About #StolenMemory
Hundreds of families of victims of Nazi persecution have already had their loved ones’ personal belongings returned to them through the #StolenMemory campaign.
Wedding rings, children’s photos, watches, letters, and identity papers – when the Nazis put people in concentration camps, they confiscated all their personal belongings. Some of the looted items were recovered after the war. In 1963, the Arolsen Archives received around 4,700 envelopes containing the personal possessions of people from more than 30 different countries. These personal effects are not part of our archival holdings as such, but are waiting to be returned to the families of the concentration camp prisoners.
Mementoes of inestimable value
For the families of former concentration camp prisoners, these objects are of inestimable value. They make remembering and remembrance more tangible – they are often the last remaining trace of the victims of Nazi persecution. Their relatives often have no information about how and where they died. But even when prisoners survived the concentration camps, their possessions are hugely important to their families, especially if their loved ones were unable or unwilling to speak about their experiences. This is illustrated by many of the stories we share on stolenmemory.org.
This video shows Joop Will, whose father Peter Will was active in the Dutch resistance. He describes how happy he felt when his father’s letter of farewell was returned to him – more than 70 years after his death.
Tracing the families
The aim of the #StolenMemory campaign is to return as many of these mementoes as possible. Tracing the families is time-consuming and often requires good knowledge of the local area. That is why the Arolsen Archives invite volunteers to join in the search. The advent of social media and the increasing digitization and online availability of archival collections have opened up new avenues for research. Sometimes even the tiniest of clues can help. Since the campaign began in 2016, volunteers from many countries – including Poland, the Netherlands, Israel, France, and Spain – have helped find hundreds of relatives.
The dedicated work of the volunteers helps us return these personal mementoes to the families. But that’s not all. They often pass on important information, details that were previously unknown from our documents about a relative’s path of persecution or the whereabouts of graves.
Anna Meier-Osiński, Outreach Manager Eastern Europe
Key figures
4700
Effects in 1963
3200
Effects in 2016 (start of the campaign)
2200
Effects in 2024
