News archive

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

“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...

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...