English | Français | Deutsch | Русский

Navigation

January 24,2012

Pupils Conduct Research on the Fates of Jews and Sinti from North Hesse

Latest Info

26 pupils from the Filchner Comprehensive School in Wolfhagen spent two days researching in the digital archives and the library of the International Tracing Service (ITS). The pupils looked into the biographies of Jews and Sinti from North Hesse and into their fates under National Socialist persecution. Another subject of the young people’s history workshop were the survivors who had lived in camps for Displaced Persons in North Hesse after the war. “The original records I have seen at the ITS and our own investigations on individual fates have changed my view of Nazi history”, said pupil Nico Mander.

January 23,2012

Second Conference for Educators

Latest Info

The Pedagogical Academy of the Protestant Educator’s Association (GEE) held their second study session in mid-January for educators at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The goal of the meetings with ITS was to give the educators an insight into the research options and various possibilities for collaborative work. “We are delighted with the exchange,” said Dr. Susanne Urban, Head of Research at ITS. “It gives life to our work, bringing new energy and input from the outside.”

January 23,2012

Museum Historicum20 Opened

Latest Info

Thanks to the association Historicum20, the former staff premises of the barracks in Bad Arolsen could be turned into a museum that was opened last Saturday. The museum shows the varied history of the barracks from 1867 to 1994, from the Kaiserreich (German Empire) to the withdrawal of the Belgian Nato troops. The International Tracing Service (ITS), too, had its home here between 1949 and 1952. “The history of the barracks is a special one which has contributed to shaping the town”, said Dr Ulrike Adamek from the Hessian Association of Museums when the site was opened in an official act before 150 guests.

January 13,2012

“This is a kind of journey which has helped me understand”

Latest Info

Lennart Spira, a Swiss citizen who was born in Sweden, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen from 12-13 January in order to research documents on his family´s fate. Spira is the son of two Holocaust survivors from Poland. “I know my mother´s story very well, as she documented it,” said the 58-year-old. “I know less about what happened to my father, which is why I´m here. I want to systematically reconstruct his odyssey during the Second World War.”

January 12,2012

Oberhausen under National Socialism

Latest Info

Oberhausen under National Socialism is the investigations’ subject of Clemens Heinrichs, manager of the memory hall in the town of Oberhausen. Paying visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) early in January 2012, he looked through plenty of documents kept in the archives on individual citizens’ fates. “Time and again I do come across victims’ names that are news to me and documents that I have not known so far”, rejoices the scholar. “Starting investigations at the ITS was a real eye-opener for me. The sheer number of names appearing in both, lists and individual documents, throws a horrible light on the ramification of the persecution and forced labour system under National Socialism.”

December 23,2011

“I was named after my uncle who was murdered”

Latest Info

A quest for information on his family´s fate led Reuven Barak, an Israeli, to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen at the end of December. He wanted to know if the ITS possessed documents on his family´s persecution and to see the archive´s holdings firsthand. “My parents were able to escape in time, but my grandparents, uncle, aunts and cousins all perished,” said Barak.

December 21,2011

“I´ll probably never find out“

Latest Info

Naftali Sappir, an Israeli, and his son Michael visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-December in search of any trace of his grandparents and their youngest son Bernhard. Sappir thinks that “it´s probably one of those cases which will never be solved.”

December 20,2011

EHRI project needs researchers for survey

Latest Info

The EHRI project (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure) is looking for researchers would like to take part in a survey. The aim is to find out how Holocaust researchers discover and use information. The survey www.ehri-project.eu/Surveys takes between 10-15 minutes to respond to the 17 questions.

December 16,2011

Dutch Victims from Tilburg und Goirle

Latest Info

Archivist Gerrit Kobes paid a two-day research visit to the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-December. “I intend to gather the names of the victims coming from my hometown Goirle and publish and preserve their biographies for the next generations”, said the Dutchman. In collaboration with Ad de Beer, he undertook a similar project on the victims of Nazi persecution and war from Goirle’s neighbouring town Tilburg. “In the ITS archives I have found more information to add to that project, too.”

December 12,2011

Talk with Researchers at the Centrum Judaicum

Latest Info

On 12 December 2011, Dr Susanne Urban, head of the ITS Research Department, held a lecture at the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin on the potential that the archival material of the International Tracing Service (ITS) offers for researchers. “Since we could not find a date for us to come and see you in Bad Arolsen, we decided to meet here”, said Dr Hermann Simon, the Director of the Centrum who had invited to the event. The idea of holding the meeting had been formed when Simon visited the ITS in March 2011. He had informed himself about collections of the ITS that have not been explored by researchers so far.

December 9,2011

International Commission has signed new agreements

Latest Info

The eleven member states of the International Commission for the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen signed two new agreements on the future tasks and management of the ITS today at the German Foreign Office in Berlin. “We met to decide a historical restructuring of the ITS”, said Harald Braun, state secretary at the Foreign Office.

December 8,2011

Research on DP Camp “Insula”

Latest Info

The US-American John Plume spent a four-day visit at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) conducting research on Displaced Persons from the "Insula” Camp near Berchtesgaden in the post-war years. “My brother and I wish to retrace and reconstruct as many people’s lives as possible”, Plume outlines his project. In October 1945, as a five-year old boy he had lived himself in the camp with his family.

December 7,2011

A Question of Ethics

Latest Info

Esther Cuerda Galindo from the University of Madrid spent a week at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen doing research for a study on medical experiments. “So far we have analyzed eyewitness reports. Now I would like to look at the original concentration camp documents,” said Galindo, who is discussing the topic in a small team of four academics.

December 2,2011

Exhibition Planned on the Deportation of Jewish Children from Rome

Latest Info

Professor Umberto Gentiloni and Stefano Palermo from the University of Rome recently spent several days doing research at the ITS (International Tracing Service) archive for an exhibition they are planning next year in the Italian capital on the deportation of Jewish children from Rome between October 1943 and June 1944. “We want to tell the children´s stories, and we have found many interesting documents here,” said Gentiloni.

November 29,2011

On the Traces of the Death Marches

Latest Info

60 scholars from eight countries met in late November at a 2-day conference at the ITS (International Tracing Service) in Bad Arolsen to discuss the results of their research on the Holocaust death marches. The conference “On the traces of the Death Marches – Crimes, Investigation and Remembrance” focused on documents in the ITS archive on the reconstruction of the death marches and the identification of the dead which were compiled between 1946 and 195. Researchers have been systematically examining these documents since 2010. “The ITS project is important in increasing our understanding of this phase of the genocide,” said Daniel Blatman, professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of the book “The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide”.

November 21,2011

Return of Personal Effects at Amersfoort

Latest Info

On 19 November 2011, the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen was able to return twelve personal effects from the concentration Neuengamme to relatives of former prisoners. This took place at the National Monument Camp Amersfoort. “It was a particularly memorable experience for everyone involved to be able to return personal effects to relatives after such a long period of time,” said ITS staff member Ulrike Witte, who travelled to Amersfoort with three colleagues.

November 18,2011

Interviews with Contemporary Witnesses in the Fore

Latest Info

On 17 and 18 November 2011, the 14th conference of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship and the Association against Oblivion – For Democracy in conjunction with the International Tracing Service (ITS) was held in Bad Arolsen. 40 participants – among them senior staff from memorial centres, educators and teachers from institutes for political education and representatives from associations working on projects with contemporary witnesses – attended this year’s meeting. Oral history – as perceived in the stories of contemporary witnesses – was in the fore of the conference.

November 10,2011

Born at Lebensborn Home “Pommern”

Latest Info

Brigitte Kolberg was born at Lebensborn home “Pommern” in Bad Polzin. She did not learn her father’s name until she had turned sixteen. “I have constantly been searching for my roots and seeking to obtain information on the ‘Lebensborn e.V.’ ever since”, says the 71-year-old. In mid-November she paid a four-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) looking into records on the homes in Bad Polzin and Szczecin (Stettin).

November 3,2011

Arrived – Event on the ITS Tracing activities

Latest Info

Which meaning the search for family members can still have more than six decades after the end of the Second World War was described by Renate Bauer and Victor Sokolovs at the event „Arrived - tracing and the clarification of fates today“ on the 2nd of November, 2011 in the Rauch Museum Bad Arolsen. „I can hardly describe with words what it meant to me to find my father's identity“, said Bauer in front of the 120 guests. „I am very happy about it and full of gratitude for the work of the International Tracing Service.“

October 31,2011

Joint Seminar for Educators from Yad Vashem and ITS in Bad Arolsen

Latest Info

In late October, ten educators who had attended a seminar at Yad Vashem´s International School for Holocaust Studies now came to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. During three days they conducted detailed research and planned lessons using documents held in the ITS archives. The educators focused chiefly on the Holocaust, but they also discussed documentation on forced labour. “The sheer volume of records and the huge number of human fates is both overwhelming and upsetting,” said Cornelia Opitz, a religion teacher from Schechen. “I find myself doing research constantly.”

October 25,2011

Sinti and Roma in Nordhausen

Latest Info

Christian Hentschke has searched the archival material of the International Tracing Service (ITS) for any information on the lives and persecutions of Sinti and Roma from Nordhausen and its surroundings. “As I have few details on the victims only, my search is arduous”, so the researcher. “By doing research on them, though, I want to contribute to their not being forgotten.”

October 21,2011

Preparatory Research for Exhibition and Memory Concept

Latest Info

Marc Bartuschka, representative of the committee for culture at the Jena town council and the rural district authorities of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, paid a one-week visit to Bad Arolsen researching the archival holdings of the International Tracing Service (ITS). The historian looked through the documents to prepare a memory concept for the Jena town authorities and revise the permanent exhibition at the memorial of “Laura”, a former concentration camp commando. “The ITS is a site central to and valuable for my research“, so Bartuschka.

October 13,2011

Remembering the Granduncle

Latest Info

“Whatever is not put down on paper is lost”, thinks Laurent Guillet. That is why the Frenchman has narrated the story of his granduncle, who went missing in 1945, in the book “Il s’appelait Joseph” (His name was Joseph). Guillet came to hand the book to the employees of the French Liaison Mission at the International Tracing Service (ITS) yesterday and to thank them for the assistance they gave him with his research. “They do a wonderful job and have contributed considerably to the search for documents and information in the last two years”, says the 41-year-old.

October 12,2011

Archival Workshop at the ITS

Latest Info

During a recent two-day meeting in Bad Arolsen, participants discussed such topics as methods of indexing, the use of archive terminology according to international standards and access for ITS (International Tracing Service) archive users. Fourteen participants from seven countries attended, including archivists from Yad Vashem, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the French and Belgian national archives, institutions which work with complete copies of documents from the ITS archive. In addition, representatives from the Vienna Library, the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD), the Federal Archive, the International Council on Archives (ICA) and archivists from the University of Amsterdam also took part.

October 5,2011

The different phases of the Sandbostel camp

Latest Info

Andrea Genest came to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen this week to investigate the immediate post-war history of the former prisoner of war camp in Sandbostel. “This phase in the camp’s history has been hardly explored yet”, said the scholarly assistant of the Memorial. “In the ITS holdings I have discovered information relevant and useful for our new permanent exhibition.”

