Holocaust-relevant holdings in the German Federal Archives

The following section provides, in keywords, an overview of the holdings and records of the German Federal Archives that could be used for holocaust research Although the list is quite long, it is by no means exhaustive, so that a search in the Federal Archive's holdings guide and online database invenio (https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de) remain necessary.

Before this list you will find a presentation that also names some of the Federal Archives' collections that are relevant for holocaust research and more importantly depicts the many other opportunities available to holocaust researchers at the archives (in German only).

The following list of Holocaust-relevant holdings was compiled in the main by Dr. Walter Naasner (head of division R). The translations in parentheses are courtesy translations only, the holdings are in German only.

A. Abteilung Deutsches Reich (Third Reich Department: main Nazi civilian organisations, incl. the NSDAP and its subsidiary groups and organisations)

I. Zentral-Bestände (central holdings: State, NSDAP, SS)
II. Innere Angelegenheiten, Polizei, Repressionsapparat (domestic affairs, police, apparatus of repression)
III. Justizorgane (judicial organs)
IV. Finanzen, Wirtschaft, Arbeit (finance, economics, labour)
V. Auswärtiges, Besatzungspolitik (foreign affairs, occupation policy)
VI. Personenbezogen erschlossene Bestände (holdings on individuals)

B. Abteilung Militärarchiv (Department Military Archives)

Wehrmacht + Waffen-SS

C. Across divisions: Nachlässe, Sammlungen und Sonstiges (estates, collections, other)

Estates
Collections
Documents related to the persecution of the Jews
Photo collections by subject
Audio collections
Maps and aerial photos

D. Abteilung Filmarchiv (Department Film Archives)

Film archives
Photo archives

E. Abteilung Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Department Federal Republic of Germany)

Zones occupied by the Western allies
FRG

F. Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im BArch (SAPMO) (Foundation Archives of GDR Parties and Mass Organizations in the Federal Archives)

GDR (SAPMO)

G. Abteilung Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic Division (includes Soviet-occupied zone and the federal holdings of the GDR))

GDR (federal holdings)

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A. Abteilung Deutsches Reich (Third Reich Department)

I. Central holdings: State, NSDAP, SS

R 43 II Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery)

Management and coordination of top-level Reich agencies

Including: Nazi anti-Jewish policies, revoking German citizenship and other general issues

NS 6 Partei-Kanzlei (Party Chancellory)

NSDAP leadership agency (Hess → Bormann)

Racial policy (general documents)

NS 19 Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS (Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS)

Multiple roles: chief of German police, May 1943; Reich Minister of the Interior; Himmler's central management body, overall management of the SS. Authority over: policy in the east, police, security police, security services (SD), concentration camps, the race question, persecution of the Jews, Waffen SS → concentration and death camp guards

II. Innere Angelegenheiten, Polizei, Repressionsapparat (domestic affairs, police, apparatus of repression)

R 1501 Reichsministerium des Innern (Reich Ministry of the Interior; RMdI)

Citizenship, Deportation, Race Policy, Nuremberg Laws (incl. anti-miscegenation laws forbidding marriage between Jews and Aryans)

R 1509 Reichssippenamt (Reich Office of Genealogy)

Review of Aryan heritage, records of marriages etc. from Jewish congregations, supplementary files to the census of May 17, 1939 → registration of Jews in the Third Reich

NS 2 Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt-SS (Race and Settlement Main Office; RuSHA-SS)

SS family trees, also: fiancées of SS members, hereditary health form (Erbgesundheitsbogen)

R 58 Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office; RSHA)

Oversight of state and party security organs: Gestapo, Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police, Sipo), Reichskriminalpolizeiamt (Reich Criminal Police, RKPA), Sicherheitsdienst (Security Services; SD)

Persecution of (remaining) Jews, suppressing opponents, determining public opinion among the German population, Sipo and SD Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) → mass murder of the Jews (Eichmann-Referat IV B 4: Ø)

R 19 Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei (Order Police; OrPo)

Schutzpolizei (Security Police)

Deployment of police battalions in the East.

NS 3 SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administrative Office; SS-WVHA)

Economic administration and management of the entire SS; the concentration camp system (incl. forced labour of prisoners for the SS and industry), SS construction, SS Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe (German Economic Companies; DWB—Thirty-nine companies in all spheres of the economy)

NS 4 Konzentrationslager (concentration camps; KL)

esp. Buchenwald (Bu), Flossenbürg (Fl), Mauthausen (Mau), Natzweiler (Natz);

Splitter: Auschwitz (Au), Lublin (Lu) → see further documents held by ITS Arolsen

NS 31 SS-Hauptamt (SS Main Office; SS-HA)

Founded 1935; governing body of the SS, later reduced to trainings and replacement of the SS and the police

NS 33 SS-Führungshauptamt (operational headquarters; SS-FHA)

Management of the Waffen-SS

Military training for the SS

NS 34 SS-Personalhauptamt (SS Personnel Office; SS-PHA)

Personnel management of SS leaders → see Berlin Document Center (BDC)

NS 26 Hauptarchiv der NSDAP (Main NSDAP Archive)

"Special division" (Sonderreferat) for Jews, freemasons and the church: Collections on Jews and the Nazi repression of Jews

III. Justizorgane (judicial organs)

R 3001 Reichsjustizministerium (Reich Ministry of Justice, RJM)

Nuremberg laws, "race defilement," treatment of "community aliens" (Gemeinschaftsfremde) and people of "alien ethnicity" (fremdvölkisch), step-by-step disenfranchisement of Jews in the Third Reich (i.a. the many amendments to the Reichbürgergesetz, the Law of the Reich Citizen).

