“Our archive bears testimony to the atrocities perpetrated by the National Socialists. Soon there won’t be any survivors left to tell us about them. That is why it is so important that the original documents can speak to coming generations in their place,” Floriane Azoulay, Director of the Arolsen Archives, uses these words to describe the significance of the online archive. Coinciding with the publication of the documents, the institution founded by the Allies under the name “International Tracing Service” is changing its name to “Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution”. A new corporate image and a modern website complete with online archive aim to reach out to a larger audience and inform more people about the consequences of antisemitism, discrimination and racism.

Partnership with Yad Vashem

Since 2015, the Arolsen Archives have uploaded a number of small collections, always with the ultimate aim of making larger collections available to the public in the future. In addition to the collection of data and metadata built up over decades, what was needed was a platform powerful enough to manage the task. Yad Vashem offered to take care of the technical side with the overall aim of augmenting Holocaust documentation and making it available worldwide. The joint project utilizes Yad Vashem’s state-of-the-art technology for fast data management and extended place and name search. The result is an easily accessible, user-friendly online archive.