October 5,2011

The first years of the “unwanted child” ITS

Latest Info

The Waldeckian Association of History presented the book “International Tracing Service Arolsen” by teh author Bernd Joachim Zimmer to the public yesterday. It is the first publication on the history of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen that gives comprehensive coverage of the institution’s early years up to 1955. “The ITS had helped millions of people, and as yet a detailed description of its history was lacking”, observed Zimmer. “I have limited my account to the organisation’s first years, though, as otherwise it would have grown too voluminous.”

September 27,2011

Exploitation in Armaments’ Industry

Latest Info

Late in September 2011, Frank Baranowski came to see the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) preparing his book titled “Rüstungsproduktion in Deutschlands Mitte von 1923 bis 1945” (Armaments’ Production in Germany’s centre from 1923 to 1945). “With this book, I intend to create transparency on structural changes and their reasons in armaments’ industry and have a close look at the exploitation of forced labourers, prisoners-of-war and concentration camp inmates“, states the history enthusiast. He concentrates the research he pursues in Bad Arolsen on records about various outlying commandos and prisons in the regions of North Thuringia and South Lower Saxony.

September 26,2011

Shot after Liberation

Find from the Archives

A document in the ITS archives states that Josef Küstrin, a Yugoslavian forced labourer in agriculture, was shot dead “on 15 April 1945, probably by a SS man in the woods” near Twiste (eight km/5 miles from Arolsen) – that is several days after the US Army had freed the region. His mortal remains were not discovered until months later.

September 15,2011

Exercise on Emigration to Australia

Latest Info

For two weeks, Ruth Balint has been studying documents from the record group on Displaced Persons (DPs) at the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. In so doing, she focused on the post-war migration movement to Australia. “The records from the immediate post-war period are a thrilling read and of enormous importance”, says the historian and senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

September 15,2011

“The Information has opened a Window”

Latest Info

In the company of his family, Michael Dimor spent a week in Germany seeing the home places of his Jewish Family. The Israeli felt the need to also have a stop at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. On site, he looked at records from Concentration Camp Buchenwald, cards from Transit Camp Westerbork, registration lists from the rural districts of Kassel and Waldeck-Frankenberg and at his grandfather’s death certificate. “Reading the original documents is so incredible an experience”, so Dimor.

September 6,2011

“A Good and Professional Perspective for the ITS”

Latest Info

Ministry official Dr Martin Ney and Harald Gehrig from the German Foreign Office came to see and get a personal impression of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen yesterday. While Ney takes part in the negotiations for the future of the tracing service, Gehrig is the Representative of the Federal Republic in the International Commission. The body that consists of eleven member states lays down the guidelines about the activities of the ITS. “It makes a great difference whether you form an opinion at your desk in Berlin or directly on site”, said Ney. “I am impressed by the demanding and yet so professional job the staff does.”

September 5,2011

“After more than ten years I am finally finished with my search”

Latest Info

Jean Klerykowski, whose father was imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp during the Second World War, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in early September 2011 to present his second book “Après les camps… Le calvaire continue” (After the camps… Calvary continues) and to thank the ITS-based French Liaison Mission for the help it had given him in the past four years. “I never could have imagined the vast amount of documents held by the ITS,” says the 72-year-old after a guided tour of the archive. “I’ve had time to do research since my retirement. And my motivation to learn my true history has continued to grow ever more.”

August 26,2011

We lost our parents and grandparents

Latest Info

Israeli Emmie Arbel and her sisters-in-law Alice Hoffmann and Nel van Het Kaar visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen yesterday to see documents concerning the fate of their family. Emmie was seven years old when she was liberated from the Ravensbrück concentration camp. “It is not easy for me to look at original documents, but I´m not doing it for the first time. My brothers and I have often talked about that time in our lives,” she said.

August 24,2011

Member of the German Bundestag Ullrich Messmer visits the ITS

Latest Info

Ullrich Messmer, representative of the Social Democratic Party in the German Bundestag, came to inform himself on the work done by the International Tracing Service (ITS) on 23 August 2011. He visited the archives’ premises and listened to explanations given on the digitisation of the collections, the treatment of requests and the setup of the research department. He also had talks with ITS-Director Jean-Luc Blondel. “The history of Nazi persecution must not fall into oblivion”, said Messmer. “I am sure that the generation of the grandchildren will stay interested.”

August 23,2011

The next generation will ask questions

Latest Info

Professor Baruch Nevo of the University of Haifa and Israeli writer Savyon Liebrecht visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen yesterday in order to see the archive and research facilities and learn about plans for educational work. “Important work is being done here with a lot of heart and emotion – an overwhelming experience,” said Liebrecht.

August 19,2011

Chairman of the International Commission on Visit to Arolsen

Latest Info

The Chairman of the International Commission and Director of the Archives in the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Frédéric Baleine du Laurens, spent a two-day visit at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-August. The Commission works out the guidelines governing the ITS mandate and is currently negotiating the institution’s future with its eleven member states. “If one considers that the negotiations are in the final stage now”, said du Laurens, “France has assumed responsibility for chairing the Commission at a remarkable moment in the history of the institution.”

August 17,2011

Documentation of the “Waldeckische Landeszeitung” on the ITS

Latest Info

In a joint event held before 90 guests yesterday, the “Waldeckische Landeszeitung/Frankenberger Zeitung (WLZ-FZ)” and the International Tracing Service (ITS) presented the new WLZ-FZ documentation “Clarifying Fates – Keeping Memory Alive”. 20 articles narrate individuals’ fates and portray both, the mandates and the history of the ITS. “We take pride in this exciting documentary. It exemplifies that we, as a local paper are capable of profoundly treating topics despite the hectic pace of everyday news life”, stated Joerg Kleine, chief editor of the WLZ-FZ.

August 11,2011

Visit of Björn Sänger, Member of the Deutsche Bundestag

Latest Info

Yesterday, Björn Sänger, Member of the Deutsche Bundestag (German Parliament), came to familiarize himself with the variety of tasks accomplished by the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “It was important to come to know the institution and the range of its valuable activities”, said Sänger. “Re-assessing the past and providing with information the victims and their relatives will continue to play an essential part in future remembrance work.”

August 4,2011

Research on Buchenwald Commando

Latest Info

This week Marissa Perry, undergraduate student at Michigan State University, has investigated the subject of the Commando Leipzig-Schönefeld, a subsidiary camp of Concentration Camp Buchenwald, in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). “The personal files allow me to reconstruct the individual fates suffered by the women that worked here“, Perry comments, “while documents such as transport lists and correspondence are helping me to get a picture of the camp overall. When I return to the States, I will also listen to prisoner testimonies. By combining these two sources, I will be able to construct a social history of the camp.”

July 25,2011

South Korean Conducts Research for Final School Paper

Latest Info

In preparation of his final school paper casting light on the historical background of the move project of the Genshagen Daimler motor works called “Goldfish, Obrigheim”, Robin Lee has spent three days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen and looked through its archives. “Primarily focussing on the facts, on the project story in itself, I have to try ‘blending out’ the many personal fates of the people affected by it“, so 17-year-old Lee.

July 18,2011

Return to Indersdorf after 66 Years

Latest Info

“I knew in 1943 that I was alone in the world.” Steve Israeler was 14 when the US Army liberated him on the death march from Flossenbürg concentration camp to Dachau. His entire family was murdered in the Holocaust. After the liberation he and other children were taken to the monastery in Indersdorf, where a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) DP Children’s Center had been established. In mid-July, he and seven of the others visited Indersdorf for the first time in 66 years. The survivors received copies of documents including lists and personal files from the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen – fragments of their former lives under Nazi persecution and subsequent UNRRA care.

July 14,2011

Commemorative Book on the Persecution of Slovenes in the Carinthian Region

Latest Info

Early in July Brigitte Entner from the Slovenian Scientific Institute in Klagenfurt came to pursue research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. She dedicated her visit to the persecution of Slovenians in the Carinthian region under the Nazis’ reign. “Initially I had estimated casualties to amount to about 300”, relates Entner. “Meanwhile I have come to uncover and confirm the death of more than 500 men, women and children who fell victim to National Socialist terror.”

July 12,2011

Australian revisits childhood in Arolsen

Latest Info

“I had a good time in Arolsen,” remembers Ksenia Bettany, an Australian who lived in Bad Arolsen and Rennertehausen in the Waldeck Frankenberg district as a Displaced Person (DP) with her parents and siblings immediately following the Second World War. Ksenia and her son Romill made the 4-day trip to retrace her childhood, the highlight being yesterday´s visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen.

June 21,2011

Deported Jews from Vlotho

Latest Info

Manfred Kluge has paid a two-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen pursuing research on behalf of the “Mendel-Grundmann-Gesellschaft e.V.” based in Vlotho. Three years ago the “Commemoration book on the Vlotho victims of the Nazi Persecution of the Jews” brought him already to the ITS. This time he wants to shed more light on two individual fates, those of Jutta Silberberg and Margarethe Bräutigam. “I come across detail upon detail that are new to me”, rejoices the researcher.

June 16,2011

The Marburg School of Archives pays visit to the ITS

Latest Info

A group of 36 archival science students at the Marburg School of Archives came to see and gain an overview of the work done and archives kept at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen yesterday. The interest of the archivists to-be focused on the organisation of the archives, the origin of the documents and the digitisation and use made of the archival units. “The visit to the ITS is of particular importance for our students”, said Dr Karsten Uhde, organiser of the study trip, “because the ITS is not an archive in the classical sense, but an archive that has ‘grown up’ in line with its tasks, i.e. is structured ‘organically’.”

June 10,2011

"Accepting the other in our midst“

On the death of Mieczyslaw Pemper

Whoever has seen the movie “Schindler’s List” directed by the US American Steven Spielberg will remember the scene in which Itzhak Stern – portrayed by Ben Kingsley – has just finished typing the list with the names of the Jews to be saved from Krakow: he takes the last sheet of paper out of the typewriter, his hands are trembling. He holds up the paper bundle and says to Schindler – portrayed by Liam Neeson: “Have a look at this list. It means life. All around it is death.”

June 9,2011

Forced labour in the rural district of Wolfenbüttel

Latest Info

For four days, Siegfried Berneis has searched in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for the names of forced and civilian labourers who had been employed in the joint community of Schladen located in the rural district of Wolfenbüttel during the Second World War. His tracing endeavour was supported and accompanied by Peter Asmussen who has paid visit to the archives for the third time already. “My intention is to historically appraise the era of National Socialism from my home town’s perspective“, so Berneis. “Many pieces of information from this period have not been dug up; if they are brought to daylight, all the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle just need to be joined together.”

June 8,2011

Commemorative stone from Wetterfeld

Finds from the Archives

The US Military Government initiated plans for a cemetery to hold the almost 600 casualties of the death march of Flossenburg Concentration Camp in the community of Wetterfeld (today Roding/Upper Palatinate) in 1945. The archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) still keep the drawings made for three commemorative stones with the symbols of the Latin and Russian-Orthodox crosses and the Star of David on them.

June 1,2011

Important Source for Research

Latest Info

Between 29th and 31st May 2011, Dr Wendy Lower from Munich University took an overview of the documents kept at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. She also wanted to sound out opportunities of cooperation in initial talks. “The ITS archives opened only late in 2007. It is the most important center for new research on the Holocaust and its aftermaths in Europe, in particular casting light on the history of forced labour and on the endeavours taken in the post-war era to care for the persecuted and search for any of their next-of-kin”, said Lower.

