Records of the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes (B 162)

Identifier
irn43608
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2011.99
  • RG-14.101M
Dates
1 Jan 1933 - 31 Dec 1999
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

1,929,143 digital images, JPEG

1,922 microfilm reels (partially digitized), 16 mm

Creator(s)

Biographical History

The Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes is Germany’s main agency responsible for investigating Nazi war crimes since 1958. The mandate for the Central Office was and remains to collect and examine all relevant records on criminal acts of the Nazi regime. The facts ascertained are then handed over to the public prosecutor who institutes the formal preliminary and criminal proceeding. The public prosecutors are also obliged to forward all findings they obtain to the Central Office and to notify legal measures and decisions pronounced during the proceedings. Since its formation, the Central Office has helped track down and prosecute almost 7,000 Nazi criminals and collaborated with the agencies of other nations to track down war criminals. In 2000, the Federal Archives established a branch office located at the residence of the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg. The task of this branch is to preserve those records which are no longer required by the Central Office and make them accessible to researchers.

Archival History

Bundesarchiv (Germany). Außenstelle Ludwigsburg

Acquisition

Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Source of acquisition is the Bundesarchiv-Außenstelle Ludwigsburg, Germany; Signatura B 162. Records created by the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Museum International Archives Project in July. 2011, and additional accretions in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2021. This is ongoing project. The Musuem Archives expects to recive the detailed registry card index contained Ca. 1.7 million entries in later time.

Scope and Content

Contains selected records relating to the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed under the National Socialist regime from 1933-1945. Includes interrogation reports of perpetrators, testimonies of witnesses, and court decisions. Records document violent crimes, including: mass crimes against Jews and others committed by members of the SS and security police within the killing squads in Poland and in the former Soviet Union, as well as crimes in numerous ghettos, concentration and extermination camps (such as Auschwitz, Majdanek, Belżec, Treblinka or Sobibὀr) across occupied Europe. Also contains files detailing the murder of political opponents and the homicidal crimes within the so-called euthanasia-program, materials on the "Röhm murder;” the pogroms against Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938; the crimes against forced laborers in the numerous forced labor and POW camps, as well as in other institutions for detention.

System of Arrangement

Arranged in four series: 1. ARZ: Pre-investigation files developed by the Central Office and continued by various state attorney offices; 2. AR: Requests from various German and foreign state attorney offices as well as private citizens; Copies of investigation reports from German state attorney offices. 3. Document collection: Files and documents from the years 1933-1945 collected in German and foreign archives; 4. Files of the investigation of crimes (post-reproduction of records mostly from AR sub-collection). The electronic folders are titled by file number/archival signature.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Bundesarchiv (Germany). Außenstelle Ludwigsburg

People

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.