For historians and those looking to learn more about their family history during and after the Holocaust, millions of Holocaust records and images are now permanently available online through Ancestry.com.

The philanthropic initiative digitizes millions of names and other information, and allows the public to explore Holocaust and Nazi persecution-related records during and after the war by making them searchable online for the first time.

The documents available include registers of those living in Germany and German-occupied territories between 1939 and 1947 who were persecuted, as well as passenger lists between 1946 and 1971 of those who relocated as a result of the war, including Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates, and others.

"With the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling every day, it is more important than ever to ensure these records live on," said Floriane Azoulay, Director of Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution, which provided the records. The German organization offers Holocaust related research for survivors and relatives.

The Arolsen collection is the latest addition to Ancestry’s Holocaust Remembrance records, and the company plans to add more documents from Arolsen to its database by early next year.

Copies of the digital records will also be donated to other organizations including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the company said.

Earlier this year, the Arolsen Archives, formerly known as the International Tracing Service, put more than 13 million documents from Nazi concentration camps online.