Finding one’s identity – after 66 years

Latest Info

“I feel relieved. I can find peace of mind after all”, 69-year-old George Jaunzemis sums up his feelings. He never knew who his mother was, which his real name was or where he was born – questions the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen has solved now. A four-year-old boy, George had been separated from his natural mother in the turmoils of the post-war time. In mid-May 2011, he met his relatives for the first time and came to see his birth place Magdeburg in Germany.

May 18,2011

Research for “Memory Train Route Buchenwald”

Latest Info

It was a transport list showing the names of 200 children and teenagers that brought Holger Obbarius and Torsten Jugl from the Concentration Camp Buchenwald memorial to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. They spent two days of intense research at the ITS archives seeking to shed light on the lives and fates of Sinti and Roma children. “Our work is meant to deepen the project ‘Memory Train Route Buchenwald’“, reports educationist Obbarius. “The ITS holds in its archives plenty of information our work can profit by.”

May 11,2011

Doctoral Thesis on Psychologists in Concentration Camps

Latest Info

In mid-May, Frank Wiedemann came to persue research in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for his dissertation. For three years the historian has been investigating the subject of “Psychologists in concentration camps – Methods and Strategies of Survival”. “As I can find documents here on all concentration camps, the ITS plays a pivotal role in my research work”, said the 29-year-old.

May 5,2011

“My Father did not abandon me”

Latest Info

“After looking for any trace of my father so long, I have come to know in the end that he did not abandon me”, said Antoine Jules Bukovinszky. The French came to the International Tracing Service (ITS) and its French Liaison Mission office in Bad Arolsen yesterday. “I wanted to express my thanks to everyone who helped me with my inquiry.”

April 21,2011

Death in Labour Camp “Schlosshof”

Latest Info

His research on labour camp “Schlosshof” brought Bielefed historian Martin Decker to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. Originally forged plans to tear down the “Schlosshof” were prevented from materialization by an action alliance. The town authorities intend to explore the occurrences at the camp now and find a deserving way of remembering instead. Decker, a longstanding amateur investigator into the subject of Nazi persecution, makes regular use of the ITS archives meanwhile. “Here you have the most complete collection of individual fates. That makes the archives so valuable”, says the home region researcher.

April 15,2011

The Children of Monastery Indersdorf

Latest Info

Anna Andlauer came to see the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-April 2011 investigating in its archives the subject of “Children in Monastery Indersdorf 1945 – 1948”. She looked through files the child-tracing service had opened on orphaned or missing children immediately after the end of World War II. “I have already managed to find some of these children in Canada, England, Israel and the USA. Now I am going to widen my search to include the East of Europe”, said Andlauer.

April 7,2011

Talks on Return of Effects

Latest Info

On 5 and 6 April, the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen had talks with representatives of the memorial centres Neuengamme, Dachau, Amersfoort and Bergen-Belsen on the modus operandi for returning effects still kept in the ITS archives. The ITS needs the memorials’ assistance with its search for any next-of-kin of the effects’ former owners. “To this date we have not been able to assess how voluminous these holdings still are. Therefore, we are glad to have a lucid and accurate list now”, said Klaus Taetzler from the Bergen-Belsen memorial.

April 7,2011

Visit of UK Envoy

Latest Info

Sir Andrew Burns, UK envoy for post-Holocaust issues, spent two days in early April learning about the latest developments at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “It was a very interesting and illuminating visit,” said Burns. “I am deeply impressed by the number of activities and the sheer volume of documents.”

April 1,2011

“Who doesn´t discover anything here is in the wrong line of work”

Aktuelle Meldung

Dr. Hermann Simon, director of the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on 30 March 2011 to consider ways in which the two institutions could work together. “I was interested in finding out what we could do and how we could use the documents in the ITS archives,” said Simon. He discussed the opportunities for researchers with ITS director Jean-Luc Blondel and Dr. Susanne Urban, head of the research department at the ITS.

March 28,2011

Jews in Langenselbold

Latest Info

Members of the Association for local history and geography at Langenselbold paid a one-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “We are going to investigate the fates suffered by the Jewish inhabitants of our town and compile their data. First of all, though, we want to get an impression of the ITS and come to know the research possibilities the institution offers”, so Dr Manfred Keil, President of the Association.

March 28,2011

Talks with the Russian Holocaust Research and Education Centre

Latest Info

With a handful of ideas and proposals for cooperation projects, Professor Ilya Altman, Head of the Russian Holocaust Research and Education Centre in Moscow, came to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen late in March. Accompanied by Natalja Anisina, he first took a guided tour to get an overview of the documents the ITS archives keep on the Holocaust and had talks afterwards. “I am impressed with the possibilities of research and the technical equipment”, said Altman.

March 23,2011

Visit from the French Red Cross

Latest Info

Three representatives of the French Red Cross, Véronique Molinaro, Virginie Alauzet and Robyn Gason, paid a one-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) informing themselves on the digitisation progress, the treatment of tracing cases and the foreseen change in the management of the service. “We had the privilege of being given an idea here on site. We and the ITS work together well, and I am happy to see this cooperation continue”, said Robyn Gason.

March 16,2011

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen

Latest Info

The incarceration of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen is the subject that preoccupies the mind of Reiner Hermann from Celle. To investigate the fate this Nazi victims’ type suffered or succumbed to, the amateur historian came to look through the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-March. “The bare names are to be filled with life again, are to be changed back to human beings with a life story”, so Hermann.

March 2,2011

“Overnight the Nazis took our identity and our families”

Latest Info

“The worst thing was not that my parents and brother were gassed. No, the worst thing was that we were robbed of our dignity.” Ghizela Kardos survived the Holocaust. The 86-year-old recently visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for the first time in order to view the archive´s documents on persecution.

March 2,2011

“My Wish was to touch the List”

Latest Info

He owes his life to Schindler’s list. “This knowledge has been my constant companion”, states Ronny Bronner. Together with his wife Gila, the Israeli citizen came to see the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen and look into the documents on his family yesterday. His parents, Jetti and Leopold Bronner, were among the 1200 Jews the German industrialist Oskar Schindler rescued from certain death in Nazi death camps.

February 28,2011

Research for the benefit of Concentration Camp Memorial Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental

Latest Info

In an honorary capacity, Manfred Krey conducts research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for the benefit of Concentration Camp Memorial Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental – and has spent as much as 200 hours’ time investigating so far. “I could complete the prisoners’ list by 170 new names”, rejoices Krey. “All in all, over 800 largely Polish Jews were detained in Hessental. We have come to know of 650 fates now.”

February 25,2011

Jointly Shaping Remembrance

Lates Info

Günter Saathoff and Martin Bock from the “Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft (EVZ)” (foundation on remembrance, responsibility and future) came to see and have talks at the International Tracing Service (ITS) on 25 February 2011. “We want to find out in which fields we have tasks in common and so may start cooperation. It is important to concentrate competence”, explained Saathoff, member of the EVZ board of directors.

February 24,2011

Silence on Time in National Socialist Camp

Latest Info

Cesar de Schuiteneer, a Belgian, never wanted to talk about his time as a prisoner in National Socialist Germany. “His face always took on a pained expression when we asked,” said his grandson, Freddy de Schuiteneer. The 65-year-old visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen at the end of February to view documents on the fate of his family. “We children and grandchildren feel a deep obligation to find out more,” said de Schuiteneer.

February 22,2011

US Representative Davidson at the ITS

Latest Info

Douglas Davidson, US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, got acquainted with the activities of the International Tracing Service (ITS) on a one-day visit he paid to Bad Arolsen. “Most interesting and enlightening”, Davidson summed up his impression. “There is no substitute for a personal visit. It’s clear the ITS does uniquely valuable work so many years after war’s end.”

February 19,2011

Sally Perel Telling Pupils the Story of his Life

Latest Info

On 18th February 2011, Sally Perel spoke before an audience of about 200 pupils crowding the projection room of Christian Rauch secondary school in Bad Arolsen on how he managed to survive the Holocaust. Over four long years of the National Socialist era, Perel had hidden right in his enemies’ midst feigning the identity of an “Ethnic German”. “I felt these years to be ages”, said the Israeli who wrote down his memories in the autobiographical book “Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon” (I was Hitler-Boy Salomon) decades later.

February 18,2011

Remembering his father

Latest Info

Erald de Wachter is planning to keep the memory of his father alive through a book to be published this year. Maurice de Wachter was a Belgian resistance fighter arrested by the Nazis and deported to the concentration camp Neuengamme, near Hamburg. Erald and his wife Agnis van Mieghem visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for a day to view documents from Neuengamme on his father´s fate and that of friends from the Resistance.

February 11,2011

Slovenian Migration

Latest Info

Lecturer Dr Rolf Wörsdörfer paid a two-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen conducting research for the scholarly project “From a ‘Westphalian Slovene’ to a ‘guest worker’. A comparative cultural history of the migration movement of Slovenes to Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries (1880–1973)”. “I perused the files prisons in the Ruhrgebiet kept on inmates and deportation lists, and I compared prisoners’ and deportees’ biographical data”, explains Wörsdörfer.

February 3,2011

“A worthwhile extracurricular place of learning”

Latest Info

Christoph Stillemunkes and Guido Steffens from the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) on February 2, 2011 in order to learn about the work being done there. “It was an informative yet very intensive visit,” said Steffens, who works for the state teacher training college for grammar schools in Offenbach. “We saw that the ITS is a worthwhile extracurricular place of learning.”

January 28,2011

Interest in Escapee Program

Aktuelle Meldung

American Christopher Uebelhor spent four days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) perusing documents on the Escapee Program. “I am fascinated by the history of the Cold War, which explains my interest in the program” said Uebelhor, who is currently studying at the University of Leuven in Belgium. “At the ITS I hope to find references to the number of people accepted into the program, who they were and where they were from.”

January 27,2011

“Not only did I find a Mother, but also a wonderful Family”

Latest Info

In an emotional speech in front of 110 listeners, Dagmar Nabert, the daughter of a Russian forced labourer, talked about the search for her roots. The International Tracing Service (ITS) and the history association Historicum20 had invited to the event that took place in Arolsen town church on 26 January 2011. “It was my heartfelt wish to come here”, said Nabert. “My story shows what the ITS may mean to an individual. It is a place of reminder, remembrance and recognition without the aid of which I would not be standing here today.”

January 21,2011

Flights and attempts to flee

Latest Info

In preparation of her dissertation, Tanja von Fransecky has spent four days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen looking through files. The historian who is supported by the Center for Research on Antisemitism in Berlin investigates the subject of “Flights and attempts of Jewish deportees to flee from deportation trains in France, Belgium and the Netherlands”. “From the documents the tracing service keeps I could gather further information on the fates of deportees and on the course of the transports“, said Fransecky.

January 20,2011

Thesis on Female Prisoners in the Commandos of Gross-Rosen

Latest Info

The situation of female prisoners in the commandos of Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen is the subject of Andrea Rudorff’s doctoral thesis. For four days, the historian has been pursuing research in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). “My visit has been worthwhile”, said Rudorff. “While I had known some documents already from other archives, I have also unearthed others that were new to me.”

