Documents in the International Tracing Service archives, Bad Arolsen, Germany. USHMM/Arnold Kramer

International Tracing Service Archive

To learn more about the years-long effort to open the International Tracing Service (ITS), the largest closed Holocaust archive in the world, explore the links on this page. For more information please contact the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Holocaust Survivors at 866.912.4385 (toll-free) or 202.488.6130, or by e-mail at registry@ushmm.org.

Survivors and their families who wish to submit a request for information from the archives can use the Museum’s on-line form.

Read the Museum’s Frequently Asked Questions about the International Tracing Service.

The Museum’s International Tracing Service initiative is made possible in part by a generous donation from the Braman Family Foundation of Miami.

January 17, 2008: Museum announces that it is ready to respond to survivors’ requests for information from the ITS archive. Read more here. Find out how to submit a request for information.
January 15, 2008: The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the International Tracing Service (ITS) at Bad Arolsen are pleased to invite applications to participate in the first of two planned international research workshops for scholars designed to explore research possibilities in the recently opened archival holdings of the ITS. View announcement
November 28, 2007: Museum Welcomes Completion of Ratification of the Agreement Opening the ITS Archive. Read the press release
November 23, 2007: NEW - Together with the International Tracing Service, the Museum has prepared an inventory to the more than 21,000 separate collections of historical documentation that constitute the archive of the ITS.
August 22, 2007: Associated Press, “D.C., Jerusalem Museums Given Huge Nazi Archive”
August 21, 2007: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Receives First Records From International Tracing Service.
U.S. News and World Report article, Closed for decades, the world’s largest Holocaust archive now reveals its secrets, describes the potential of the ITS, May 13, 2007.
ITS Commission meets in Amsterdam, May 14-15, 2007.
ITS Web site.
Read the Bonn Agreement and Amendments (PDF: Änderung der Bonner Verträge).
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on the need to open the ITS. Read the March 28 testimony by Paul Shapiro, Director of the USHMM’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.

Museum Statements

September 5, 2007: Joint statement issued by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ITS
May 21, 2007: Survivors Must See the Holocaust Files
May 16, 2007: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Tracing Service Archive
August 11, 2006: A Mandate To Rescue Evidence of the Shoah
May 16, 2006: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Welcomes Decision to Open International Tracing Service Archive in Germany
March 7, 2006: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Calls for Immediate Access to Closed Archive

Selected Press Highlights

August 22, 2007: Associated Press, "D.C., Jerusalem Museums Given Huge Nazi Archive"
May 16, 2007: Documents From Vast Nazi Archive to Be Made Available to Scholars
February 10, 2007: Associated Press, "60 years later, putting Holocaust victims' names to numbers still a daunting task"
January 18, 2007: Associated Press, "Opening of vast Holocaust archive could take years"
December 23, 2006: Associated Press, "Nazi archive sheds new light on vast network of concentration camps"
December 17, 2006: 60 Minutes: Revisiting the Horrors of the Holocaust
December 17, 2006: Associated Press, "Holocaust Records Help Reconstruct Lives"
November 18, 2006: Associated Press, "Opening of archive likely to spur new generation of Holocaust scholarship"