History research requires primary sources. There is no one place to find primary sources as the primary sources depend on the type of research you are doing.
For European history, you will often be relying on translated works. Many of these can be found by using Library Search for books. Using keywords: jews AND "personal narratives", for instance will yield a list of books that contain diaries, or other documentary sources, for one of the world wars. You can try other keywords: letters, diary, personal narrative, sources, to see if there is anything in your topic area that might have a primary source in a book form.
Other ways to find primary sources is through your scholarly research. Historians always work from primary sources, so you can identify which sources they used, and then try to find them once they have been identified.
If you are struggling, please ask for help from your professor, or from the librarian.
Examples of primary sources found in books:
Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich. (2nd floor, 943.086 Ow3) New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, 1993.
Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition. (2nd floor, 940.53492 F851a) New York: Doubleday, 1989.
Holocaust Chronicle: A History in Words and Pictures. (2nd floor, 940.5472 H235) Lincolnwood, IL: Publications Intl., 2001.
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943. (2nd floor, 940.53492 H557) New York: Pantheon, 1983.
Writing as Resistance: Four Women Confronting the Holocaust. (2nd floor, 940.5472 B751) University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State, 1997.
Getting contemporary news accounts is a great way to feel the tension and weight of the time.
SMC offers a special collection relating to the United States and its relation to the Vatican during the years of World War II.
If you are looking for more primary sources for World War II, check out the European History research guide.
Here are various primary source collections of possible interest (below). If you are looking for something specific, try searching for it on the web. For instance, if you would like the text of the so-called "Final Solution", the plan to exterminate the Jews of Nazi controlled territory, try searching for: "final solution" text. The results are kind of mixed, but if you go down a bit you'll spot something called "Wannsee Protocol" and realize that this is the translated document which essentially sets up the plan by a group of highly placed Nazis. If you know the name of the document or speech that you wish to find, always put the named object in quotes to keep the words as a phrase. This is a great way to find government documents of all sorts, speeches, interviews, and even contemporary news stories if someone has scanned said stories and placed them on the web. Please do ask for help if you can't find what you are looking for!
The Web has some amazing primary source collections. Here are a few:
Holocaust-Era Assets: Records and Research - An ongoing project. So far, the site looks at art looting, German administration of American companies during the war, and Nazi gold. From the National Archives and Records Administration.
Nizkor Project - Documents relating to the Holocaust, including the Nuremberg Trial papers, and information about the camps. Also provides information on the denial of the existence of the Holocaust.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collections: Background, primary sources, links to further reading.
Voices of the Holocaust - "First hand accounts of incredible tales of horror, survival, and liberation of 70 victims of Nazi atrocities and oppression during World War II. The interviewees included farmers, lawyers, artists, carpenters, and others from all economic levels..." Interviews conducted in 1946 and recently rediscovered in 1998.
Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center - Browse databases and archives to find photographs, letters, deportation information, and more. The museum is on the same property as a large, well respected archive of the same name.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.