If the attempt to take Adolf Hitler’s life on July 20, 1944 had been successful, Dr Fritz Elsas would have become head of the Reich Chancellery. But the attempt failed. The Nazis arrested, interrogated, and tortured Fritz.

For Eugen Seidt, fighting on the side of the Republic also meant fighting against the Nazis. The German national joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Read the whole story on our website: arolsen-archives.org/en/news/90-y...

“I'll keep going until there are no more Nazis.” Esther Bejarano survived Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and a death march. In Auschwitz, she played the accordion in the women’s orchestra. Explore documents relating to her persecution in our online archive: collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/...

Following their liberation, former prisoners took control in some concentration camps. For the liberated prisoners, this form of self-organization was a first step toward reclaiming their dignity and autonomy. Find out more: arolsen-archives.org/stories/en/s...

#everynamecounts continues to grow! The participation of tens of thousands of volunteers and their enthusiastic sharing of the campaign on social media helped triple user numbers in 2025. Together they processed twice as many documents as in 2024. arolsen-archives.org/stories/en/a...

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” This quote by Elie Wiesel is engraved in stone at the entrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Elie was a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to defending human rights. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

830,000 searches were carried out in our online archive in 2025. Anyone can explore more than 40 million documents online, and thousands of people now access this resource every day. For more facts and figures, see our annual report: arolsen-archives.org/stories/en/a...

National players Alfred Dünnmann, Kornel “Narrio” Hoffmann, and Emil Isidor Weinberg helped shape the early years of Austrian professional football. But the Nazis murdered the three Jewish sportsmen in extermination camps in 1942.

Why do the stories of people persecuted by the Nazi regime still matter today? For Malgorzata Przybyla, who works in the tracing department at the Arolsen Archives, the answer is simple: because their names mustn’t be forgotten – and because their stories help us understand the present.

85 years ago, on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The objectives of this war of annihilation were the economic exploitation of the population and the territories, the conquest of “Lebensraum” (living space), and the murder of the Jewish population and the Soviet ruling class.

“After a year of war, this has become a very pressing, painful topic.” Hanna Tarkovska and her students in Ukraine are participating in #StolenMemory. Together with other volunteers, they’re searching for the families of victims of Nazi persecution. Read more: www.stolenmemory.org/en/

The International Commission of the Arolsen Archives met in Rome this week. Arezoo Hersel-Rohila (Israel) takes over as chair for the next 12 months, succeeding Sabrina Mingarelli (Italy). We would like to thank Sabrina Mingarelli for her hard work and dedication this past year!

When Yidele Henechowicz was liberated from the Bergen Belsen, he was not yet three. After the war, he was adopted in Sweden and given a new name: Julius Maslovat. Not until 2010 did he learn that an uncle had escaped Poland before it was too late - with a photo of his parents Sala and Symcha.

The Nazis castrated Kurt Brüssow because he was gay. After 1945, he fought for his suffering to be recognized. But he fought in vain – homosexuals continued to face discrimination under Paragraph 175 after 1945. Not until 1994 was the Paragraph abolished. Too late for Kurt, who had died in 1988.

To mark World Day Against Child Labor, we remember the millions of children and young people who were deported by the Nazis to Germany and to German-occupied territories and made to perform forced labor - among them seven-year-old Sinaida Dalidowicz from Belarus.

In honor of Eva Mamlok, a Jewish resistance fighter, the German Federal Ministry of Finance issued a commemorative stamp on May 7. When she was still a teenager, Eva stood up against the Nazi regime. The Nazis murdered her in the Stutthof concentration camp on December 23, 1944.

As an archivist and research assistant at the Arolsen Archives, Mareike Hennies works where history, technology, and people come together. In our interview, she shares what motivates her, what makes #everynamecounts so impactful, and what it’s like to work at the Arolsen Archives.

To mark International Children’s Day, we remember Josef Bareikowski who became an orphan in infant age. His mother was deported by the Nazis for forced labor to Germany and died there. After the war ended, various aid organizations took care of Josef and returned him to Poland in May 1946.

We are looking for relatives of Anna Bovkova (Bovkava) in order to return Anna’s ring to them. Anna’s story is part of the #StolenMemory traveling exhibition which we are showing in Ukraine, in cooperation with Tolerspace. Here are all the details: www.stolenmemory.org/en/exhibitio...

Kennst du schon unsere Graphic Novel „Wo ist Lotte?“. Die Graphic Novel entstand in Kooperation mit dem Grimmelshausen-Gymnasiums Gelnhausen, der Künstlerin Hannah Brinkmann und dem Bildungsteam der Arolsen Archives. Mehr erfährst du hier: arolsen-archives.org/mitmachen/ar...

Als wahrscheinlich einziger Mensch lässt sich der polnische Widerstandskämpfer Witold Pilecki 1940 freiwillig in Auschwitz inhaftieren, um Berichte über die NS-Verbrechen aus dem Lager zu schmuggeln. Das kommunistische Regime in Polen richtet ihn 1948 wegen „ausländischer Spionage“ hin.

Stanisław Stylka lived in Warsaw until the Nazis deported him to a concentration camp during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. His pocket watch has now returned to his home town and is part of the Warsaw Museum’s permanent exhibition on the history of the German occupation.

Behind the scenes at the Arolsen Archives: Millions of documents need to be repacked in preparation for their move to the new archive building. We use boxes and folders that conform to archival standards and protect the fragile paper from damaging environmental factors such as light and moisture.

On March 18, 1944, Rudolf Friemel and Margarita Ferrer Rey were married in the Auschwitz concentration camp. For this purpose, Margarita was permitted to visit Rudolf. It is the only wedding ceremony ever documented at the camp. Just a few months later, Rudolf was executed by the Nazis.

On May 17, 1945, Norwegians were finally free to celebrate their national holiday again. Einar Gerhardsen was among them. Persecuted by the Nazis, he was held at Grini detention camp & at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After the war, he helped shape modern Norway as the country’s Prime Minister.

Josefa Boholle was a successful dancer when the Nazis came to power. As a Black German, she was forced to earn a living by performing in “human zoos.” In 1944, the Nazis arrested her and sent her to Stutthof concentration camp. She died in 1955 from the long-term effects of the prison conditions.

93 years ago, on May 10, 1933, about 70,000 onlookers gathered in Berlin and watched the burning of countless books which the Nazis had declared to be “un-German.” While their books were vanishing from the public arena, the authors faced mounting persecution. (1/2)

When the Nazis arrested Warwara Zensura, she had a flower brooch with her. We don’t know whether she survived the war. We’re using the #StolenMemory campaign to search for her family so we can return her belongings. Until then, they’re on display at the Haus der Geschichte museum in Bonn.

Marking May 1, we remember Jeanette Wolff - a democrat, a Jew, a Holocaust survivor, and a fighter for women’s rights. Jeanette and her husband introduced the eight-hour workday in their business as early as 1912. After the war, she worked hard to gain a seat in the German parliament.

The US Army liberated Dachau concentration camp 81 years ago. One of the people imprisoned there was 31-year-old Walter Cieślik. He was one of the first people to set about securing documents immediately after the liberation. Learn more about him on our website: arolsen-archives.org/en/news/forg...