R 3016 Volksgerichtshof (People's Court; VGH)

R 3017 Oberreichsanwalt (Chief Prosecutor of the Reich; ORA) at the Volksgerichtshof (VGH)

Central body for special criminal jurisdiction

The "special" crime of Heimtücke or "treachery," often with an antisemitic emphasis

IV. Finanzen, Wirtschaft, Arbeit (finance, economics, labour)

R 2 Reichsfinanzministerium (Reich Ministry of Finance; RFM)

Fundamental principle: Everything must be financed!

Household: Police, SS, concentration camps, Reich assets and "anti-German" (volksfeindlich) assets, Aryanization, utilisation proceeds, special taxes on Jews (i.e. the Reich flight tax (Reichfluchtsteuer)), confiscated art (paintings, galleries, etc.)

NS 1 Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP (Reich Party Treasurer)

Management of NSDAP memberships

Proceeds from Aryanization used to fund the Nazi party

R 2501 Deutsche Reichsbank (Bank of the Third Reich)

Utilization proceeds [like R 2]: booking and financial management (very few surviving documents)

R 2107 Oberfinanzpräsident (OFP) Berlin, Außenstelle für feindliches Vermögen (Chief Finance President, Section for Alien Assets)

Utilization proceeds [like R 2]: booking and financial management

R 3101 Reichswirtschaftsministerium (Reich Ministry of Economics; RWM)

Expropriation of businesses, so-called Feindkapitalverflechtung or Jewish cross-holdings with aliens in the Reich and abroad; currencies

R 3102 Statistisches Reichsamt (Reich Office of Statistics)

Census 1933 and 1939 → evaluation, registration of Jews

R 3 Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion (Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production; RMRK)

Forced labour in the arms production industry, also by Jews and Jewish concentration camp prisoners

Triad: RMRK – SS – GBA (Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz or Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment)

R 26 I – VIII Beauftragter für den Vierjahresplan (Commissioner for the Four-year Plan (Göring))

This was the seat of the Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment!

Economic exploitation of Jews and expropriation of Jewish assets in the occupied territories

R 50 Organisation Todt (OT) (Speer)

Jewish forced labour in military construction

R 3901 Reichsarbeitsministerium (Reich Ministry of Labour; RAM)

Main Departments III and V → Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (Sauckel)

Triad: GBA — SS — Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production

Mass forced labour deployment (and recruiting) of concentration camp prisoners, foreign civilians, and prisoners of war, including Jews

R 5 Reichsverkehrsministerium (Reich Ministry of Transport; RVM)

Deportation logistics, Reichsbahn

R 12 I – IV Reichsgruppen (Reich groups)

Organisation of the commercial sector (Speer: bodies of accountability (Selbstverantwortungsorgane))

R 13 I – XXXIV Wirtschaftsgruppen (commercial groups)

Organisation of the commercial sector (Speer: bodies of accountability)

R 11 Reichswirtschaftskammer (Reich Chamber of Commerce)

National agency overseeing regional chambers of commerce

Organisation of the commercial sector (Speer: bodies of accountability)

Note: The chambers of commerce and their associations participated in Aryanization and the exploitation and forced labour of in particular Jewish people

V. Auswärtiges, Besatzungspolitik (foreign affairs, occupation policy)

R 901 Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office; AA)

BArch: 1.6 linear kilometres, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (PolArchAA, Political Archives of the Foreign Office): 18 linear kilometres

AA "Abteilung Deutschland" (Germany Division; PolArchAA): Anti-Jewish measures, foreign objections to seizing of assets, emigration, antisemitism in other countries, the "final solution" → diplomatic preparation in allied and occupied countries

R 49 Reichskommissar für die deutschen Volkstums (Reich Commissioner for the Fortification of Germandom; RKFDV) (Himmler)

Expropriation and transfer of Jewish property to ethnic German settlers

R 70 Polizei in den eingegliederten und besetzten Gebieten (Police in the annexed and occupied territories)

Incomplete holdings on fifteen countries, including Poland, the Soviet Union, Slovakia, and Bohemia and Moravia

Executive anti-Jewish measures, deportations

R 137 I – V Justizbehörden in Danzig-Westpreußen, Wartheland, Generalgouvernement, Böhmen und Mähren (Judicial authorities in Danzig-West Prussia, the Wartheland, the General Government, Bohemia and Moravia

Special Courts (Sondergerichte), Bookkeeping → Expropriations

R 144 Haupttreuhandstelle Ost (Main Trusteeship Office East; HTO)

→ organizationally linked to the four-year plan

Expropriation of Jewish and Polish non-agricultural businesses, esp. commercial operations in the annexed eastern territories

NS 30 Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Operation Reich Leader Rosenberg; ERR)

Alfred Rosenberg: Chief ideologue of the Nazi party, author Myth of the Twentieth Century, 235 individual files

Confiscation of cultural assets in the occupied territories (libraries, archives, museums) that belonged to Jews, freemasons, and others, and shipping them to the Reich.

Parallel transfers: CDJC in Paris, NARA, Ukraine, Moscow, and more.

R 6 Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (meaning Soviet territories)) (Rosenberg)