Rebuilding Post War Europe: New York and Digital Archives as Reconstitutive Fabric

This project explores four digital initiatives that document and make available to the public information related to American, German, and Jewish relationships before, during, and after World War II. The goal of these projects is to make primary source information available to the public using digital technology, in effect, creating an educational infrastructure for enhancing understanding among these groups. These four projects will be treated as cases, with the guiding question being: what infrastructures are needed to create a contemporary, educational, primary source-based digital platform? The goal of this study is to highlight those infrastructure elements that are instrumental in assembling such digital initiatives. In addition to digital infrastructures, this project will find that New York City’s infrastructure—particularly buildings, transportation, cellular capacities, and the organizations maintaining those structures—all play an active role in making educational and historical content available to the public