By Dr Cailee Davis

When my grandmother passed away, my aunt discovered several boxes of journals hidden away in a spare closet. The dozens of little notebooks—some spiraled, others hardbound—were completely filled from front to back with sermons and religious reflections about her life and our family, all written by my grandmother. My grandmother was a deeply religious woman, and had been raised in the American South, the daughter of a Methodist minister, at a time when women were not often accepted into the ministry as anything other than wives and secretaries. Because she could not lead others in her faith, she chose to write down her orations instead. 

As a researcher, when the journals were uncovered, I understood their value as historical documents, in addition to their worth as family heirlooms. I had both the skills and the institutional access to turn these notebooks into a historical narrative of my grandmother’s life—an opportunity that many undertaking family research do not have. 

One of my friends and colleagues, Dr Charlie Knight (Southampton) has built a career working with families and their private archives for years, tracing the experiences of men and women during the Holocaust. Over the last several decades, as the generation of Holocaust survivors have begun to pass away, families around the world are uncovering the documents, diaries, photographs, and other material objects that the survivors have left behind. Hidden in suitcases and boxes, tucked away in basements and attics and spare rooms, a wealth of what historians refer to as ‘material culture’ has been left behind for the children and grandchildren of survivors to unpack. 

Many members of the second and third generation have undertaken family research, retracing the lives and experiences of their survivor-relatives during the Holocaust. While many of these ventures have yielded results, members of the public often lack the institutional and archival connections to access critical records related to their family histories. Moreover, when attempting to uncover their family stories, most members of the public are unaware of the extensive research centers, databases, or networks that exist related to the history of the Holocaust across the globe. 

As the Holocaust becomes removed from living memory, the desire to understand this history and preserve its memory increases, and the Holocaust Research Consultancy (HRC) was formed explicitly for the purpose of providing critical interventions to individuals, families, and students who required expert assistance to uncover their familial Holocaust histories. 

Charlie and I, together with our friends and colleagues Dr Barnabas Balint (Oxford) and Dr Niamh Hanrahan (Manchester), founded the HRC in 2025, responding directly to a public need that we have encountered over the last several years. As researchers, we work from a range of academic disciplines, speak a variety of languages, and have collaborated with leading Holocaust research institutions, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Wiener Holocaust Library, and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies. 

In our inaugural year, the HRC has not only served several individuals in the pursuit of their family research, but we have also delivered support to artists who work on creative representations of the Holocaust, ensuring that the history and memory of the Holocaust continue to reach audiences worldwide. We have consulted on film scripts about the genocide, providing fact-checking for historical accuracy, and have assisted in the delivery of public exhibitions on Holocaust art. Most recently, the HRC has contributed to a number of upcoming theatre productions in London, arranging consultations for research and development on projects about the Kindertransport, Jewish refugees in Shanghai, and Jewish-British experiences in England. Indeed, Charlie himself is currently leading a staged project on D/deaf and disabled Jewish refugees which has developed out of his work on a private family archive. 

It has been an incredible experience working with individuals as they attempt to uncover their relatives’ former lives and creatives who strive to bring these histories to the page, stage, and screen. One of the greatest privileges of my career has arrived through the work of the HRC as we have used our skills and connections to help real people restore formerly lost pieces of their loved ones. I hope that the HRC will be able to do so for many years to come. 

If you or someone you know could benefit from the assistance of the HRC, we would love to speak with you. Please contact us at contact@holocaustresearchconsultancy.org.

Dr Cailee Davis, HRC Co-Founder

Cailee Davis recently completed her doctoral studies at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford. Her research traces generational patterns in representations from the works of survivors to their descendants, across media, language, culture, and geographies. She is especially interested in the phenomenon of metareferentially, the act of self-reflexively drawing attention to the artifice of the work and/or the medium, within these works. Cailee has received fellowships from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, the Holocaust Education Foundation at Northwestern University, and the University of Wrocław. Her work has been funded by the University of Oxford, the German History Society UK, and the American Foundation of RHBNC International Excellence.