Since 1955 the ICRC manages the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen which traces Nazi victims and their families. The ITS documents their fate and makes its archives available for research.
The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, serves the victims of Nazi persecution and their families by documenting their fate through the archives it manages. With a workforce of about 300 employees, the ITS preserves the historical records and makes them available for research. If lined up back-to-back the archives amount to 26 km of files containing information on the fate of about 17.5 million people.
The ITS provides information about:
* Germans and non-Germans who were detained in Nazi concentration or work camps or other detention sites from 1933 to 1945.
* Victims of the Holocaust.
* Non-Germans deployed as forced labourers on the territory of the Third Reich during World War II.
Displaced persons who, after World War II, were under the care of international relief organisations (UNRRA, IRO).
* Children (i.e. under 18 years of age at the end of World War II) of persons belonging to the above-mentioned groups and displaced or separated from their parents as a result of the war.
The archives do not hold documents on German civilians who fled, or were dispelled, from territories once occupied by German forces.
In 1955 the ICRC was entrusted with the management of the ITS by its governing body, the International Commission for the ITS. Their decision was motivated by the neutral and independent character of the ICRC and its expertise in tracing. Since then the ICRC has been managing the ITS by appointing an ICRC delegate to the position of ITS director. Prior to 1955 the ITS, created before the end of WW II under a British initiative, was initially managed by the Allied Expeditionary Forces and later on by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organisation, the International Refugees Organisation and the Allied High Commission for Germany.
For decades, the ITS had the constrained mandate of tracing civilians who fell victim to Nazi persecution and for clarifying their fate. It also issued certificates for pension and compensation payments and supported the work of legal authorities. It was in 2007 when the 11-member International Commission for the ITS had come to acknowledge the need to make these important archives also available to historic research by taking the land-mark decision of opening the archives to the public.
In the coming years it will no longer be possible to obtain direct testimonies from survivors of Nazi persecution. Therefore the unique documents preserved in Bad Arolsen will play a crucial role in testifying of this dark chapter of human history. At the same time the ITS will carry on with its traditional work of providing information to survivors and their families for as long as it continues to receive requests.
The additional new tasks of the ITS, such facilitating research, documentation and archival work, have already brought about structural changes that were necessary to adequately meet the new challenges resulting from the opening up of the archives to the public. In 2008 the ICRC informed the International Commission of its wish to withdraw from the administration and management of the ITS over the coming years.
Being aware of the fact that the new additional tasks of the ITS require skills that go beyond the ICRC mandate, the International Commission initiated discussions to redefine the mandate and organizational structure of the future ITS. The ICRC is participating in these discussions, which should lead to a durable solution and make it possible for the organization to withdraw from its present management role.
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sources: ICRC.Org
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