Links and Bibliography
Helpful books and websites for your own research.
1. Complete Overview of the Concentration Camp System
- Nikolaus Wachsmann, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps, New York/London 2015.
A complete overview of the history of the concentration camps, from the early camps starting in 1933 to the liquidation of the camp system in 1945. - Karin Orth, Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte, Hamburg 1999.
An organizational history of the development of the camp system, in German.
2. Bibliographies and Reference Works
- Basic Bibliography of the Holocaust
The bibliography of the Israeli Yad Vashem Remembrance Center on various topics related to the Holocaust.
Basic Bibliography of the Holocaust - Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml, and Hermann Weiß (eds.), Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus, Munich 2007
The German-language Encyclopedia of Nazism contains 26 longer essays on overarching topics, a subject encyclopedia with more than one thousand articles, and an encyclopedia of persons with more than a thousand short biographies.
3. Information About Individual Camps and Subcamps
- Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds.), Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, 9 Volumes, Munich 2005–2009
These nine volumes in German, titled Site of Terror. History of Nazi Concentration Camps, present a chronological timeline of all concentration camps and their respective subcamps, meaning individual camps can easily be looked up during research. - Geoffrey P. Megargee (ed.), The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, 7 volumes, Bloomington 2009–2018
The planned seven volumes of this encyclopedia aim to present the entirety of the Nazi camp system. Due to its lexical character, camps can be looked up individually. Volumes 1 to 3 can be downloaded free of charge.
Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos
4. The Auschwitz Concentration Camp
- Sybille Steinbacher, Auschwitz: A History, London 2018
At 176 pages, this history of this concentration camp is limited to the essentials. - Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds.), Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Munich 2007
Includes separate articles in German on all the subcamps, thus very helpful for research. - Transporte polnischer Häftlinge in den KZ Systemen Auschwitz, Dachau und Flossenbürg / Transporty polskich więźniów w kompleksach obozowych KL Auschwitz, KL Dachau i KL Flossenbürg, Oświęcim 2020
This anthology in Polish and German, titled Transports of Polish Prisoners to the Concentration Camp Systems of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Flossenbürg, presents the results of a joint project between the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Dachau and Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorials. With the help of the Memorial Archives database, it was possible to reconstruct the transport routes of Polish prisoners to the concentration camps.
5. Flossenbürg Concentration Camp
- Flossenbürg Concentration Camp 1938-1945. Catalogue of the Permanent Exhibition, Göttingen 2009
The catalogue to the permanent exhibition is well suited as an introduction to the history of the concentration camp and includes numerous images and photos. - Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds.), Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, Volume 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, Munich 2006
Includes separate articles in German on all the subcamps, thus very helpful for research.
6. Shoah
- Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933–1939; The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945, both New York, 1997.
An overall account of the Shoah that also includes the voices of its victims via diary entries and personal letters. - Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 3 volumes, New Haven, 2003.
First published in 1961, this book, which Hilberg supplemented and expanded until 2002, is now considered a standard work of Holocaust research.
7. Research and Sources
- Raul Hilberg, Sources of Holocaust Research: An Analysis, Chicago, 2001.
In this work, the eminent Holocaust researcher explains how he interprets sources and brings them to speak. - Henning Borggräfe, Christian Höschler, and Isabel Panek (eds.), A Paper Monument. The History of the Arolsen Archives, catalogue of the permanent exhibition, Bad Arolsen, 2019
A richly illustrated catalogue for the permanent exhibition of the Arolsen Archives, titled A Monument Made of Paper: The History of the Arolsen Archives, describes the history of the search for missing persons after the end of the Second World War.
Open Access - Henning Borggräfe, Christian Höschler, and Isabel Panek (eds.), Tracing and Documenting Nazi Victims Past and Present, Arolsen Research Series Vol. 1, Berlin and Boston 2020
Anthology on the methods for tracing the fates of Nazi victims and their histories.
Open Access - Henning Borggräfe and Akim Jah (eds.), Deportations in the Nazi Era. Sources and Research, Arolsen Research Series Vol. 2, Berlin and Boston 2022
The contributions to this volume present sources on the deportations and discuss current research questions.
