List of archives in formerly German or German occupied territories

[Richard T Eger]

I again owe a debt of gratitude to Rod Mackenzie for bringing the list found on this website to my attention. The website is alternatively known as RIJO: Independent Research On Contemporary History or RIJO: Jewish history, the Nazi era and postwar history in Bavaria as well as general information on the topic of forced labor during WWII. The website address is:

http://home.t-online.de/home/RIJONUE/homepage.htm

RIJO stands for the first two initials of the 2 creators of this site, a political scientist (RIeger) and an archivist (JOchem). The site deals with the treatment of Jews by the Nazi's during WW II. It appears to have been created as a search aid for Jews and their families seeking knowledge of family members interred in concentration camps and for redress. It contains a wealth of information along this line for members interested in the concentration camp end of things that might relate to the Luftwaffe.

The list of archives in formerly German or German occupied territories can be found at the following web page address:

http://home.t-online.de/home/RIJONUE/occupati.htm

Countries for which archives are noted are:

Poland
France
Luxembourg
Lithuania
Russia
Czech Republic

The following header information for this archives list may help provide some background for the list:

"Looking for evidential documents former forced laborers meet many problems. For one group it is particularly difficult to even find the right place where to write to, those who had to work in formerly German territories or regions which were incorporated into the "Deutsches Reich" during the course of WWII. In order to help them, we compiled a list of archives in the respective areas. It is important to notice that not included are territories occupied by Germany, but kept in a special status such as "Generalgouvernement" (Central Poland) or the Baltic States. For the same reason of not being able to give a directory of all state archives between Cherbourg and Minsk, respectively Oslo and Florence, we left out "Ostmark" (Austria) and the Czech and Slovenian territories annexed to the Austrian "Reichsgaue". Finally we must emphasize that we do not know in each and every case whether the respective archives have German records regarding forced labor in their holdings. Nevertheless we give their addresses here, because for someone without evidence for his or her term as forced laborer it might be the only chance to obtain it from there."

A more complete review of this site can be found under "Useful Websites" under the topic "RIJO: Independent Research On Contemporary History"

Regards,
Richard

[This message has been edited by Richard T Eger (edited 29 November 2024).]