The Yad Vashem documents collection houses more than 200 million pages of documentation from various sources: material that was collected during the Holocaust and was brought to Israel after the war, material that was copied from archives throughout the world, private documentation and other source The collection encompasses material from various perspectives including Jewish sources, Nazi material and documentation collected by witnesses to the murder. The collection also include material documenting Jewish life in Europe before the war, the life in the DP camps and both prewar and postwar immigration.
The Knesset legislated in 1953 the Law establishing the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. The law states, among other things, that Yad Vashem should collect, research, and publish all the evidence of the Holocaust.

However, the effort to document the Holocaust began beforehand. With the rise of the Nazi regime and throughout the years of the Second World War many people reported and documented the events, at times in the harshest conditions. By the end of the war many documentation centers were established that collected evidence: in Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, Paris, Bratislava, Budapest and many other locations.The information about the Holocaust also reached the Jewish Settlement in Eretz Israel during the war. Even before the full extent of the Holocaust was realised, Mordechai Shenhavi initiated a commemoration centre for the slaughtered Jewish population of Europe, which should include an archive. The Yad Vashem Archives began working in 1946 under the management of Sarah Friedlander, who survived thank to her being part of the Kastner List.

The first material that reached the Yad Vashem Archives originated from the Historic Commissions, from documentation centers, scholars and private individuals. The material that was collected was added to the material that was collected during the war in the ghettos, camps and in hiding. Since its establishment Yad Vashem actively collects and photocopies material that deals with the fate of European and North African Jews and is found in various archives throughout the world. With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening of many of the Eastern European archives, the volume of documents reaching the archives grew.In order to keep the documentation for future generations and to enable an easy access to the archives, Yad Vashem employs a team of professional archivists, historians and conservation experts. The material that arrives is organised, registered, digitized and preserved in optimal condition. Material that needs special attention are kept by the conservation laboratory.