Would you like to send an inquiry to the Arolsen Archives? Are you looking for information on the fate of family members who were victims of Nazi persecution or do you require information for the purposes of research or educational projects? Please use our inquiry form!

We can provide information about

Your inquiry to the Arolsen Archives

One form for all your inquiries: we will guide you through the form, asking you to select the appropriate options and enter all the information we need in order to carry out research for you.

To the inquiry form

Waiting time

Here you can see the current figures for our processing times. These apply to the clarification of fates and paths of persecution with the help of our documents. If we are looking for graves or search for family members, it can take much longer. Every month we receive more than 1,000 inquiries. As a rule, we process them in the order we receive them. Inquiries from survivors or requests with a high urgency are given priority treatment, so that the waiting time is only a few days to a few weeks. We assure you that we will do our utmost so that every person requesting information receives an answer as soon as possible.

2 months average waiting time
5 months maximum waiting time
10,000 inquiries in 2023

As of: 30/06/2023

Additional information for family members

Every year, many thousands of people get in touch with the Arolsen Archives to find out more about the fate of their relatives. Inquiries about the victims of Nazi persecution reach us from all over the world. You will find useful information all about your inquiry to the Arolsen Archives here.

To the information for relatives

Further contact persons

If you are looking for information on compensation for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, you will receive support at: www.claimscon.org

We do not have any information on soldiers from the former German armed forces or on people who fled or who were expelled from the former Eastern territories of the German Reich. For information on people belonging to these categories, please contact: www.bundesarchiv.de

Information on prisoners of war, civilian detainees, missing soldiers from the German armed forces or civilians who were deported by the Red Army can be obtained from: www.drk-suchdienst.de

How did the survivors go about rebuilding their lives? What kinds of help did they receive? Documents held by the Arolsen Archives dating from the period after 1945 provide answers to these questions. They contain a wealth of information about the fates of the survivors as well as about those who were murdered.

By saving the information contained in the inquiries, we are adding new names and new findings to the archive every day. Knowledge about the victims of Nazi persecution is continuing to grow year by year as a result.

»These documents are ever more valuable. They are memory.«

Alexandr Afanasjew, former prisoner of war and prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp and Ellrich-Juliushütte sub-camp on the occasion of his visit to Bad Arolsen

From lists to questionnaires with photos

Lists of various kinds often form the basis for the information provided by the Arolsen Archives. Some of these lists are the product of National Socialist bureaucracy. The perpetrators produced meticulous documentation of deportations, new arrivals, cases of sickness and deaths in concentration camps. However, the Allies made lists too, primarily concerning the registration, care, emigration or repatriation of Displaced Persons (DPs) as well as the activities of the Child Search Branch after 1945.

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