Correspondence with International Tracing Service (ITS)

Identifier
WL3000/9/1/646
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 110378
Dates
22 Jan 1952 - 30 Aug 1962
Level of Description
Collection
Languages
  • German
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

  • Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution
  • Allied High Commission for Germany

Biographical History

Located in Bad Arolsen, Germany, the International Tracing Service (ITS) is a centre for documentation, research, and information on Nazi persecution, forced labour, and the Holocaust. With more than 30 million documents it is the world’s biggest archive on this subject. Founded on British initiative its roots reach back to 1943. Today the ITS operates under supervision of an international commission with representatives from 11 countries. Since 2013, its archive is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme, an international initiative to safeguard humanity’s documentary heritage. See Brown-Fleming, S., Nazi Persecution and Postwar Repercussions: The International Tracing Service Archive and Holocaust Research, Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.

Scope and Content

Beside the ITS and the Allied High Commission (HICOG) respectively this bundle comprises several other correspondents including journalists, the World Jewish Congress, the War Documentation Project at Columbia University, the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt am Main, and the Dutch Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie.

The correspondence centres on HICOG’s arrangements for a takeover of ITS by West German authorities. The various correspondents emphasize their reservations on such an agreement and discuss alternative solutions. Aside from that light is thrown on the cooperation and mutual research assistance between ITS and The Wiener Library including the exchange of documents as well as a research stay at the ITS.

Contained are a draft of an agreement on a German takeover of ITS, a press cutting, a copy of an article from the Jewish Telegraph Agency, memos by K. Baum and by Paul W. Freedman, and a timetable of a trip of Alfred Wiener to West Germany that included a visit of the ITS.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

This material has been digitised. Readers should book a reading room terminal to access it.

Related Units of Description

  • In December 2011, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office deposited the UK's digital copy of the International Tracing Service Archive at The Wiener Library.

  • This website provides information on terms and conditions of access to the ITS archive at The Wiener Library.

People

  • Jong, L. de (Louis)
  • Freedman, Paul W.
  • Baum, Karl
  • Landau, Ernest

Subjects

  • Libraries and Archives
  • Allied powers

Places

  • West Germany [1949-1990]
  • Arolsen
This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.