Tracing, i.e. the search for survivors of Nazi persecution and the provision of information to their relatives, still constitutes one of the core tasks of the Arolsen Archives today. The article authored by Anna Meier-Osiński gives an insight into this service.
In another article, Anna Meier-Osiński together with Kamila Kolakowski presents the #Stolen Memory traveling exhibition, which focuses on personal effects and the life stories of their former owners. These personal effects are belongings which were taken away from prisoners in concentration camps.
Christiane Weber presents the e-Guide, a new tool which enables students in the class room or lecture hall to understand the documents of the Arolsen Archives themselves.
Another new enterprise is the documentED project. Teachers and other educators can use the resources it offers to prepare and follow up a visit to a memorial site. Christian Höschler explains how this works in practice and what support the Arolsen Archives provide.
Marcus von der Straten focuses on working with the archival holdings of the Arolsen Archives in connection with research-based learning and describes his experiences as a teacher in the classroom.
Christa Kaletsch and Manuel Glittenberg describe the project titled “Zusammenleben neu gestalten” (“Redesigning the way we live together”) to show how sources from the Arolsen Archives can be used to focus attention on flight and migration in the context of education for democratic citizenship.
Lilian Black concentrates on the cooperation between the Arolsen Archives and the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association in Great Britain. The author writes from the perspective of the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who has researched the history of her father’s persecution.
Ingolf Seidel discusses the fundamental opportunities and challenges encountered when working with the biographies of the victims of Nazi persecution in an educational context. He pays special attention to the use of biographical fragments such as those preserved in the Arolsen Archives.
Olga Kulinchenko describes her impressions and experiences as a participant in the biennial joint Winter School held by the ITS / Arolsen Archives and the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center in Berlin-Schöneweide.
Misko Stanisic presents a professional development project for librarians and archivists in Serbia, which the Arolsen Archives have supported by running workshops and giving lectures.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington is an important partner of the Arolsen Archives at international level. Elizabeth Anthony shows how the institutions structure their cooperation and presents the publications the USHMM has produced on the basis of documents from the Arolsen Archives.
Akim Jah und Elisabeth Schwabauer explore the question „who are Displaced Persons?“ and consider what potential the stories of their lives after National Socialist persecution have for learning in schools and other contexts.
A pilot project for documentED has been carried out in partnership with the Max Mannheimer Study Center in Dachau. Steffen Jost and Nina Ritz share their experiences and describe the added value provided by the project when preparing visits to memorial sites.
The International Tracing Service came into being in 1948. It was an institution in a constant state of flux. Isabel Panek and Henning Borggräfe give a historical account of its development and describe the tasks fulfilled by the Arolsen Archives today.
Akim Jah highlights the importance of historical documents for learning about history. He uses the three stages of historical inquiry – comprehension, source criticism and source interpretation – to throw light on the use of sources in an educational context.
