View of five I.T.S. Dachau records books stacked horizontally.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 43581

Overview

Caption: View of five I.T.S. Dachau records books stacked horizontally.
Photographer: Richard Ehrlich
Date: 2007 - 2008
Locale: Bad Arolsen, [Hessen] Germany
Variant Locale: Bad Arolsen
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Richard Ehrlich
Event History: In order to help reunite families during World War II, Allied powers established the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Sixteen linear miles of shelving contain pages of documentation captured during the liberation of concentration camps in addition to newly added records, making up the largest Holocaust archive in the world. The documents contain information on 17.5 million victims of Nazism-people arrested, deported, killed, put to forced labor and slave labor, or displaced from their homes and unable to return at the end of the war. The United States is one of eleven nations of the International Commission receiving a single copy of the archive. The USHMM has been chosen to digitally receive and house the collection due to the historical, archival, and technological expertise the Museum already provides to survivors, families, and scholars. The collection is being transferred in a series of installments starting from January 2008 and is expected to be completed in 2010. The Museums Survivors Registry, with staff trained at the ITS in Bad Arolsen, provides assistance to survivor inquires.

Keyword: BOOKS DACHAU INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE RED CROSS TRACING FAMILY/BUREAUS VIEWS
Photo Designation: BEARING WITNESS -- Museums/Exhibitions/Artifacts