Our projects and initiatives
News, events, stories and dossiers
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Press releases
After More than 80 Years, Families Finally Read Their Loved Ones’ Last Words
First Successes in the Search for the Families of Victims of Nazi Executions Around nine months ago, the Bavarian State …
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News
Dance, Resistance, and Persecution in the Nazi State
Exclusion, flight, and violence during the Nazi era are part of the history of dance in the 20th century. Tatjana …
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News
The Hidden Sister
For a long time, Ilana (Greenberg) Kraus and her brother Alan Greenberg did not know that their father had been …
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Press releases
Research on Victims of Nazi Persecution Reached New High in 2025
Eighty years after the end of World War II, more people than ever before turned to the Arolsen Archives in …
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News
The Liberation of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp
On April 11, 1945, U.S. Army troops liberated some 21,000 inmates from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Before the former inmates …
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News
ASF Volunteer Program at the Arolsen Archives
Since 2017, the Arolsen Archives have been welcoming young people – often from Russia and Ukraine – who complete a …
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Press releases
New Director for the Arolsen Archives
The Arolsen Archives have a new Director: Moritz Wein is taking over as head of the world’s largest archives on …
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News
For International Women’s Day: The story of Agent Rose
“Men organize life; women are their support and implement their decisions.” Joseph Goebbels wrote these words in his diary in …
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Story
Forced to emigrate
Uncovering the fates of victims of Nazi persecution is often like assembling a puzzle. As pieces of information come to …
The Arolsen Archives on social media
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Facebook
Wie konnten Zehntausende KZ-Häftlinge von vergleichsweise wenigen SS-Leuten bewacht werden? Die Nazis schufen dafür ein perfides System: Sogenannte Funktionshäftlinge setzen …
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Tiktok
@arolsenarchives Im Juli 1944 bewachen 6.000 Wachleute im KZ Buchenwald 67.000 Häftlinge. Wie soll das funktionieren? Die Nazis schaffen dafür …
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Instagram
Im Juli 1944 1944 bewachen 6.000 Wachleute im KZ Buchenwald 67.000 Häftlinge. Wie soll das funktionieren? Die Nazis schaffen dafür …
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Facebook
For a long time, Ilana (Greenberg) Kraus and her brother Alan Greenberg did not know that their father had been …
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Facebook
Ilana (Greenberg) Kraus und ihr Bruder Alan Greenberg wussten lange Zeit nicht, dass ihr Vater früher schon einmal verheiratet gewesen …
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Tiktok
@arolsenarchives Die Arolsen Archives verwahren noch rund 2.000 sogenannte Effekten. Das sind persönliche Gegenstände von Menschen, die von den Nazis …
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Facebook
Als die Nationalsozialisten Warwara Zensura verhaften, trägt sie eine Blumenbrosche bei sich. Vielleicht kein teures Schmuckstück, aber womöglich das Einzige, …
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Instagram
Die Arolsen Archives verwahren noch rund 2.000 sogenannte Effekten. Das sind persönliche Gegenstände von Menschen, die von den Nazis verhaftet …
FAQs
When the Second World War ended, the Allies were faced with unprecedented humanitarian challenges. The “International Tracing Service” (now Arolsen Archives), established in 1948, soon emerged as a key player and important bridge-builder. For decades, the organization has worked to document Nazi crimes, provide the relatives of victims with certainty, reunite families, and help survivors establish their eligibility for compensation. This work led to the creation of the world’s largest archive on the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution.
Many decades have passed since those early days. Today, the Arolsen Archives are an international organization known for providing reliable information and building trust and reconciliation in the aftermath of the war. Back in 1952, one of the organization’s first directors described it as a “shop window of democracy.” Its efforts to deal with the legacy of the Nazi era helped lay the groundwork for a peaceful order in Europe.
Tens of thousands of people from all over the world still submit inquiries to the Arolsen Archives every year. The archive is listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and is an important source of knowledge for society today. The Arolsen Archives provide a globally accessible online archive, digital projects, and educational resources to promote a modern culture of remembrance and inspire young people to value respect, diversity, and democracy.
Anyone seeking information about victims of Nazi persecution, former concentration camp prisoners, forced laborers, or displaced persons after 1945 can use our services. The Federal Republic of Germany finances our work in order to help individuals to come to terms with their experience of Nazi persecution. This enables us to carry out research free of charge for survivors and relatives of victims of Nazi persecution and to search for information that provides historical context and helps them understand their family history. We also provide resources for people involved in education, research, and archives.
We began operating under our new name Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution in May 2019. We remain the same institution, and we continue to perform the same tasks. The archive was created in order to document the crimes committed by the National Socialists and the fates of the victims. Current social trends underline the growing importance of raising awareness in order to keep knowledge about the crimes of the Nazi regime and the inhuman ideology behind it alive. The organization’s new name and the reference to our role as an International Center on Nazi Persecution are a logical consequence of these ongoing developments. Incidentally, the International Tracing Service remains our legal name, as the international agreements with the member states use this name.
