Understanding the documents and their context
Make use of our information resources
The collection of the Arolsen Archives includes documents from concentration camp administrations, files on forced labor, and forms that had to be filled out by survivors after 1945. As the years go by, these diverse documents raise more and more questions. That is why the Arolsen Archives are developing and expanding their online tools and other resources to facilitate research. These tools make it easier to understand the documents. They also provide background information – not only for experts, but for anyone who is interested in the Nazi era.
The library
The Arolsen Archives provide approximately 10,000 publications and 450 periodicals for use in the library – the primary focus is on the Shoah, Nazi forced labor, and the aftermath of National Socialism. On the topic of displaced persons (DPs), we preserve rare printed materials, some of which came from the DP camps. The special collection of materials published by former victims of Nazi persecution – i.e. the magazines of the associations of persecutees and camp committees – is a unique highlight. These publications not only document personal ordeals, but also provide insight into political activities and remembrance initiatives. Now that most contemporary witnesses are no longer with us, these publications are becoming more and more important.
The library of the Arolsen Archives also contains the institution’s own publications and research findings dating back to the early post-war era, such as the register of detention centers, the significance of which the historian Wolfgang Benz once described in the following words: “Characteristics, satellite camps and so called “Kommandos”, chains of command, levels of occupancy and personnel as well as other information on the detention centers of the Nazi system were not listed anywhere else.”
