Documentation regarding the Holocaust from the Federal German Military Archives in Freiburg, 1936-1945
Extent and Medium
1714 Files
Creator(s)
Scope and Content
There is diverse documentation from the Wehrmacht (German Army) regarding the Jews, Jewish communities and the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust in the collection, including reports, memos, telegrams and personal documents, encompassing a wide variety of organizations and units that worked within the Wehrmacht framework. The files cover different areas of activity and organizations: partisan activity, administration of the occupied areas, activities of combat units, cooperation between the German Army and the Einsatzgruppen (Task Forces), activities of the German Military Police and the Secret Military police; economic headquarters; persecution of the Jews; Mischlinge, German Army military service and more. The documentation was collected from most of the places occupied by the German Army during the war, for example, reports regarding the Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) in Eastern Europe and memos concerning the Jews of France.The following is a list of particularly interesting documents in the Record Group: 1. Reports from local headquarters in the East regarding the condition of various Jewish communities and their annihilation;2. Activity reports of the Secret Military Police from the southern section of the eastern front describing in detail the part played by its units in the persecution of the Jews; 3. Documents from Military headquarters in the Balkans regarding the management of the persecution of the Jews in Serbia by the German Army, 1941-1942;4. Reports from units that murdered Jews as part of their activities against partisans (See especially Security Division 221); 5. The handling of the matter of Captain Edgar Jacoby whose Jewishness was discovered, August 1941;6. Guidelines for using Jews to clear minefields; 7. Reports from the Military headquarters in the Generalgouvernment regarding the condition of the Jews in the various ghettos, and concerning using them in the military industry in the Generalgouvernment.
Finding Aids
description of most of the files are available on IDEA ALM system at Yad Vashem Archives reading room
Existence and Location of Originals
Federal German Military Archives in Freiburg
Existence and Location of Copies
YV archives
Archivist Note
JL according to the RG description in the YV system
Dates of Descriptions
2012-06-17