Center for the Conservation of Historical & Documentary Collections - Osoby Archive

[Richard T Eger]

The Center for the Conservation of Historical and Documentary Collections is the former Sonderarchive.

Richard T Eger
Administrator
posted 18 July 2024 08:29

The following exchanges regarding this archive in Moscow come from H-German via Jaap Woortman:

Sources on Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe/Osoby Archives (February 1996)

Submitted by: David Grier (dgrier@sunbelt.net)

A friend (who is at a college not yet on-line) is working on the Volkssturm, the "last reserves" of males between the
ages of 16 and 60 the Germans mobilized
in the final months of World War II. He is planning a research trip to Germany this summer and he has two questions
I hope someone can help with:

1.Where are Nazi Party files, and records of related organizations (such as the Hitler Youth, SA, Reich Labor
Service), from areas that were formerly part
of the Reich but now in Poland or Russia (for example, Breslau, Stettin and Koenigsberg)? Would they be in city
archives, district archives, national
archives or elsewhere?
2.Does anyone know the whereabouts of documents of Wehrmacht units (only those which fought in former Reich
territories) captured by Soviet forces
and their allies?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

David Grier, Erskine College

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Submitted by: Francis R. Nicosia (NICOSIA@SMCVAX.SMCVT.EDU)

The Center for the Preservation of Historical Documentary Collections, also known as the "Osobyi" Archive, in
Moscow is a logical place to look. Its collection
of captured German records is enormous. There are published guides in German and English. A good place to start
before going to Moscow is the United
States Holocaust Research Institute (Archives) at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The
Institute filmed a good deal of the Moscow
collection that pertains to the persecution of Jews, Gypsies, etc. and to the final solution. These are in RG 11.
They also have the guides to the "Osobyi" Archive
in Moscow. Good luck.

Francis R. Nicosia
Saint Michael's College, Vermont


[editor's note: after H-German received the first item below requesting further information about the Osobyi
archives, we contacted Francis Nicosia
and Sybil Milton for further information. Their responses follow the query. d.r.]

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1)

Submitted by: John Bingham (bclow@macc.wisc.edu)

Would it be possible to post more exact bibliographical references for the English/German archival guides published
by the Moscow Center for the Preservation
of Historical Documentary Collections (Osobyi archive)?

Thank you,

John Bingham (bclow@macc.wisc.edu)
History Department
York University
Toronto, Canada
M3J 1P3