January 14,2011

Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation expresses interest in exchange of information

Latest Info

In mid-January, the International Tracing Service (ITS) had the opportunity to welcome three representatives of the Foundation for Polish-German reconciliation to Bad Arolsen. The Head of the Foundation’s Board of Directors Dariusz Pawlos and his two colleagues Jakub Deka and Jerzy Wozniak updated their knowledge on the digitization progress and the research possibilities in the database of the tracing service. With ITS Director Jean-Luc Blondel, they had talks on the practicality of a future collaboration. “The database of the tracing service would be the best source of information we can imagine“, said Pawlos. “It would enrich our project tremendously.”

January 12,2011

History You Can Touch - Wolfhagen Student Project

Latest Info

In the autumn of 2010, 10th and 11th grade students at Filchner comprehensive school in Wolfhagen made two visits to the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives in order to do research. Comprised of a group of 16 students, the history workshop “National Socialism´s Terror System – the fates of the victims” presented first results of its research this week. “This work was a defining moment for the students, as they experienced history firsthand,” said teacher and project leader Marcus von der Straten.

December 23,2010

Dialogue on Digitization

Latest Info

Giora Zwilling, head of the department which prepares the Yad Vashem Memorial´s holdings for digitization, spent three days in December 2010 at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen learning about the work being done there. “It was extraordinary to gain an understanding of the considerable tasks and topics which the ITS handles,” said Zwilling after his visit. “I now have a clear picture and will be able to use much of this experience in the future.”

December 14,2010

The Story of Bnei Akiva in Antwerp

Latest Info

“The Story of a Memorial”, a new book by Salomon Hauser and Jacques Offen, recounts the story of 97 youths from Antwerp who were active in the Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva before the outbreak of the Second World War. Most of the youths were murdered in the concentration and death camp Auschwitz. “We are giving the victims a name, a face and a biography with our book,” explains Offen. “The personal stories have especially touched us and have exposed the dimensions of the Shoah.” The book took Hauser and Offen four years to finish.

December 3,2010

Long years of service for the ITS

Latest Info

Director Jean-Luc Blondel had the chance of congratulating in all eight employees of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on their long years of service yesterday. Together with Fred Kolander, chief representative of staff, he handed bouquets of flowers and presents to the jubilarians. “Together, you have gathered 230 years of experience in the most various fields of activities”, said Blondel. “I extend to you my sincere thanks for the important, most varied work you have done. Many people have profited and do profit by your performance.”

November 22,2010

Wolfhagen Pupils Starting in on a History Workshop on Nazi Persecution

Latest Info

In mid-November, a group of pupils from the “Filchner” comprehensive school at Wolfhagen began working on a project titled “The Terror System of National Socialism – the Fates of the Victims” at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). The history workshop that 16 pupils attending the 10th and 11th forms took part in analyses above all the biographies of persecuted persons coming from the surroundings of North Hessian Wolfhagen. “You have another, a more direct and immediate approach to the subject if people from the surroundings you are familiar with are concerned. After all, we do live here and so the remote subject, all of a sudden, turns into a present-day topic”, says 17-year-old pupil Paula Schröder.

November 16,2010

Operations’ Record – Most Important Source in the Cause of Aribert Heim

Finds from the Archives

The historian and author Stefan Klemp presented his book titled “KZ-Arzt Aribert Heim – Die Geschichte einer Fahndung” (Concentration Camp Surgeon Aribert Heim – Chronology of a Search) to the Berlin public last Friday. In his publication, Klemp gives details on the search for the former concentration camp surgeon who kept escaping arrest successfully and whose alleged death in the early 1990s has not been verified to this day. Gathering evidence for his book, Klemp also sifted through the documentation of the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen. The ITS archive keeps a copy of the operations’ record from Concentration Camp Mauthausen signed by Heim in his own hand. This record is the most important authentic source in the cause of Aribert Heim.

November 10,2010

Model for the MPI in Sarajevo

Latest Info

Five representatives of the Institute for Missing Persons (MPI) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sarajevo paid a two-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. Looking over its staffs’ shoulders, they got a general idea of the work done at the ITS. In the centre of their special interest, however, was the Central Name Index compiled to be the key to the documentation gathered on the persecution under Nazi reign. “Its structure may act as a model for us“, MPI Director Amor Masovic has discovered.

November 5,2010

Research on Deportation Action from Franconia

Latest Info

Early in November 2010, Ekkehard Hübschmann investigated the fates of 15 Jews from Franconia in the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS). “I could discover new facts for about half of the people largely drawing them from the documents on displaced persons’ camps”, Hübschmann is happy to report. The freelance historian has been involving himself with Jewish history in Franconia for more than 20 years.

October 29,2010

Pupils’ Project on the Holocaust

Latest Info

Eight pupils of the “Christian Rauch” secondary school at Bad Arolsen have spent a project week at the International Tracing Service (ITS). Their main topic was the “Organisation of the Holocaust”. The concrete subjects they attended to were the deportation and expropriation of the Jews and survival after the Holocaust. “The pupils have taken an intensive look at the subject”, said ITS historian Dr Susanne Urban. “They not only analysed the documents, but also expressed empathy with the victims.”

October 21,2010

NIOD Strives for Access to ITS Data

Latest Info

On a two-day visit in mid-October, Annemieke van Bockxmeer, Petra Links and Tim Veken from the National Dutch Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) viewed the documentary holdings and database of the International Tracing Service (ITS). The institute is interested in having access to the digital database of the ITS. “As the appraisal and re-appraisal of World War II and Nazi persecution have deepened in the Netherlands, numerous books on the topic are being put on the market, and our research department continues to grow,” relates archivist van Bockxmeer.

October 19,2010

“Our Parents were Heroes”

Latest Info

Seven members of the French organization “Orphelins de Résistants” paid a one-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) and its French Liaison Mission in Bad Arolsen. The members of the association are the children and grand-children of women and men involved in the French Résistance during the Second World War. “We have already received a lot of information from Bad Arolsen and feel reverence for the work the ITS does”, states Annie Dubois.

October 8,2010

Map Helps to Clear up Fate

Find in the Archives

A map kept in the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) has contributed to ultimately clear up the fate of a prisoner from Concentration Camp Dachau and paved the way to the scholarly conclusion: the Hungarian Jew Laslo Schröter, in fact, had died on a death march in Bavarian Antdorf. “Until now, his fate has been considered unsolved or even unsolvable”, said Albert Knoll, archivist of the Dachau memorial. “Planning to publish a death book in the year to come, we consider new finding or knowledge emerging from the ITS documents as precious as a gemstone.”

October 5,2010

418 Central Name Index Cards Returned

Latest Info

On the occasion of the historians’ workshop dealing with the subject of death marches, Tomas Fedorovic from the Theresienstadt memorial could hand back to the International Tracing Service (ITS) 418 original cards from the Central Name Index. “Presumably the index cards were made available to the Czech tracing service, after the Second World War had ended, and not returned at the approach of the conflict politically splitting the world in an Eastern and a Western half”, explains Dr Susanne Urban, Head of the ITS Research Department.

October 4,2010

Bad Arolsen as a location for research

Latest Info

Jean-Luc Blondel, Director of the International Tracing Service (ITS), and Jürgen van der Horst, Mayor of the town of Bad Arolsen, invited the participants of the first workshop for historians the ITS organised on its own to an evening reception. “The goal we pursue with this workshop is to further, and give impetus to, research on the site of the ITS”, said Blondel. Between 4th and 7th October 2010, the ITS organises and hosts a workshop on the subject of death marches which 13 representatives from five countries take part in.

September 24,2010

Workshop at the District Museum in Wewelsburg

Latest Info

Nine employees of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen took part in a workshop offered by the District Museum in Wewelsburg on the subject of “Identifying groups and individuals of either outright right-wing extremism or suchlike tendencies“. Thanks to the opening of the Arolsen archive and the organisation of exhibitions and events on its premises at regular intervals, the number of visitors to the ITS is on the increase. “Although first and foremost the formerly persecuted people, their next-of-kin, researchers and scholars, i.e. decently interested and motivated persons, come to see us, it is essential for our staff to learn how to deal with ‘undesirable aliens’”, said Maria Raabe, Head of the Central Administrative Secretariat and organiser of the guided visitors’ tours through the ITS.

September 23,2010

“My father survived but had stopped living his life”

Latest Info

“Many emotions have been stirred up inside me,” said Arnold van Dam. “It is very moving to hold my father´s personal possessions in my hands. ”Sixty-five years after the end of the Second World War, the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen returned a wallet to the Dutchman yesterday containing photographs, letters and papers which had belonged to his father. The Nazis confiscated it from Nathan van Dam upon his arrival at the concentration camp Neuengamme.

September 23,2010

“We boys are in some of the pictures”

Latest Info

Leo and Henk van’t Hul also received personal effects belonging to their father Gerardus at the Amersfoort Memorial yesterday. They have been researching his fate since 2004. “Our mother seldom spoke about his imprisonment and death,” said Leo. “Not until a nephew phoned about the family tree did we find out about our father´s murder in the Wöbbelin sub-concentration camp.” The call prodded the brothers to look into the past.

September 17,2010

Soviet Prisoners of War Gravesite Project

Latest Info

After publishing a memorial book of Soviet gravesites in Saxony, the documentation center in Dresden is planning a further memorial book on gravesites in Bavaria. “It would be enormously helpful to work with the International Tracing Service on this project,” said Dr. Alexander Haritonow, research assistant at the documentation center. He visited Bad Arolsen for a day to discuss his project and get an update on the digitization.

September 16,2010

German Tracing Services discuss Digitization

Latest Info

The “archive” working group of ten representatives of various tracing services in Germany, the Federal Archive and the Federal Ministry of the Interior met in mid-September to hold a one-day conference at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. Their exchange of opinions focused on archiving and digitizing documents. “Both the operational digitization procedures and the database of the ITS convey a good impression“, said Ulrich Austermühle, head of the working group and deputy head of the tracing service of the German Red Cross (DRK) in Munich.

September 2,2010

Research for a Memorial in Greece

Latest Info

Veroniki Finitsi has been investigating the fate of prisoners from Greece in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen. Making more complete or exact the data available on the approximately 400 men deported from Heracleon/Crete at the time is the main focus of her scholarly research. “This study allows me to contribute to Heracleon’s laying the foundation for a memorial in its town wall”, rejoices Finitsi.

August 23,2010

DP Adam Kohn

Find in the Archives

Holocaust survivor Adam (Adolek) Kohn became famous overnight thanks to one video showing him and his family dancing to the song “I will survive” in front of the entrance of Concentration Camp Auschwitz. His action met with a most varied response worldwide ranging from total rejection to utter enthusiasm. The ITS, in consequence, received many a request asking whether documents on Kohn’s fate were kept here. The period of his life he spent as displaced person is well documented here in particular, for instance by means of a DP identity card with photograph from 1948 – our find in the archives of the International Tracing Service.

August 20,2010

Museo della Shoah sees potential for cooperation

Latest Info

To get an idea of the documents’ collections kept in the ITS archives and the organization’s activities, founding Director Marcello Pezzetti and his assistant Sara Berger from the Museo della Shoah (Shoah Museum) in Rome were paying a one-day visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in mid-August. “We gained a good impression”, said Pezzetti. "It makes a difference if you just hear of the place or see it for yourself."

August 13,2010

Researching the Deportation of Baden-Württemberg´s Sinti and Roma

Latest Info

Stephan Janker of the Episcopal Ordinariate in Rottenburg am Neckar recently spent a week at the International Tracing Service (ITS) researching the deportation of Sinti and Roma from Baden-Württemberg to the concentration camp Auschwitz. “I´m more interested in the ‘why’ than the ‘wherefore’. My intention is to give victims back their names and identities.”

