Children Tracing Archive

This section of the archives keeps records on children who were under 18 years of age at the end of the war. The documents include birth certificates, children’s files and various lists.

Over 60 years after the end of the Second World War, ITS is still receiving tracing requests. Bearing in mind data protection laws and the personal interests of the inquirer or sought person, families are reunited, contact is set up between former employers and forced labourers and individual fates are clarified. Sometimes people come into contact with others whose existence they were unaware of.

The opening of the borders in 1989 caused a huge increase in the number of tracing requests submitted. Many inquirers from Eastern Europe were able to make these inquiries for the first time.

Another reason for late submission of tracing requests is that many people were unaware that they were adopted and only found out when their “parents” died. Others delayed submitting their requests until the older generation had passed on, to avoid rubbing salt in the wounds of their parents.

Information given by the inquirer, references in original documents and cooperation with third parties, in particular the Red Cross, form the basis of the often laborious and protracted work carried out by ITS.