Open Access
8. Databases
- Online Archive of the Arolsen Archives
The Arolsen Archives, with more than 30 million documents, is the most extensive archive on victims of Nazi persecution. The collection, with documents on around 17.5 million people, has been part of the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register since 2013. Its contents also include all the remaining original documents from the concentration camps. A large portion of the documents are already available online.
Arolsen Archives - Memorial Archives
The Memorial Archives is the digital research platform of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial. The database brings together biographical information and documents on each inmate and makes it possible to reconstruct imprisonment histories. As part of the “open archives,” basic personal data can also be viewed without registration.
Memorial Archives - Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names
In the database of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), aside from searching for Jewish prisoners, one can also search for prisoners from other persecuted groups. Approximately 60 percent of the contents of the museum’s database is accessible online.
Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names - The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
The database of the Israeli memorial site Yad Vashem contains the same information as the USHMM database. Users can submit “Pages of Testimony” to help complete the database.
The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names - JewishGen's Holocaust Database
Meta-searches of 190 specialized databases, enabling access to more than 3.79 million entries.
JewishGen's Holocaust Database
9. Research Tools
- The e-Guide to the Arolsen Archives
The e-Guide uses examples to explain what are known as “individual documents,” meaning the prisoner registration forms and registry office cards that were filled out for each individual prisoner in the concentration camps. Documents about displaced persons and forced labor are also explained here.
e-Guide - Additional Resources to the e-Guide
Helpful research materials, including a glossary of abbreviations for camp documents, overviews of prisoner symbols, and categories of imprisonment as well as a prisoner number register.
Additional Resources - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations found in the Archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS)
A list of abbreviations that can be found in concentration camp documents.
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - Transports to Extinction: Holocaust (Shoah) Deportation Database
A database about the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps. The tool makes it possible to trace the transport routes in detail. It is also possible to search for people in the transports.
Transports to Extinction - EHRI Portal
A directory of all archives holding Holocaust-related materials, including holdings descriptions and help for searches.
EHRI Portal
10. Online Offerings
- EHRI Online Course in Holocaust Studies
Online course for teachers and students who wish to take a scholarly approach to studying the Holocaust.
EHRI Online Course in Holocaust Studies - #everynamecounts
Crowdsourcing initiative of the Arolsen Archives through which people can participate in collecting information on concentration camp prisoners.
#everynamecounts - Die Quellen sprechen. Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945
This is a 16-part audio version of the German-language publication The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany 1933–1945, published by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History.
Die Quellen sprechen - Education and E-Learning, Yad Vashem
Educational platform of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel.
Education and E-Learning, Yad Vashem - Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context
The online platform of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museums (USHMM), on which primary sources such as diaries, newspaper articles, photographs, film clips, letters, and more can be studied.
Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context - Keeping Memories
Digital platform for life stories of prisoners of Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Keeping Memories - #LastSeen
A German-language project of the Arolsen Archives, the goal of which is to systematically index the photographs of deportations and make them accessible in an atlas of images. It also offers an online game in which you can examine historic photographs yourself.
#LastSeen - Media Collections of the Memorial Archives
Eyewitness interviews about Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Memorial Archives Media Collections - The Nazi Concentration Camps
Comprehensive information about the concentration camp system, including timelines, maps, and eyewitness interviews. Developed by Nikolaus Wachsmann, the author of the book KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps.
The Nazi Concentration Camps - Online Exhibitions of the USHMM
Online exhibits of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museums (USHMM) on various topics related to the Holocaust.
Online Exhibitions of the USHMM - Online Exhibitions of Yad Vashem
Online exhibits of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel.
Online-Exhibitions of Yad Vashem - #StolenMemory
Website for the Arolsen Archives’ #StolenMemory project. It aims to locate relatives to return possessions of former prisoners to them.
#StolenMemory - Tape Recordings of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963–1965)
German-language site that includes witness statements from the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials as audio files; developed by the Fritz Bauer Institute.
Tape Recordings of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963–1965) - Transnational Remembrance of Nazi Forced Labor and Migration
Interactive map of the Arolsen Archives upon which you can trace the paths of forced laborers.
Transnational Remembrance of Nazi Forced Labor and Migration - Forced Labor 1939–1945. Memory and History
Online archive with almost 600 tape- and video-recorded interviews with former forced laborers. A joint project of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Historical Museum.
Forced Labor 1939–1945
