The then Heritage Project was established under the auspices of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre (CTHC) in 2011. Originally the archival project centred around the archival holdings amassed by the Centre since its establishment in 1999. In 2014, the CTHC entered into a partnership with the University of Cape Town (UCT) Libraries Special Collections. Since then, UCT Special Collections has provided the archive with specialized physical storage space, ongoing professional development as well as access to their world class archival platform. In 2016, the project took on a national scope with the inclusion of material from the Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre (DHGC), and was renamed the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation Archive.

• Provide a unique platform for community work, research and education
• Provide a safe and professional mechanism for the preservation and digitisation of archival material related to the Holocaust.
• Provide mechanisms for exposure of this material through library accessibility and online visibility.
• Record historical evidence broadly pertaining to the Shoah through a synthesis of oral and archival research methods.
• Ensure structures are in place to promote ongoing accessioning of such material and to ensure that the moral rights of donors are acknowledged and upheld according to international copyright law. This also involves ongoing efforts to secure the provenance of items donated such that the authenticity of items is ascertained.
• Promote the secure and responsible use of artefacts as educational tools.
• Provide mechanisms for the proper retention and management of institutional material related to Holocaust memorialisation and education in South Africa.

In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish  Material Claims Against Germany (Claims  Conference) for supporting this archival project.