The collections of the Arolsen Archives offer great potential for researching Nazi crimes and their aftermath. People come to us with very different questions and approaches. Our users range from committed local historians who are interested in documents on individual victims of Nazi crimes or on concrete events and people in a particular place, to academic researchers interested in analyzing large amounts of data using digital humanities methods.

We work very closely with researchers and universities. These partnerships enable us to try out new methodological approaches and explore the potential of the archive. We also offer customized research seminars for students as well as seminars and workshops for young academics.

By working together with universities and students, we aim to highlight research potential and encourage academic debate on the subject of Nazi crimes.

We are very interested in cooperative research projects which will enable us to try out new methodical approaches with you and explore the potential of the archive. We are happy to hold a workshop at your institute or give a lecture to your students presenting documentary and data holdings of the Arolsen Archives as well as paths of research.

We also offer special research seminars that support university teaching. Contact us if you would like to include an excursion to Bad Arolsen in your course so that the students can gain some first-hand experience of working with archive sources. We tailor the contents of the research seminar to make them suitable for the subjects you are working on and to meet your individual requirements.

Key themes of the archive

The greatest opportunities for innovative research are offered by the key themes of the collection of the Arolsen Archives: the history of concentration camps and concentration camp prisoners in particular, police persecution at local level and the deportation of the Jewish population, the exploitation of foreign forced laborers, the care and support of Displaced Persons after 1945, the emigration and later lives of survivors, the question of compensation as well as the history of the search for missing persons and documentation of the victims.

Please contact us if you have any questions about these topics or if you are interested in developing an idea for a joint project with us.

»We have gained an insight into just how many fields of research are still open.«

Prof. Dr. Atina Grossmann, Workshop in Bad Arolsen

Inquiries to the archive

Do you want to research on site at the Arolsen Archives or do you have a simple inquiry for the archive? Please send us all the relevant information using this form.

Send us your Inquiry

OuSArchiv Video Tutorial

You can view and explore our digital collections in their entirety in the reading room of the Arolsen Archives. Some of our partner institutions also provide access to this resource. We explain how to use it in six video tutorials.

Video Tutorials

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