The goal of the Aufbau Indexing Project is to index all the announcements of birth, engagement, marriage, death and other special occasions that appeared in the pages of Aufbau between 1934 and 2004. This project will allow individuals researching their German-Jewish ancestry to easily locate announcements relevant to their research.
To familiarize yourself with the wealth of information available in these announcements browse the Aufbau Online. Also read Lost and Found, a fascinating success story from Peter Nash, detailing how he used the Aufbau Indexing Project to track down the holder of a Nazi-era passport that turned up at a Shanghai flea market.
To date the AIP has indexed more than 47,600 announcements, mostly from the 1940s, 1950 - 1951, 1960 and 1975 - 2002. These records are now available as a searchable database on this site. However, a great amount of work remains. In the peak years, 1940 - 1960, there were two to three pages of announcements in each issue. This translates to more than 150,000 announcements over the course of Aufbau's 70 years.
We need your help! The only thing you need is a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or QuattroPro. Most importantly, no knowledge of German is required. All you have to do is type the names, German origin, event date and issue date. Feel free to explore the resources for volunteers to see how the indexing works. If you would like to help, please send us an e-mail at aufbauindexingproject@gmail.com .
Many thanks to the creator of this project, Harry Katzman. Thank you especially to all the dedicated volunteers who so generously donate their time and effort to the AIP.