This book traces the development of Holocaust research in Israel from the late 1940s, its consolidation as an academic subject, and the establishment and development of Yad Vashem. It contextualises this evolution in terms of developments in Europe and the US as well as public discourse on the Holocaust.Drawing on seven years of work in ten major archives in Israel and abroad, the author shows an unknown picture of the way Israeli Holocaust research evolved "from below" and the social and cultural forces influencing its character. He sheds new light on the place of Holocaust survivors in Israeli society and their active contribution to Holocaust research and remembrance well before the Eichmann trial, and re-evaluates the commonplace views on the reception of the Holocaust and its survivors in Israeli public discourse.