Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Use of Data
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The Arolsen Archives have their origins in the Allied effort during the final years of World War II to document and trace the millions of forced labourers, prisoners, refugees, and displaced persons affected by Nazi persecution. From 1943 to 1945, the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) began assembling a Central Tracing Bureau, initially operating from London, then Versailles, and subsequently Frankfurt am Main. In September 1945, responsibility was transferred to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). In 1948 the organisation was renamed the International Tracing Service (ITS), and its headquarters were moved to Bad Arolsen, a small town in the north of Hesse, Germany, selected for its central position among Allied occupation zones and its intact infrastructure.
For much of its history the ITS operated under the administration of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which assumed responsibility in 1954 following the Bonn Agreement. The archives remained largely closed to external researchers until November 2007, when they were opened to the public following sustained pressure from scholars, politicians, and survivors' advocates. In May 2019 the institution adopted its current name, the Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution, reflecting an expanded mission encompassing online access, education, and public engagement. The ICRC withdrew from management in December 2012; since then, the institution has been governed by an International Commission of eleven member states and is funded primarily by the German Federal Foreign Office.
The Arolsen Archives hold what is widely regarded as the world's most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The collection contains information on approximately 17.5 million individuals and has been recognised as part of UNESCO's Memory of the World programme. Physical holdings include 26,000 linear metres of original documents from the Nazi era and post-war period, supplemented by 232,710 metres of microfilm and more than 106,870 microfiches. The inventory is organised around three principal areas: incarceration, forced labour, and displaced persons. Document types range from registration cards and transport lists to records of deaths, labour passports, and health and social insurance documents. The collection also includes documents relating to prominent victims of Nazi persecution.
Since 2019, the archives have made the majority of their holdings available online. As of recent counts, more than 40 million digitised documents are accessible through the Arolsen Archives' online platform, with ongoing digitisation continuing to expand the searchable holdings. The institution also works with partner archives and museums to integrate additional document collections into its online search environment.
The online archive is freely accessible to all users worldwide, including private individuals, academic researchers, journalists, and educators. In-person visits to the physical archive in Bad Arolsen require prior appointment. The institution responds to inquiries from survivors and their relatives to help clarify individual fates at no charge. The archives have also developed extensive educational programmes, including the crowdsourced initiative #everynamecounts, which engages volunteers in transcribing victim data to make records searchable online.
In October 2013 the Arolsen Archives' historical documents and Central Name Index were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. The institution's online archive received the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award in 2020.