Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at USHMM -- Search Tips
Searching for records containing all entered terms
To search for records whose content contains all entered terms, put the word and between each term. For example, Germany and Poland and Russia will return records whose content contains all of the terms Germany, Poland and Russia. By default, all entered terms are "ANDed", i.e., Germany Poland Russia is equivalent to Germany and Poland and Russia.
 
Searching for records containing any entered term
To search for records whose content contains any of the entered terms, put the word or between each term. For example, Germany or Poland or Russia will return records whose content contains any of the terms Germany, Poland or Russia.
 
Searching for records not containing some of the entered term(s)
To search for records whose content does not contain some of the entered terms, put the word not before those terms. For example, Germany Poland not Russia will return records whose content contains the terms Germany and Poland and not the term Russia.
 
Searching for records containing a phrase
To search for records whose content contains a phrase, include the words of the phrase between quotes ("). For example "World War II" will return records whose content contains the phrase "World War II". Note, the words of a phrase can be entered in any order, i.e., "War II World" is equivalent to "World War II". Phrases can also be "ANDed", "ORed" or "NOTed" with other terms and phrases.
 
Using parenthesis to perform complex searches
Parenthesis, (), can be used to create complex search expressions. For example, Germany and (Poland or Russia) will return records whose content contains both terms Germany and Poland or both terms Germany and Russia. Another example is "concentration camp" not (Auschwitz or Treblinka), which returns records whose content contains the phrase "concentration camp" and not the terms Auschwitz or Treblinka.