luft, Gerard Majka, Bradley Napier, Allison DeGraff Ollivierre, Patrick Tobin, and Evelyn Zegenhagen.
The following current and former Mandel Center and Museum staff members also made important contributions to this volume over the years: Elizabeth Anthony, Peter Black, Tracy Brown, Robert Ehrenreich, Neal Guthrie, Emil Kerenji, Jerry McCauley, Patricia Heberer Rice, Wrenetta Richards, Claire Rosensen, Alexander Rossino, Gwendolyn Sherman, and Kristen Walker.
Current and former staff members of the Museum’s Library, Archives, and Photographic Archives all provided invaluable service. We would especially like to thank Michlean Amir, Aleksandra Borecka, Judith Cohen, Ronald Coleman, Nancy Hartman, Steven Kanaley, Megan Lewis, Henry Mayer, Vincent Slatt, and Caroline Waddell.
Thanks, too, to Eli Rosenbaum and the Office of Special Investigations in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.
Financial support is, of course, the lifeblood of a project as massive as this one. We wish to thank the Helen Bader Foundation, whose interest got the project started. The Conference on Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. has been a steady supporter for years. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation has expressed its great enthusiasm for the project. The William Zell Family Foundation, Diane and Howard Wohl, the Fischmann Family Foundation, and the Miriam Schaeffer Family Foundation also provided significant support.
Many people at Indiana University Press and Amnet Publishing Services helped with the massive job of editing the copy and putting the work into print. We would like to recognize especially David Hulsey and Pete Feely.
We obviously owe a great deal to the many outside contributors who worked so hard to provide the content of this volume. Their expertise and commitment ensure that the sites they described will not fade from history. We would especially like to recognize Alexander Kruglov, without whom most of the POW camp entries would never have taken shape.
To anyone whom we left out, we beg your forgiveness. [End Page XIX]
