Incarceration

The ITS is in possession of records about victims of Nazi persecution who were imprisoned in camps or other detention sites, as well as deportation documents and Gestapo files of various types.

The records include individual documents and lists. Personal effects found during the liberation of the Neuengamme and Dachau concentration camp are kept by ITS, to be handed over to the victims or their surviving family on receipt of their address.

Despite the size of the collection it remains incomplete, because a large number of documents were destroyed by war damage or, intentionally by the SS.

Of the 22 concentration camps operating during wartime with over 1000 external commands, the ITS only has an almost complete set of documents naming the Buchenwald and Dachau camps. The other camps are documented only partially, scantily or not at all.

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Organisation

The ITS archives are divided into three main sections:

» Incarceration

» Forced Labour

» Displaced Persons

In addition to this there are smaller sections associated with the work of a tracing service:

» Central Name Index

» Child Tracing Service

Inventory lists

The digitisation of the paper and microfilm archives began a number of years ago and is being carried out step by step. Parts of the collection that have already been processed are referred to as electronic archive units.

The digitised records of the ITS archive are divided into sub-sections:

» Inventory lists