USHMM: Museum begins responding to requests

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum announced on January 17 that it is ready to begin responding to survivor requests for information from Holocaust survivors and their families from the International Tracing Service Archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

At the Washington, DC meeting, museum representatives and the ITS director provided an overview on the archive, its history, holdings and processes to find specific documents.

The ITS archive contains more than 100 million digital images of material relating to the fates of approximately 17.5 million people — both Jews and non-Jews — who perished in the Holocaust or otherwise fell victim to the Nazi regime.

In August 2007, the first installment of digital copies arrived in Washington, including 18 million digital images of camp, transport, ghetto and arrest records.

In November, it received a copy of the Central Name Index with more than 50 million digital images. The balance - relating to slave labor and displaced persons camps - will be transferred in installments between 2008-2010.