August 10,2010

Letter to the Director of the IRO

Finds from the Archives

Waclaw Rubinstein had survived the Holocaust. The thing he longed most for after the Second World War had come to an end finally was a new home. To make this wish come true, he pinned his hopes on the International Refugee Organization that in fact helped and gave him the status of a displaced person (DP). Nevertheless, Rubinstein was to wait until February 1951, when ultimately Norway was willing to grant him asylum. With a view to somehow expediting his emigration, he had handed a 16-page long collage to Donald Kingsley, the then Director of the IRO – our find in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS).

August 5,2010

French National Archivists gained an overview

Latest Info

Odile Welfelé, Christian Oppetit, Vincent Bouat and Michel Kerbellec from the French National Archives paid a three-day information visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The National Archives will presumably be the recipient of a copy of the ITS documents next year. The French archivists therefore concentrated their attention on the type of documents that can be found in the archives and the digital ITS database. “The documents from the ITS archives will not just be an important contribution to research in France, but will open up a new era that allows researchers in France to look more profoundly into the period of National Socialism”, said Oppetit.

July 21,2010

Research on Concentration Camp Prisoners in Salzgitter-Drütte

Latest Info

Victims of the Salzgitter-Drütte satellite camp have been the focus of the recent research conducted by Elke Zacharias and Meike Weth. This week at the archive of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, the two historians thoroughly examined the documents on the first 50 prisoners who had been transported from the Buchenwald concentration camp to the satellite camp. “I never would have thought that our work at the ITS archive would be so successful,” says the memorial site director Zacharias.

July 15,2010

Opening process to be discussed at GSA annual conference

Latest Info

Professor Rainer Hering, Head of the State Archives of Schleswig-Holstein, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) for one day in mid-July. He wanted to see the latest developments of the archive for himself. On 8 October 2010, he will be taking part in a round table discussion entitled “Open at Last: The ITS Files in Arolsen”, which will be held by the German Studies Association (GSA) in Oakland, California. “I’m impressed by the changes that took place since my last visit three years ago,” said Hering.

July 14,2010

From Kiev to Bad Arolsen

Latest Info

This week Wadim, Sergej and Valentina Martens traveled 1725 km from Kiev, Ukraine to Bad Arolsen, Germany. They made the trip for one reason: to personally thank the International Tracing Service (ITS) staff for reuniting their family with relatives in Australia. “A letter or postcard would not have been sufficient,” said Sergej Martens. “We simply had to come here for our hearts and souls.”

July 7,2010

“She never lost her faith.”

Latest Info

Jan van Ommen spent a day at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen viewing documents on nearly 200 Dutch women. They had been deported from the Herzogenbusch (Vught) concentration camp to Ravensbrück when the Allied forces moved closer in September 1944. “My mother Rinsje was one of these women,” says the Netherlander.

July 5,2010

Project “Remember Us” visits ITS

Latest Info

Gesher Calmenson, founder of the program “Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project” visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) at the beginning of July accompanied by his wife Cynthia and Anna Cremaldi.The three Californians wanted to personally view documents held by the ITS as well as introduce their project. “We are deeply moved by the important work being done here,” said Cynthia Calmenson. “It cannot be an easy task to engage that level of human suffering day after day.”

June 29,2010

Segal Family in DP Camp Hofgeismar

Latest Info

Julia Drinnenberg of Hofgeismar´s City Museum visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) at the end of June to research the fate of the Segal family, who were housed in Hofgeismar´s Displaced Persons (DP) camp. “I found the family´s DP registration cards at the ITS,” she reported.

June 28,2010

Changeover in Geneva

Latest Info

Barbara Hintermann, responsible for operations West (North America and Europe) within the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has come to Bad Arolsen today to get an overview of the activities of the International Tracing Service (ITS). Beginning with 1st June 2010, Hintermann has taken administrative charge of the ITS at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva succeeding Beat Schweizer, hitherto Deputy Director-General of the ICRC. “I am profoundly impressed by both the dimension of the archives on Nazi persecution and the tasks that are accomplished here”, said Hintermann.

June 21,2010

Typhus Fever Experiments at Natzweiler Concentration Camp

Latest Info

The suffering of the victims of medical trials is in the fore of the research Professor Hans-Jürg Kuhn conducts at the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen. Within this general field of interest, he places special emphasis on the typhus fever experiments carried out on prisoners at Natzweiler concentration camp. “I am interested to learn how many inmates died as a result of the experiments”, says Kuhn. “The tracing service with its enormous volume of documents is an active source on that subject.”

May 28,2010

Research on the “Mühlviertler Hasenjagd”

Latest Info

Preparing his master’s degree, the Freiburg student Christian Kretschmer deals with the subjects of “Prisoners of war in Mauthausen Concentration Camp“ and the “Mühlviertler Hasenjagd” (Mühlviertel hare hunting), a war event that took place in February 1945. During his research visit to the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for one week he got access to and inspected almost 500 files. “I have taken a closer look at all the list material kept here on Mauthausen Concentration Camp, above all at the death registers of Mauthausen camp and the reports on escapes from various camps. I found the death reason entries of the sort “shot while attempting to flee” most revealing as they, in my view, serve to cover up a systematic killing procedure.”

May 21,2010

Students of Darmstadt explore DP Camp Zeilsheim

Latest Info

Four students of the Technical University of Darmstadt spent a week at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen pursuing research on the camp for Jewish Displaced Persons at Zeilsheim near Frankfurt/Main. “As school lessons usually draw the line of historical analysis at the end of the war, the post-war subject of the DPs has attracted my particular attention”, explains student Serpil Aygün.

May 19,2010

Cross of the Order of Merit for Shapiro

Latest Info

Paul Shapiro, the Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and member of the International Commission for the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, was presented yesterday Germany’s highest civilian recognition - the Cross of the Order of Merit.

May 18,2010

Born in Homes of the “Lebensborn”

Latest Info

The children of the “Lebensborn” are haunted by the shadows of the past. The silence kept by their mothers, the search for their own identities and the myths grown up around the SS association have been preoccupying the minds of those affected to this day. Ingeborg Schinke, Astrid Eggers and Elke Sauer came to attend the opening of the exhibition titled "The Lebensborn Association” at the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen in mid-May.

May 13,2010

Gauck at the ITS

Latest Info

Joachim Gauck, Chairman of the association “Against Oblivion – For Democracy”, came to see the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen yesterday. “The visit had long been overdue”, so Gauck. “I am struck and stunned by what I was shown.” He visited the archives, informed himself of the structural build-up of the research department and viewed requests filed by Nazi victims and their next of kin.

May 4,2010

Searching for her Father’s Birth Place

Latest Info

Australian national Rebbeca Sharp’s original intention had been to apply for a EU passport only. But what seemed to be a mere formality turned out to be a fascinating search for her roots. “For about a year, I have been striving to learn more now pursuing research in Australia, the US, Bulgaria and Germany”, said Sharp. Early in May, she looked into the documents kept at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen.

April 30,2010

A Look into Documents from the Theresienstadt Ghetto

Latest Info

Acting on behalf of the memorial on the Theresienstadt ghetto, historian Tomas Fedorovic has been viewing documents at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for about a week. “I wished to gain a first basic survey of the voluminous material held at the ITS”, explains 34-year-old Fedorovic. His primary research interest is to make more complete, i.e. to add further names to, the Czech memorial’s database on the ghetto victims.

April 22,2010

Project on Concentration Camp Commando Horgau

Latest Info

Claudia Ried and Wolfgang Kucera spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen looking through the records kept here on inmates of Horgau, a former concentration camp branch. Their work dealing with the site of the former Dachau Concentration Camp commando in the woods of Horgau is based on a project titled “Zeigefinger weg – Arbeitshandschuhe raus” (Get away with the index finger, take out your labour gloves). “We intend to investigate in full detail the history of commando Horgau”, the two historians describe their project.

April 15,2010

“Undeniable Documents”

Latest Info

Frank Dobia had an instinct for the moment. He always managed to escape certain death during the Holocaust. The Australian is the sole survivor of a Jewish family from Pomerania. Yesterday he viewed original documents on his imprisonment in the concentration camp Buchenwald and on his family´s fate. “I had heard a lot about Bad Arolsen,” said Dobia. "Now I wanted to see the archive with my own eyes."

April 14,2010

Commemorative Book for Ulm Holocaust Victims

Latest Info

In mid-April, historian Ingo Bergmann paid a three-day research visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen subjecting 220 names of Holocaust victims who either were born in Ulm or had been living there in the period from 1933 to 1945 to a check. “My results will be brought to bear in the second edition of the commemorative book the town of Ulm is going to publish under the title “Und erinnere dich immer an mich” (And do always remember me).

April 8,2010

“Acceptance is key”

Latest Info

Buchenwald survivor Alex Moskovic wants to remember. “I would like to share my experiences with others and stand up for acceptance and respect,” said the American. To that end, he and his son Steven are making a documentary film, which brought them to the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen on April 7, 2010, his 79th birthday. The archive contains numerous documents on his family´s fate. Moskovic then traveled to the Buchenwald memorial to attend the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of its liberation.

March 30,2010

“Promoting tolerance towards others”

Latest Info

Lüneburg resident Peter Asmussen visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for two days at the end of March seeking information on prisoners held in protective custody. The elementary and secondary school teacher has been actively involved in confronting Lüneburg´s National Socialist past. “My friendships with victims and their families motivate me,” said the amateur researcher.

March 23,2010

Ukrainian DPs in the British Zone

Latest Info

Jan-Hinnerk Antons paid a two-day flying visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen viewing material for his dissertation on the subject “The life situation of Ukrainian Displaced Persons (DPs) in the British zone”. In a first step, he concentrated his name research on those about 200 former Ukrainian DPs who had a role to play in camp council and camp committee or acted as camp “chief”. “I could discover interesting documents from the post-war era at ITS”, so the historian.

March 10,2010

Darmstadt TU Explores Research Possibilities

Latest Info

Early in March, a group composed of ten professors, doctoral candidates and students from the faculty of history at Darmstadt technical university paid a one-day information visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The group used this taster contact to take a look at the archival holdings and to soundly assess the concrete research possibilities they offer. Going beyond that, the TU faculty plans to engage in an initial cooperation project including a teaching assignment. “The interest students of history show in the subject of National Socialism is as active and constant as ever“, states Professor Christoph Dipper, “which is why we are eager to amplify contact with ITS.”

March 3,2010

Search for Contemporary Witnesses from DP Camp Lahde

Latest Info

Sonja von Behrens spent a two-day investigative visit to the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen viewing lists from displaced persons’ camp Lahde and checking DPs’ names. Her research endeavour is to culminate in the production of another book on the post-1945 history of her hometown Minden and its surroundings. “It would be wonderful if I could manage to make a connection with former DPs in Poland“, says 43-year-old von Behrens expectantly.

February 22,2010

The Children from “Bullenhuser Damm”

Latest Info

Mandated by Concentration Camp Memorial Centre Neuengamme and the association titled “Kinder vom Bullenhuser Damm e.V.”, historian Christine Eckel sifted through the archival material kept by the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen last week. She is investigating the fates of 20 children who, with their nurses, were murdered by the SS during the night of 21st April 1945. “In order to have a full view of the crime, we exhaust all information sources. As regards ITS, its children’s files and case correspondence are of special relevance to us”, said 30-years-old Eckel.

