co:op-READ-Convention Marburg - Jan Ludwig

Biographical Data in Archives I.2 Documents of the Nazi Terror Regime in The Federal Archives

Jan Ludwig 20.01.2016

Documents of the Nazi Terror Regime

in

The Federal Archives



Outline:

1. Biograpical data in The Federal Archives

2. CV on file cards: „SS-Führerstammkarten“

3. NSDAP-Membership Records

4. Supplementary cards of the population census 1939



1. Biograpical data in The Federal Archives

Some Examples

Personal files of ministries and other public authorities

File cards about career in the army and SS

Files of expropriation proceedings

File cards of Prisoners of the SS





2. SS-Führerstammkarten

Example for detailed biographical “file cards”

Part of Personal files of SS-Officers

52.000 Führerstammkarten in total. Until 1994 part of the

holdings of the Berlin Document Center of SS Collections,

here: SSO, in future: BArch R 9361 III SS

Problems for text recognition: different handwritings, (very)

small characters, different types of stamps (Roman type face

and German type), abbreviations



2. SS-Führerstammrollen



2. SS-Führerstammrollen




Main source to proof NSDAP-Membership

Circa 12,7 Million file cards of approximatly 80 % of all

Members of the NSDAP Party (8,5 Million Members in total)

2 file cards: Zentralkartei (alphabetic) und Gaukartei (regional,

after 1945 in alphabetic order)

Additionally: 600.000 NSDAP-membership bids

Until 1994: BDC NSDAP Collections

In Future: R 9361 VIII Zentralkartei

R 9361 IX Gaukartei




Digitization

Digitization from April 2014 to June 2016

Digitization (300 dpi, TIFF), both sides = around 25 Million images

Transcribed: Every 50th file card (name, first name, maiden name, academic title, date and place of birth); accuracy (per contract) 99,98%

additional acquisition of data (by archivists) possible

Perspective: Access in the Reading rooms, restricted for research, browser-based viewer and print-option (72 dpi, pdf) with automatically lettering (ID number of the image)




Challenges of the Digitization

Different typefaces (Latin and German type, different

handwritings and different types: Sütterlin script and looped

cursive)

Abbreviations, canceled words and corrections

Faded Letters and stains

Different schemes of file cards (chronological and regional)



NSDAP-

Membership

bid



NSDAP-

Zentral-

kartei

(alphabetic)



NSDAP-

Gaukartei

(Orts-

gruppen-

kartei)

(regional)



4. Supplementary cards of the population census

Proof of the jewish people in the German Reich 1939 before

the Holocaust

Holding group: R 1509 Reichssippenamt

127.571 supplementary cards with ca. 277.000 of ca. 324.000

jewish people in May 1939 (= 85 %)

For conservation reasons no direct access,

for legal reasons restricted access only for research

Complete transcribed in a database (Oracle-APEX),

perspective: digitization



Supplementary card

of Leo Baeck

(recto)



Supplementary

card

of Leo Baeck

(verso)



Database



Database print preview



Thank you very much for your attention!

Science

co:op-READ-Convention Marburg - Jan Ludwig