Whether you are searching for information about the fate of a family member persecuted by the Nazis or need information for research or educational projects – our inquiry form is the best and the fastest way for you to contact us.
What we can provide information about
A wide variety of records and documents testify to the persecution that took place during the Nazi era. Here you can find out which groups of people and which topics we can help you with on the basis of the materials in our archives.
Jewish and non-Jewish persecutees, including Soviet prisoners of war and Italian military internees, were imprisoned in concentration camps, ghettos, labor camps and Gestapo prisons. We can provide you with information on the basis of the files that the Nazi administration kept in order to manage the detainees and the lists created after the war that contain the names of murdered or liberated prisoners.
Approximately 13 million people from at least 21 countries were compelled to perform forced labor for the Germans during the Second World War, some of them had been deported to the German Reich for that purpose. The Arolsen Archives preserve millions of documents about forced labor, including the so-called wartime index comprising 4.2 million documents, some of which are originals and some of which are copies from other archives. It is important to know that the Arolsen Archives primarily hold documents on civilian people who were compelled to perform forced labor in the German Reich. By contrast, there are hardly any records regarding forced labor in the occupied areas or on non-civilian prisoners of war who were forced to work.
When the Allies liberated Germany and the countries it had occupied, they encountered between 10 and 12 million people who were no longer in their countries of origin as a result of Nazi persecution. The Allies called them displaced persons (or personnes déplacées, or DPs for short). This one term was used for a huge group of people with completely different life stories and experiences of persecution. Although millions of documents on DPs are stored in the Arolsen Archives, not all the documents produced for individual DPs have been preserved. Nonetheless, the documents on DPs in the Arolsen Archives are a unique source. They illustrate the difficult transitional situation in which millions of people found themselves after the end of World War II and provide information about their lives after liberation.
After the war, many children and young people were found to be orphans or unaccompanied minors. These young people had to get along alone in a world marked by destruction and chaos. The Arolsen Archives preserve numerous documents that make it possible to reconstruct the fates of such unaccompanied children and young people, including records on transports or admittances to children’s homes.
Many people died during the Second World War while in detention or doing forced labor; more often than not these deaths were poorly documented. In many cases, the deceased were buried by the local authorities or the camp officials. These gravesites, which are often anonymous mass graves, are an aspect of remembrance culture that is frequently overlooked. The Arolsen Archives gather and preserve the few documents that exist on such burials, e.g. death certificates, grave registers and other administrative records. For relatives and descendants in particular, these records often provide the only opportunity to locate the last burial place of the deceased and to find out more about the circumstances under which their loved ones died and were buried.
Additional sources of information
For indemnification claims in respect of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, support is available at: www.claimscom.org
We do not have any information about soldiers of the former German Army or about expellees or refugees from the former Eastern territories of the German Reich. For information about these groups, please contact: www.bundesarchiv.de
Information about prisoners of war or civilian detainees, missing members of the German Army, or civilians deported by the Red Army is provided by: https://www.drk-suchdienst.de/en/
Key figures
3Months
Average processing time
8Months
Maximum processing time
13623Inquiries
in 2025
Inquiries are usually answered in the order of their receipt. Specific inquiries may be prioritized if they are extremely urgent – for example, when survivors submit research requests. The waiting time for a response may vary from a few days to a few weeks.
Please always start your search in our online archive. In most cases, you will find the information you are looking for quickly and easily there.
Many families still do not know what happened to their relatives after their deportation by the Nazi regime. They want to find their roots, better understand their family history, and create space for remembrance. Often survivors or relatives of victims could not or would not talk about Nazi persecution. Sometimes family secrets came into play, such as children born out of wedlock or families that were left behind. After the death of their parents or grandparents, many descendants feel a strong need to find out more about the past and uncover traces of their own family history. It is a pleasure for us to help those who are seeking this type of information.
There are no documents, no photos, no clothes, no toys, absolutely nothing from before and during the Shoah. For this reason, the three copies from the time of my father’s concentration camp imprisonment are of special importance to me…
René Manu, son of Daniel Manu, a Greek Jew from Thessaloniki. The National Socialists deported him and his entire family to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Daniel Manu was the only one to survive.
What does a response from the Arolsen Archives look like?
For more than half of the inquiries submitted to us, we are able to provide information on the basis of the documents in our archives. You will receive copies of the documents found, each with a caption at the bottom explaining where the documents came from, why they were issued, etc. More detailed information is provided by our e-Guide which explains the content of many types of documents.
You will also receive advice and addresses for further research. If you want to receive more information, please feel free to contact us. Even if no information relevant to your search can be found in our archives, we make every effort to help you by providing expert advice for continuing your research by consulting other archives, agencies, authorities, and memorials.
