News archive

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...