German Holocaust archive puts over 13 million documents online

Arolsen Archives makes available details and artifacts of about 2.2 million people, including Nazi concentration camp prisoner cards and death notices

By AP 21 May 2019, 2:25 pm

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Illustrative: a Jewish genealogist from New Jersey takes a look at name registers at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, central Germany, May 8, 200. (Michael Probst/AP)

BERLIN — The International Tracing Service in Germany has uploaded more than 13 million documents from Nazi concentration camps, including prisoner cards and death notices, to help Holocaust researchers and others investigate the fate of victims.

Established by the Western Allies in the final days of World War II and initially run by the Red Cross, the ITS also announced Tuesday it was changing its name to “Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution.”

The archive in the town of Bad Arolsen says with help from Israel’s Yad Vashem, documents with information on more than 2.2 million people are now available online. Work is still being done to improve searchability.

Archive director Floriane Azoulay says with survivors dying out, “it is so important that the original documents can speak to coming generations.”