February 15,2010

Research for the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

Latest Info

On behalf of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, historian Dr Susanne Meinl spent the last weeks at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen pursuing research. “In a first step, I am examining the hefty documentation selecting out the segments of relevance to us“, said Meinl. The Munich Nazi documentation centre is a project of the capital of the federal state Munich in cooperation with the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany. Its objective is to build, and give shape and form to, a place of future-oriented historical-political education.

February 10,2010

Researching Ohrdruf Forced Labour Camp

Latest Info

Hobby researcher Klaus-Peter Schambach spent three days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen examining documents on the Ohrdruf prison camp. Schambach´s research looked into how the camp was built, if it can be considered an independent and third concentration camp in Thuringia and existing documentation.

February 5,2010

The Auschwitz “Death Marches”

Latest Info

Early in February, US historian Marc Masurovsky paid a two-day visit to the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) with a view to examining its holdings on death marches. “I just wanted to gain a rough idea on the type of documents available and the value they might have for my research work“, said Masurovsky.

February 2,2010

Searching for Eye Witnesses of DP Camps in the French Zone

Latest Info

Her intention to write a dissertation on displaced persons in the French-occupied zone in post-war Germany has led Julia Maspero to the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). “I attempt to find out from where the DPs originally had come, what they had gone through during the war, how they got along in the DP camps and where they ended up finally”, explains the doctoral candidate at Sorbonne University in Paris her project. She is also trying to find eye witnesses of the time.

January 19,2010

Exchange of Information with Memorial Centre Concentration Camp Moringen

Latest Info

On behalf of Memorial Centre Concentration Camp Moringen Julia Braun and Stefan Wilbricht are searching through more than 3500 names in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “Thanks to the archive’s opening, it has become possible for us to compare the data kept in Moringen with those held at ITS”, said Wilbricht. “Moreover, we find it important to record the victims’ life stories before and after their confinement in Moringen. This is feasible nowhere but at ITS.”

January 8,2010

History acquired based on biographies

Latest Info

Christoph Schwarz spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen researching the fates of 60 Polish children. The educator from Freiburg is using their life stories as material for his history lessons. “I would like my students to learn about National Socialism using a different approach. My experience has shown me that adolescents are better able to deal with the topic when they acquire history based on biographies.”

December 11,2009

Excursion of the German Red Cross (DRK)

Latest Info

The Berlin-based department for international cooperation with the General Secretariat of the German Red Cross (DRK) held its annual team meeting at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen this week. Apart from discussing their field of work, the 20 participants formed an idea of ITS functions and visited the archives. “We want Bad Arolsen to be better known”, said Martin Hahn, head of the department.

December 2,2009

"Time does not heal all wounds"

Latest Info

Natan Kellerman, project development director and clinical psychologist at Amcha, gave a talk on December 1 at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on the psychological effects of the Holocaust. Amcha offers Holocaust survivors and their families psychosocial support as a national Israeli center. “It is important for survivors that the world is aware of their fate and that their presence refutes every denial,” said Kellerman.

November 26,2009

Kershaw sees Research Potential

Latest Info

Realizing his book project on the war end in Germany, the well-known historian, Professor Ian Kershaw, has spent three days at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). He informed himself about its holdings and paid special attention to the voluminous collection of documents on death marches. “A significant aspect in my book”, said Kershaw. Being in Bad Arolsen for the first time, the Englishman showed enthusiasm for the documentation.

November 25,2009

Study Excursion of Archival School Marburg

Latest Info

As integral part of their studies, 45 future archivists at the Marburg-based Archival School have taken part in a guided tour through the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen today. The students took advantage of the two-hours round to gain a survey of the diversity of the documents.

November 25,2009

Clarification and Commemoration as a Task

Latest Info

On his journey leading him to places where he can investigate the fate of homosexuals deported from France, Jean-Luc Schwab made a stop at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. He wanted to inform himself about the type of documents kept here and leafed through the files of various victims. “It is good to have this archive available for use, as it is an important source of information”, said the French.

November 25,2009

“I´m happy to be alive”

Latest Info

Rudolf Brazda went through three years of hell at the Buchenwald concentration camp. He survived. Today the 96-year-old is the last known former victim of Nazi persecution of gays. “I´m not complaining. I´m thankful to be alive and healthy,” said the senior with a smile.

November 20,2009

Dissertation on Concentration Camp Riga-Kaiserwald

Latest Info

Preparing her dissertation, Franziska Jahn has been looking through files and records at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for a week. The historian supported by the Berlin Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism builds her paper on her previous finals’ thesis “Concentration Camp Kaiserwald in Riga. “The documents held by the tracing service provide accurate details on the life conditions and survival chances of prisoners kept in CC Riga.”

November 19,2009

Research on Buchenwald Prisoner Infirmary

Latest Info

Jena student Ralf Leipold visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen to examine documents on the history of the prisoner infirmary at Buchenwald concentration camp. His findings will contribute to the expansion of the educational offerings of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation. “The scope of the documents at the ITS is impressive. I managed to get an overview during the four days.”

November 13,2009

On the Loss of Identity

Latest Info

A report broadcast on the American TV network CBS compelled Canadian author Deborah Schnitzer to visit the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. She wanted to learn how the archive works firsthand and see documents on her husband´s family. “I´m interested in how the archive has changed since it opened its doors for research and how the documentation is structured,” said Schnitzer. “The kinds of records will reveal something about how identities were robbed and destroyed.”

November 9,2009

Branded a Traitor at Home

Latest Info

Moscow researcher Alexej Konopatchenkov spent four days at the International Tracing Service archives examining material on Russian prisoners of the concentration camp Mauthausen. “I was able to get an idea of the scope of the documents,” said the historian. “There is still only limited interest in the topic in Russia, but we “ ´have to understand our history.´ ”

November 4,2009

Turning a Number into a Name

Latest Info

Thomas Irmer conducted research this week for the second time at the International Tracing Service (ITS) on behalf of the memorial foundation of Saxony-Anhalt. He reviewed the prisoner numbers of nearly 1000 victims of the Gardelegen massacre which took place at the end of the Second World War. “I´m turning numbers into names and thereby try to return the victims a part of their dignity,” reported Irmer.

October 23,2009

Dachau Memorial Site staff gets an overview of documents

Latest Info

Dr. Gabriele Hammermann, Director of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, spent a week with two colleagues at the International Tracing Service (ITS) getting an overview of the collection of documents housed in Bad Arolsen. They focused mainly on the fates of former prisoners and the SS´s written correspondence on the Dachau concentration camp. “We are impressed by the breadth of the documents, which are of particular importance to our archive and to the field of research,” said Hammermann.

October 9,2009

Database on female prisoners in Mauthausen

Latest Info

Dr. Brigitte Halbmayr and Dr. Helga Amesberger of the Institute for Conflict Research (IKF) in Vienna visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in early October to do research for their study of former female prisoners at Mauthausen and its satellite concentration camp. They also wanted to safeguard current database records on the women and add further biographical information. “The ITS is an important source for our work because of its documents and correspondence files,” said both Austrians.

October 7,2009

US Consul General Alford appeals for more research

Latest Info

The new US Consul General in Frankfurt am Main, Edward M. Alford, sees the future of the International Tracing Service (ITS) as a research center. “When the last victim passes on, the documents must bear witness to the enormity of the Nazi atrocities,” said the US representative during a visit to the archive, which houses over 30 million files on National Socialist persecution. The USA is a member of an International Commission which oversees the ITS. The commission, comprised of 11 member states and chaired by the US, is currently discussing the institution´s future role.

October 6,2009

Seeking the author of Buchenwald memoirs

Latest Info

It was not the search for a relative but for three notebooks from a great aunt´s estate which led Heinz Bachmann from Switzerland to the ITS (International Tracing Service) in Bad Arolsen. Buchenwald concentration camp survivor Marton Stark had recorded his experiences in the notebooks at the end of 1945. “I was deeply touched by what I read,” said Bachmann. The 55-year old immediately decided that he would like to meet the author and publish his memoirs.

September 23,2009

Koop: “ITS is the Institution to approach for a General Overview“

Latest Info

The well-known journalist and publicist Volker Koop sifted through the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) late in September gathering material for his new book project on the so-called “Sonder- und Ehrenhäftlinge” (special inmates and prisoners of honour) of the concentration camps. The high-ranking hostages of the Nazi regime included politicians, officers, priests and prominent figures from 17 nations, among them statesmen like the former French Prime Minister Léon Blum and members of the Stauffenberg family. Koop summarised the success he had had with his research and the impression he had gained of the ITS archives as follows:

September 18,2009

Thesis on the Reconstruction of the architectural history of Neuengamme

Latest Info

Research for his doctoral thesis brought Andreas Ehresmann, Director of the Sandbostel memorial site, to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in mid-September. The subject of his thesis is the reconstruction of the architectural history of Neuengamme concentration camp. “This is the first thesis of its kind”, said Ehresmann. “The system underpinning the construction of concentration camps was only brought into the focus of research only in the mid-1990s.”

September 16,2009

Pursuing the Traces of Russian Prisoners of War

Latest Info

It has been eleven years now that the Dutch journalist Remco Reiding for the first time set his foot on the Russian cemetery near former concentration camp Amersfoort, not knowing that he would be under the sway of this place ever since. Reiding retraces the life story of the people buried there undertaking a parallel search for any of their next of kin alive. In mid-September, he had come to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen attempting to find further information on their fate.

September 11,2009

Comparative Study on Mauthausen Interviews

Latest Info

Working on a project of the Vienna-based Ludwig Boltzmann institute for Historical Sociology, historian Alexander Prenninger retraced persecution routes at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) for a week. His pertinent findings will become part of a comparative study on oral memory reports delivered by survivors of Concentration Camp Mauthausen. “I have come across plenty of information”, said the Austrian researcher.

September 3,2009

“Pictures put a Face to the Documents”

Latest Info

About 130 guests – among them mayor Jürgen van der Horst, the member of the regional parliament Reinhard Kahl, Professor Dietfrid Krause-Vilmar and Ernst Klein from the association “Gegen das Vergessen” (counteracting oblivion) – were welcomed to the opening of the exhibition “Private Tolkatchev – At the Gates of Hell“ by the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on 3rd September 2009 . “We are pleased to present for the first time an exhibition at the ITS,” said Director Jean-Luc Blondel. “This is one further step towards opening our institution to the region.”

September 2,2009

Names of 100 Hinzert concentration camp prisoners found

Latest Info

Dr. Beate Welter, director of the memorial at the SS special camp/concentration camp Hinzert, spent 3 days at the beginning of September researching documents at the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive. She found information on the camp, examined transport lists and studied the fates of individual victims. “It was the first time I laid eyes on a number of the documents. We also came across roughly 100 new prisoner names,” said the historian.

August 25,2009

Talks with Stasi Archive

Latest Info

A delegation of the “Bundesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des ehemaligen Staatssicherheitsdienstes der DDR (BStU)” (Special Federal Representative responsible for preserving the documents of the former State Security Service of the GDR) came to visit the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on 25^th August 2009. On a guided tour through the archives and in talks with ITS archivist Karsten Kühnel and Nicole Dominicus, Birgit Salamon, Head of the archival holdings’ section at the BStU, and her colleagues, Dr Karsten Jedlitschka and Stephan Wolf informed themselves about ITS’ archival holdings and its modus procedendi.

