Selected records relating to Romania's communist government's attempt to obtain Holocaust-related restitution from the Federal Republic of Germany

The collection contains reproductions of Russian restitution applications as well as general records concerning the collaboration between Romanian and German authorities from 1938-1941. All records are translated into both Romanian and German. The records are organized in 31 containers that were given to the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1971 by the Romanian Ambassador to Germany. Container 1: Consists of 5 large folders comprising an estimated 5,000 pages concerning: Legislation concerning racial and political persecution, translations of the most relevant documents in German; the persecution in Nord-Siebenbuergen; the persecution of Roma and Sinti; includes maps of Transnistria, with camps and deportation routes marked, partially in color concerning the evacuation of Roma and Sinti (Records relating to political and economic pressure on Romanian authorities by the Germans are missing, they were not included in the original collection due to a report in 1972). Containers 2-27: Consists of an average of 8-11 large folders organized alphabetically by region and within each region alphabetically by name relating to racial and political persecution between 1939-1944, including supplemental records in Box 27. The overall total of restitution application files is 131,791. Each of the individual restitution application records is translated from Romanian into German, based on a series of printed questions in both Romanian and German. The application includes the following information: name, place and date of birth, last residence, Romanian ID card number, reason for restitution application is either political or racial persecution, signature of applicant, very short summary of history: loss of family members, loss of property, forced labor, names of prison or camps, length of incarceration. This information is often translated word by word in cases of Jewish victims, but summarized for cases of political persecution with a preprinted sticker stating in German and in general terms that the person was persecuted due to anti-fascist beliefs (majority of cases seem to be political), notarized by the Romanian Ministry of Justice and dated in most cases 1970. Each folder encompasses an average of 1600 pages, both front and back pages, bound in large books. The application for one person is on one page (front and back). Containers 28-31: Consists of an average of 8-11 large folders. Container 28 consists of 450 cases of restitution concerning the camp of Vapniarka with an alphabetical list of all prisoners. Containers 29-31 consists of records pertaining to 17 victims (mostly Jewish) of medical experiments with an alphabetical list of all prisoners, 792 files of persons whose property was confiscated by German authorities and who were deported to Germany with an alphabetical list of all regions concerned, 5,363 files of persons whose property was confiscated by German authorities, 16,723 files of persons who were deported and whose property was lost after their return with an alphabetical list of some of the people. The overall number of files originally was 155,126 but Romanian authorities removed 23,352 files.

Arranged in four series: 1. Records on legislation concerning racial and political persecution [Container 1]; 2. Restitution application files (organized alphabetically by region and within each region alphabetically by name relating to racial and political persecution),1939-1944 [Container 2-27); 3. 450 cases of restitution concerning the camp of Vapniarka with alphabetical list of all prisoners [Container 28]; 4. Records of victims of medical experiments, and files of deported persons and confiscated properties (Alphabetical list of prisoners and all regions concerned) [Container 29-31]. Note: The digitized files do not correspond to the containers explained above.