August 19,2010

ITS supports exhibition at Stadtmuseum Coesfeld

Press Release

The International Tracing Service (ITS) of Bad Arolsen has concluded a cooperation agreement with the Stadtmuseum Coesfeld. For the planned education and meeting centre for the history of the Jewish community, ITS will provide documents on persecution during the Nazi era. In addition, the work of ITS is to be acknowledged within the scope of the new exhibition. “We’re very pleased about this collaboration. It’s an example of the cooperative effort ITS strives for with museums, educational and research institutions all around the country,” said Dr Susanne Urban, head of the Research department at ITS.

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July 2,2010

ITS offers its services in the Ukraine

Press Release

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen wants to raise awareness of its archives and services in Eastern European countries. This week a delegation from the ITS and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that manages the activities of the ITS, held talks with representatives from archives, victims’ organisations and research institutes in the Ukraine as well as with the Ukrainian Red Cross National Society. “We can help family members clarify open questions concerning the fate of victims of Nazi persecution”, said the ICRC advisor for the ITS, Udo Wagner-Meige. “We also seek cooperation in the field of research.”

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June 2,2010

First Results regarding the debate on the future of the ITS

Press Release

The International Commission for the International Tracing Service held its 72nd Annual Meeting in Washington on May 26 and 27, 2010. It took note with appreciation of the work of the International Tracing Service (ITS) over the past twelve months.

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May 18,2010

Exhibition about “Lebensborn”

Press Release

Today the International Tracing Service (ITS) of Bad Arolsen opened the exhibition “The Lebensborn association”, which will run until the 2nd of July 2010. Consisting of 13 information panels, the exhibition was put together by the regional youth organisation Kreisjugendring Ebersberg and portrays the racist goals of the Lebensborn association backed by the SS. The objective was to increase the birth rate of “Aryan” children. “At the same time, other mothers and kids - the handicapped, Jews, Sinti and Roma - were singled out as ‘unworthy of life’ and murdered in masses,” says ITS historian Dr Susanne Urban. “If nothing else, it was this gruesome contrast that led us to present this exhibition.”

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May 10,2010

ITS website in Russian

Press Release

The website of the International Tracing Service (ITS) of Bad Arolsen is now also available in Russian. The new language version went online for the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. “Many victims of Nazi persecution hail from Eastern Europe. We wanted to offer them better service while also making ITS more widely known,” says ITS Director Jean-Luc Blondel, who only recently held talks with representatives from archives and survivors' associations in Moscow.

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March 26,2010

Exhibition “Karl Plagge – A Righteous Among the Nations”

Press Release

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen has opened the exhibition “Karl Plagge (1897-1957) – A Righteous Among the Nations” which is on view at the ITS from 26 March to 7 May 2010.  The exhibition, developed by the Darmstadt History Workshop, remembers Wehrmacht Major Karl Plagge for his part in saving the lives of nearly 250 Jews.  “Major Plagge did not sit idly by but instead decided to do something against the madness in order to save human lives,” said ITS Director Jean-Luc Blondel at the opening.  “The exhibition is part of the work of remembering, and at the same time a call not to neglect our commitment to serving the survivors.”

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February 13,2010

Effects Returned to 35 Families

Press Release

Today the International Tracing Service (ITS) of Bad Arolsen was able to return effects to 35 Dutch families at the Amersfoort Memorial Site. Most of the personal belongings were wallets which had been taken away from their owners by the Nazis during deportation to the Neuengamme concentration camp. “We are really pleased that contact could be established with the families thanks to the initiative of Gert van Dompseler and Pieter Dekker of Stichting October’44,” said Nicole Dominicus, head of Archival Requests and Visitors’ Service at ITS.

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February 11,2010

Photos Handed Over to Hinzert Memorial

Press Release

Today the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen handed over digitised photographs from its archive to the Hinzert Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Among the 35 photos in total are ten taken at the camp during the period of 1940/41. “The memorial site has only very few photographs at its disposal. We are therefore grateful for any additional photographic material,” said Dr Beate Welter, Director of the Hinzert Concentration Camp Memorial Site.

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February 2,2010

Digitisation of Correspondence Underway

Press Release

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen has commenced work on the most elaborate sub-project involved in the digitalisation of its case correspondence. Around three million files of correspondence between the tracing service, public authorities and the victims of national socialist persecution as well as their family members are to be digitised over the next few years. “Together with the original documents from the Nazi era, the correspondence cases offer a concise account of individual fates,” said Udo Jost, Head of the Archive Division at ITS. “They take the puzzle pieces from the documents, which are often only fragmentary, and assemble them to an overall picture.”

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January 20,2010

Roland Koch visits Tracing Service

Press Release

Roland Koch, Premier of the German state of Hesse, highlighted the significant work being done at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen during his visit today. “The ITS has done magnificent humanitarian work in its role as a contact for many millions of people seeking information on their relatives. In future, research and educational work will be at the forefront, in addition to documentation, enabling the “Arolsen remembrance” to be preserved for future generations,” said Koch.

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January 15,2010

Digitisation of Post-War Era Documents Now Complete

Press Release

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen has now finished digitising its documents from the post-war era concerning displaced persons and emigration after the end of World War II. “This part of the ITS archives has hardly been explored so far,” said Udo Jost, Head of the Archive Division. “It offers excellent insights into life after survival, as well as the wave of migration which resulted from the war.” This week, ITS forwarded copies of the documents to its partner organisations in Israel, the US, Poland, Luxembourg and Belgium.

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Contact

International Tracing Service (ITS)

Press Office

Kathrin Flor
Head of Communication

Grosse Allee 5-9
34454 Bad Arolsen
Germany

Phone: +49 (0)5691 629 116
Fax: +49 (0)5691 629 501

Email: communications[at] its-arolsen.org