August 24,2009

Child Forced Labour under Nazi reign

Latest Info

Over the past week, Professor Johannes-Dieter Steinert was carrying out research into the subject of “Child Forced Labour in National Socialist Germany and German occupied Eastern Europe from 1939 to 1945” at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. For two years, the Professor for Contemporary European History and Migration Studies at Wolverhampton University has been gathering information for his book. At the ITS, he scrutinized among others documents originating from the camps of Lebrechtsdorf (Potulice) and Litzmannstadt (Łódź).

August 18,2009

Research on DP Camp

Latest Info

Dr. Adam Seipp, assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University, spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen viewing records on displaced persons and historical documents for his book project Strangers in the Wild Place: Americans, Refugees, and Germans, 1945 – 55. He has visited various archives, museums and institutions for his newest project and has conducted interviews with eyewitnesses. “The documents at the ITS are enormously helpful for my work. They help bring people´s fates in to life in my book,” reported Seipp.

August 12,2009

Database on Norwegian Holocaust Victims

Latest Info

Bjarte Bruland, head curator and historian at the Jewish Museum in Oslo, spent two days in August at the International Tracing Service (ITS) researching information on Norwegians persecuted under National Socialism. His findings will be included in the museum´s new database which was created last September. “I didn´t expect to find so many interesting references,” said the historian.

August 10,2009

Research on SS racial fanaticism

Latest Info

Dana Schlegelmilch, a research assistant at the Wewelsburg District Museum, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in early August to view file cards on Weimar´s “Administrative Office for Race Questions” for a new exhibition which is being planned. “It was exciting to be able to research the archives digitally,” said Schlegelmilch.

July 17,2009

Memory mirrored through three generations

Latest Info

How does the view of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust change over three generations? Jennifer Allen of the University of California, Berkeley is attempting to answer this question. “The International Tracing Service archive will be an important source for my studies,” said Allen. “Nowhere else is there such an extensive collection of letters from survivors and their relatives in one location.”

July 6,2009

Dissertation on the persecution of Sinti and Roma in Italy

Latest Info

Rosa Cobelletto of the University of Turin spent two weeks at the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive researching her dissertation on the persecution of Sinti and Roma under Italian Fascism. Her research focuses on the deportations from 1943-1945. “The ITS archive is especially rich in information, as a lot of it has been amassed in one place,” said the historian.

June 26,2009

Son of former ITS director Hugh Elbot looks back

Latest Info

The International Tracing Service (ITS) was able to welcome a very special guest to Bad Arolsen this past Friday. The son of former ITS Director Hugh Elbot came all the way from Denver with his wife Barbara to rediscover the traces of his childhood. Charles Elbot was just four years old when his father took over the direction of the tracing service in 1951. “I don’t recall very many things from back then,” said Elbot. “Yet I do remember that my father always worked quite long hours and came home rather late in the evenings.”

June 19,2009

Research on the First Transport from Düsseldorf to Lodz

Latest Info

Angela Genger, Head of the Düsseldorf memorial centre, has been studying the first deportation transport leaving Düsseldorf for the destination of Lodz on 27 October 1941 on her visit to the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen. In close cooperation with her colleagues, the historian has since 2004 dedicated her time and energy to compiling a commemorative book. “The ITS is a site with sources that will enormously enrich my research”, said Genger.

June 18,2009

Insight into Restoration and Conservation

Latest Info

For three days, Director Armida Batori, archivist Cecilia Prosperi and restorer Claudia Pappalardo from the Rome Institute for the Conservation of Archives (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e librario) have been staying at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen procuring themselves an overview of the ongoing restoration and conservation of the documents. “I had no idea of the huge amount of documents here. I am impressed and moved by the tasks ITS has,” observed Director Batori.

June 16,2009

Final Certainty on his father’s fate

Latest Info

Decades after the actual event, Otto Romberg, Holocaust survivor and editor of the journal “TRIBÜNE”, for the first time has come to know for certain the place where his father was murdered by the Nazis. Documents kept in the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen testify to the fact that his father Otto Roboz, born in Hungary in 1897, was deported from Budapest to Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen early in December 1944. “It relieves me greatly that I have finally attained – though only after 65 years – certainty on my father’s fate,” said Romberg.

June 3,2009

Investigating forced labor in Frankenhausen

Latest Info

Three agricultural science and sociology students from the University of Kassel and historian Jochen Ebert visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen at the beginning of June because of a project seminar. Their research focused on forced labor in the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen during the Second World War. “With the ITS´s support we were able to determine a number of names and learn more details about so-called civilian workers,” reported Ebert.

May 29,2009

The forgotten authors of the Lodz Ghetto

Latest Info

Seeking for Jewish writers and journalists who had been interned in the Lodz Ghetto, historian Uta Fröhlich for some days read and probed the files and documents kept in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). The information she gathers is for the benefit of the research project “Writing under the Holocaust” of Heidelberg University. “I have already discovered what I was looking for,” rejoices Fröhlich. “Thanks to the well-advanced digitalization, research is working out excellently.”

May 20,2009

Unsuccessful SS „Re-education“

Latest Info

Norwegian Karl Sondenaa spent a day at the International Tracing Service (ITS) at the end of May viewing original documents on his father´s imprisonment at the Buchenwald concentration camp. “It is incredible which details the Nazis registered,” he said.

May 14,2009

Research on the Fate of Austrian Sinti and Roma

Latest Info

Professor Rudolf Sarközi and Gerhard Baumgartner of the Cultural Association of Austrian Roma visited the International Tracing Service in mid-May and viewed documents on the fate of Austrian Sinti and Roma. “We wanted an overview of the specific information we could find here,” said both representatives.

May 7,2009

“I always felt a little lost”

Latest Info

Julius Edmundson could have gradually started thinking about a quiet life after retiring in his early 60s. But the prospect of more time and quiet awakened his long-held desire to learn more about his heritage. Edmundson traveled to Europe with his daughter Lara seeking clues to his past. “I always felt a little lost as I grew up without a father,” said the Australian.

May 5,2009

Searching for lists of graves at Trutzhain POW camp

Latest Info

Waltraud Burger spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen doing research to reconstruct names on rows of gravestones in cemeteries at the former POW camp in Ziegenhain, today known as Trutzhain. “It is important to clarify where the POWs are buried. The relatives need a place to mourn,” said the Trutzhain memorial historian. “My research at the ITS supports this goal.”

May 4,2009

Bamberg students visit archive

Latest Info

32 University of Bamberg students toured the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen today to learn about opportunities in research and archive administration. “The opening of the archive was a stroke of good luck for research and therefore also for universities,” said Horst Gehringer, excursion leader, guest lecturer and head of the State Archives in Coburg, and Professor Andreas Dornheim.

April 28,2009

Tracing back her ancestors

Latest Info

While the international meeting of Red Cross Societies was being held at the Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, the Israeli Susan Edel researched into traces of her ancestors in Hesse on 28 April. She viewed records and files at the ITS archives and went to visit the Jewish cemetery of Breitenbach. “I am impressed by the documents and touched by my memorable visit here,” so Edel.

April 27,2009

Regierungspräsident Klein visits ITS

Latest Info

Kassel´s Regierungspräsident (Regional Commissioner) Lutz Klein visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on April 27, 2009, where he viewed the archive´s collections and spoke with director Jean-Luc Blondel and chief archivist Udo Jost. “The ITS is still as indispensable and sought-after an institution as it once was, even 64 years after the end of the Nazi reign of terror,” said Klein.

April 23,2009

Workshop of the Foundation of Memorial Sites in Lower Saxony

Latest Info

The Foundation of memorial sites in Lower Saxony organised a three-days workshop at the International Tracing Service (ITS) late in April. The aim of the workshop was to familiarize the staff of the memorial sites in Lower Saxony with the archival holdings of the ITS and to show them the collection’s research potential. “The workshop was fruitful. For most of our staff it was the first contact and experience with the archives,“ said Rolf Keller from the Foundation who had prepared the event together with his colleague Marlis Buchholz.

April 20,2009

Thesis on Lebensborn in Austria

Latest Info

Corinna Fürstaller, a history student at Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria, spent several days in late April at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen doing research for her thesis on Lebensborn homes in Austria. “I was impressed by the number of documents the ITS has on the topic of Lebensborn,” said Fürstaller.

April 9,2009

Korbach under National Socialism

Latest Info

Senior teacher Marion Möller returned to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for the sixth time in early April to research the history of the north Hessian county seat Korbach under National Socialism. “I have had contact to the ITS since the opening of the archive, and I´m grateful for their support,” said Möller “The documents at the archive help to close significant gaps in our regional historiography.”

April 6,2009

ITS staff on study excursion to Berlin

Latest Info

A group consisting of eleven employees from the cataloguing, visitors’ support, IT and library sections took early in April a three-day excursion to several Berlin-based archives and documentation institutions, among them the Federal Archives, the “Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)” and the documentation center on Nazi forced labor. “The intention of our study trip was that the staff substantially involved in sharpening the ITS profile visualize their new task comprehensively and make transparent to themselves both the working procedures and the results required,” said ITS archivist Karsten Kühnel, who is in charge of accessing the documents in Bad Arolsen.

April 1,2009

ITS archivist spoke at Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Workshop

Latest Info

At the invitation of the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ), ITS archivist Karsten Kühnel spoke to an international group of historians, archivists and representatives of memorials in Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine on March 31, 2009 in Berlin. Kühnel gave an overview of the documents on forced labour at the International Tracing Service´s archive. Most participants in the 4-day workshop, which took place as part of the research program “Documentation of Forced Labour as a Task of Remembrance,” are involved in current research on the history of forced labour under the Nazis.

March 31,2009

Retracing deported Italians

Latest Info

Historian Giovanna D’Amico spent several days in late March doing research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) for the Fossoli Foundation in Italy. “I´ve been tasked with visiting various German archives to trace deported Italians. My work has been especially fruitful at the ITS,” said D´Amico.

March 30,2009

“We leave as advocates of the ITS”

Latest Info

Representatives from eight American Jewish organizations recently spent two days visiting the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, among them William Daroff (United Jewish Communities), Dan Mariaschin (B’nai B’rith), Marc Stern (American Jewish Congress) and Andi Milens (Jewish Council for Public Affairs). They assessed their experience: “As a group, we are not easily impressed, not least in matters regarding the Holocaust,” said Stern. “However, we are surprised and moved.

March 30,2009

Experiencing the “new“ ITS

Latest Info

Aron Hirt-Manheimer of the Union of Reform Judaism and member of the delegation of American Jewish organizations, which visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) last week, combined his stay in Bad Arolsen with a personal interest. The American studied family documents in the ITS archive extensively. “They have filled the gaps in my knowledge,” said Hirt-Manheimer.

March 19,2009

History of the ITS in Focus

Latest Info

US-American historians Jennifer Rodgers and Charles Sharpe spent a few days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in mid-March doing research for their dissertations. Both reviewed and copied numerous documents on the topics of the history of the ITS and UNRRA – the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. “We´re returning to the States with a lot of information,” said the doctoral candidates.

