The general inventory of the Arolsen Archives provides you with an overview of the holdings of the collection. First and foremost, it helps you to assess whether there are any documents on your subject. You can view the structure of the holdings or call up basic information on sub-collections in German and English. Taking a look at the inventory is the ideal way to prepare for a personal visit to the archive.
There are two ways to work with the inventory: via the structure or via keywords. In the inventory structure, you can obtain information on sub-collections using the categories. Starting at the top level, you can click your way down through the lower levels of the hierarchy of the holdings. The keyword search, on the other hand, uses place names such as “Auschwitz” or “Wien”, or the names of companies and organizations such as “Krupp” or “SS”. Other key terms such as “resettlement” or “Lebensborn” also yield results if they appear in the descriptions of the holdings.
A search in the inventory usually provides a brief description of the content, type and number of documents available. However, despite its enormous size, the inventory also has its limits. As it is not a complete catalogue, there are no references to some documents. Images of documents are just as hard to find as information on individual fates by searching for the names of victims, for example. Because not everything has yet been indexed, you should always send an inquiry to the Arolsen Archives if you have a concrete research interest. You can, of course, also conduct your research on site in Bad Arolsen or consult a copy of the digitised documents held by one of our partner organisations.