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Problems and Potentials of the Berlin Document Center

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

George C. Browder
George C. Browder
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Fredonia
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Extract

Although most students of contemporary German history, especially of the National Socialist period, are aware of the United States Document Center at Berlin (BDC) and its general holdings, that archive is not being exploited to its potential. This is primarily because the Document Center was created and organized for the political purpose of compiling information on the activities of individual Nazis. For this reason, the holdings lend themselves most readily to the study of individual involvement and to quantitative research on the personnel of various groups and agencies of the Third Reich. Unfortunately, this same organizational arrangement makes it extremely difficult and time-consuming to pursue a non-biographical or non-quantitative research problem. Nevertheless, the collections contain information to be found nowhere else—information on institutional, political, social, and economic problems which go well beyond the scope of an individual's involvement or beyond the sociological data which might be compiled from the personnel files. Unfortunately, there are no adequate finding aids for the Document Center, and a general vagueness of knowledge about the full extent of its holdings seems to plague even veteran users and the document center personnel themselves.

Type
Note
Information
Central European History , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 362 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1972

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References

1. “The Mission of the Berlin Document Center,” undated typescript provided by Richard Bauer, Deputy Director, BDC.

2. This historical sketch of the BDC is based primarily on a pamphlet, Who Was a Nazi? Facts about the Membership Procedure of the Nazi Party, compiled by 7771st Document Center, OMGUS, 1947; and a handwritten statement courteously provided by Pix, Werner, Chief of the Archival Section, BDC, dated Aug. 25, 1970. Herr Pix's knowledge stems from his years of service with the BDC since its earliest days.Google Scholar

3. For more information on where some collections were captured, their condition at that time, and their subsequent history till deposit with the 7771st Document Center, see Who Was a Nazi?, pp. 5–9.

4. “Report to the Conference Group on Central European History, American Historical Association,”Dec. 28, 1969,Washington, D.C., by the National Archives Liaison Committee (copy made available by the Secretary of the Conference Group).Google Scholar The members of the Liaison Committee are: Allen, William S.Google Scholar, State University of New York, Buffalo; Willard A. Fletcher, University of Delaware; and (chairman) Gerhard L. Weinberg, University of Michigan.

5. This list and description of holdings is based upon “Bestände des Berlin Document Center,” Auszug aus dem Jahresbericht, Januar 1968, Xerox copy of original typescript provided by Deputy Director Bauer, RichardGoogle Scholar; Who Was a Nazi?, pp. 7–9; Herr Pix's handwritten statement; and my own observations. The existing lists and old descriptions are not entirely reliable.

Robinson, Jacob and Friedman, Philip, Guide to Jewish History under Nazi Impact (New York, 1960), pp. 139–40Google Scholar, gave a comprehensive listing of the original holdings of the BDC; however, much of the original non-biographical collection they described has since been transferred to the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz. Nevertheless, the Guide still provides an excellent reference to the relevance of BDC holdings to Jewish history in particular.

6. This estimate was more than borne out by a recent research request by the author from which, out of a total of ninety names of known Nazis, only two failed to turn up in the Zentralkartei.

7. A well-known example of this is the contents of the Party Correspondence file on Heinrich Müller, whose advancement in the Gestapo was strongly opposed by regional party offices in Bavaria.

8. In the above-mentioned research request, the ninety persons were also known SS officers; the Document Center failed to have SSO files for only nine.

9. RuSHA files were available for only fifty-eight of the ninety SS officers.

10. The same SS-Dienstaltersliste are available on microfilm: National Archives Microcopy T-175, Rolls 204 and 205. They are invaluable for compiling samples of SS officers for various units during the times covered, and contain full names and dates of birth, both of which are crucial for proper searching at the Document Center.

11. Captured German Documents Microfilmed at the Berlin Document Center, National Archives Microcopy T-580; and Captured German Documents Microfilmed at the Berlin Document Center, University of Nebraska Microfilming Program at the Berlin Document Center, National Archives Microcopy T-611.

12. Approximately forty per cent of the SS Officers' Files contain an SS-Stammrollen-Auszug.

13. A Lebenslauf can be found in approximately half of the SS Officers' Files; in slightly less than half of the cases where this fails, a Lebenslauf is available in the RuSHA file. Consequently, there is at least one Lebenslauf available for approximately seventy per cent of the SS officers for whom SSO or RuSHA files are available.

14. The Secret Front; the Story of Nazi Political Espionage (New York, 1954).Google Scholar

15. “Bestände des Berlin Document Center,” and “Report to the Conference Group” by the National Archives Liaison Committee, pp. 1–4.

16. Ibid., pp. 3–4; and “Report to the National Archives Liaison Committee” from Campbell, E. G.Google Scholar, Assistant Archivist for the National Archives, Dec. 24, 1970, p. 2 (copy provided by Wolfe, RobertGoogle Scholar, Chief of the Captured Records Branch, National Archives).

17. “Report to the Conference Group,” p. 3.

18. Policy statement provided by Robert Wolfe.

19. Inquiries concerning the Document Center should be addressed to: Berlin Document Center, U. S. Mission Berlin, APO 09742, New York.