March 11,2009

Project on Jewish prisoners in Amersfoort

Latest Info

Dutch researcher Maarten Jan Vos spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in mid-March working on a project for the Amersfoort memorial. He focused mainly on the fate of Jewish prisoners in the former detention camp. “The number of Jews imprisoned was low, and not a lot is known about them,” reported Vos. The historian intends to change this.

February 16,2009

Study on concentration camps in the pre-war period

Latest Info

Christian Goeschel spent a week at the International Tracing Service in mid-February doing research for Birkbeck University of London’s research project on pre-war concentration camps from 1933-1939. “I’m excited about the documents I was able to find here,” said the historian.

February 6,2009

Researching names for the National Socialism Documentation Center in Cologne

Latest Info

Nina Matuszewski and Thomas Roth of the National Socialism Documentation Center in Cologne spent a week in early February checking names for their current project on the fate of Cologne natives deported to the Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt). “We were able to determine the fates of one-tenth of the names using documents at the ITS,” reported Matuszewski. “Most of the time we found a notice of death and almost no indication of liberation.”

January 28,2009

University of Giessen students do a research about Displaced Persons

Latest Info

Two groups of students from the Justus Liebig University of Giessen have visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) to learn more about research possibilities on displaced persons available there. Their one-day visits to the archive took place within the context of a seminar entitled “Victim biographies of the Second World War and the Cold War.”

January 12,2009

“A huge step forward“

Latest Info

Author Rainer Hoffschildt has dealt with the topic of Nazi persecution of gays for over 20 years. Now he wants to round out his extensive collection with the help of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “There has not been much research done on the group with the pink triangle,” the Hanover resident explained.

December 19,2008

ICRC donation to former ITS location

Latest Info

The history of the International Tracing Service (ITS) will be part of an upcoming exhibition in Bad Arolsen´s former barracks. The association “Historicum 20” is planning to document 20th century development of the barracks, which for a time after the war served as the tracing service´s headquarters.

December 19,2008

Interview made possible with survivor of Lichtenburg concentration camp

Latest Info

“Filling in as many gaps as possible“ - According to this motto, three freelance workers from the Lichtenburg concentration camp memorial spent a week inspecting documents at the International Tracing Service (ITS). “We wanted to round out the biographies of Lichtenburg prisoners, so our visit to ITS was helpful,” said Sven Langhammer.

December 18,2008

Farewell to ITS Director Reto Meister

Latest Info

Staff at the International Tracing Service (ITS) bid farewell to Director Reto Meister at their year-end ceremony on December 18. After two years Meister is returning to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in Geneva. The ICRC has named the director of the ITS since 1955. “He was truly one of us,” said head archivist Udo Jost. “He introduced a new style and put the ITS back on the road to success, step by step.”

December 12,2008

US Envoys at ITS

Latest Info

Christian Kennedy, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the U.S. Department of State and member of the International Commission, and Doria Rosen, Deputy Principal Officer at the United States Consulate General in Frankfurt, visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) to get an update on current progress. The International Commission monitors the work done at the ITS. Ten other countries comprise the Commission along with the United States.

December 12,2008

Ordeal of fear, confinement and whispering

Latest Info

Willy Zalmon is a Holocaust survivor. Along with his parents and uncle, he had to spend two years hiding in a hole in the ground on a farm, which is how at least part of his Jewish-Polish family managed to escape their Nazis persecutors. “For many years I was unable to talk about my ordeal because the memories were such a burden on my soul. I have slowly opened up at my daughter´s urging,” said Zalmon, who lives in Israel today.

December 11,2008

First group of Israeli genealogists did research at the archive

Latest Info

Nine genealogists from Israel have spent the week doing research in the International Tracing Service´s (ITS) archives. It was the first larger group from the Jewish nation since the archive opened a year ago. “The ITS is a springboard for researchers which provides countless ideas for further research,” said Rose Lerer Cohen, a genealogist and organizer of the trip.

December 5,2008

Insight into ITS´s work

Latest Info

Rolf Ulrich, Germany´s new representative for the Federal Foreign Office in the International Commission, spent yesterday learning about the current status at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The commission, which in addition to Germany comprises ten other member-states, governs the ITS´s work. ”The visit was worthwhile. I have learned a great deal,” said Ulrich.

December 4,2008

Publication on sub-concentration camp Barth

Latest Info

Historian Natalja Jeske spent two days gathering information at the International Tracing Service (ITS) for the “Friends of Barth Concentration Camp Memorial Site and Documentation Center” association. She plans to analyze the data in a new publication on the sub-concentration camp Barth to be published in the autumn of 2009. “The ITS is the perfect place to do complex research,” said Jeske.

December 1,2008

“Paradise for Historians“

Latest Info

40 history students from Georg-August University in Goettingen visited the ITS (International Tracing Service) archive on December 1, 2008, as part of a seminar series entitled “Functional transformation in the concentration camp system.” “The ITS is a paradise for historians which is not far from Goettingen. It was clear that we would take our excursion on working with documentary material here,” said Jens-Christian Wagner, visiting lecturer at the University of Goettingen and director of the concentration camp memorial Mittelbau-Dora.

November 27,2008

PhD on Deportations from Denmark

Latest Info

Birgit Müller spent a week at the ITS (International Tracing Service) researching the persecution fate of over 6000 deported Danes for her PhD on the topic “Denmark under German Occupation. Danish Deportees in Nazi Concentration Camps”. Müller was pleased: “I was able to find important additional information on the deportation, persecution and liberation for about five percent of the names.”

November 24,2008

ITS staff visited Buchenwald Memorial Site

Latest Info

Last Thursday 33 members of the ITS (International Tracing Service) staff visited a place of horror whose documents they analyze on a daily basis. Staff members took a guided tour of the Buchenwald Memorial site, visited the exhibition and learned about the foundation´s new projects. “It is a singular experience to be at the scene of the atrocities,” said Manfred Kesting, head of the analysis and documentation department.

Professor Longerich read from his Biography on Himmler

Latest Info

In cooperation with the BAC theatre, the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen presented the well-known historian Peter Longerich who read parts of his biography on Himmler, recently introduced at the Frankfurt book fair. The reading was held on Tuesday, 18th November 2008, at 7.00 p.m. at the BAC theatre, In den Siepen 6, 34454 Bad Arolsen.

November 10,2008

Witness´s visit to the ITS

Latest Info

Professor Feliks Tych is a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and a historian and former director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. During his 5-day stay in Germany he visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. “I am very impressed by how the ITS is organized and how it works,” said Tych after an extensive tour of the documentation.

November 6,2008

Information about the Emsland camps

Latest Info

Oldenburg historian Dr. Hans-Peter Klausch spent four days doing research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen on behalf of the Document and Information Center (DIZ) in Papenburg, Germany. Klausch was pleased. “I found quite a few records which are not available at the DIZ. They are important for our research,” he said.

October 17,2008

“One of the finest examples of contemporary legal history“

Latest Info

21 doctoral candidates from the Frankfurt am Main-based Max Planck Institute for European Legal History had a one-day look around the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen today. They wanted to familiarize themselves with the progress ITS has made since opening for research last November. “The potential is enormous”, said the Director of the Institute, Professor Michael Stolleis, who visited the archive for the first time.

October 17,2008

Research for Stumbling Stone Project

Latest Info

Maike Grünwaldt and Christa Fladhammer spent a week at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen researching about 230 names for the Hamburg project “Stumbling Stones.” “We wanted to see what additional information we could find at the ITS,” said both volunteer researchers. Begun in 1995, the nationwide stumbling stone project remembers victims of National Socialism at their previous residences.

October 7,2008

A look behind the scenes

Latest Info

26 members of Kassel´s German-Israeli Society (DIG) visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive in Bad Arolsen yesterday. They were “deeply impressed” by the documents of persecution during National Socialism which are stored at the ITS. DIG Chair Manfred Oelsen is convinced that “the German-Israeli Society and organizations like the ITS are now more necessary than ever to keep the memories alive and communicate the relevance for the present.”

October 7,2008

Visit from Scandinavian Red Cross

Latest Info

Red Cross Tracing Service representatives from Norway, Finland and Denmark were able to get an insight yesterday into the ITS (International Tracing Service) in Bad Arolsen. They toured the archive and met colleagues from the humanitarian requests section. ”It´s always nicer to be able to put a name to a face,” said Brita Liholm Johannessen, who heads the Tracing Service at the Norwegian Red Cross.

September 30,2008

Reunited After Six Decades

Latest Info

The two cousins Maja Telegina and Katharina Lapuchin were separated for over 63 years. The post-war confusion had torn them apart in 1945. Yet over the years, they had never given up the hope of seeing one another again. The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen has now been able to reunite the family. “I still can’t believe it,” says Maja with joy.

September 26,2008

Around 10,000 Names Still Unclarified

Latest Info

Johannes Ibel, a research associate from the Flossenbürg concentration camp memorial site, had two goals for his one-week visit to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen in late September: to research material from the post-war period and compile a copy of digital data pertaining to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. “When it comes to this amount of data, digital research is incredibly beneficial in terms of the time factor,” said Ibel. “If we merge the know-how from the memorial sites with that of ITS, we can profit from our mutual accomplishments and deepen our knowledge.”

September 5,2008

“The ITS archive belongs to Arolsen”

Latest Info

Members of the working committee for communal issues on the Waldeck economy (AFK) visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen yesterday evening. Reto Meister, director of ITS, and Udo Jost, head of ITS’s archive division, presented the work and goals of ITS to the group, and gave a tour of the archive.

August 18,2008

Research Project on Medical Experiments

Latest Info

Medical experiments carried out on human beings during the National Socialist era constitute the area of research of historian Anna von Villiez, guiding her to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for one week in mid-August. “The ITS is an important, if not the principal source of my present research work,“ according to von Villiez. “I set about viewing the material at ITS in order to get an overview.“

August 6,2008

The Children Should Know What Happened

Latest Info

Salomon Hauser is currently working on a commemoration book for the members of the Zionist youth movement B’nei Akiva, who had all lived in Antwerp prior to the invasion of German troops in 1940. The Israeli visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for three days in early August to pursue his research. “When I heard the archives had opened to the public, I decided to make the trip,” said Haus

July 21,2008

Squashing the Rumours Surrounding Lebensborn

Latest Info

There are many rumours and myths circulating about the SS-founded association “Lebensborn”, says the Canadian historian Annette Timm. She now wants to squelch these legends with her new book. Timm came to Bad Arolsen in mid-July for a week of research into the extensive collection of Lebensborn documents archived at the International Tracing Service (ITS).

July 15,2008

The Story of the Women of Ravensbruck

Latest Info

A book project about the Ravensbruck women's concentration camp led British journalist Sarah Helm to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for two days in mid-July. She was in search of information on camp life and the destiny of individual prisoners. “An interesting experience,” as the London-based writer said.

July 14,2008

A Treasure Trove of Great Magnitude

Latest Info

Historian Robert Sommer sifted through documents archived by the International Tracing Service (ITS) for three days in mid-July while conducting research on the subject of brothels in concentration camps. The doctoral candidate needed the information for the publication of his PhD thesis. Sommer is also a freelance staff member at the Ravensbrück Memorial Site, where he is working on a new version of the exhibition “forced sexual labour at Nazi concentration camps”.

Press Releases

Here you will find the press releases:

» Press releases

Newsletter

Further information to subscribe the ITS Newsletter:

» Subscription to the newsletter