Thursday, June 21, 2018

How to Research WWII Ostarbeiters and Displaced Persons

During World War II approximately 12 million people from the Nazi occupied territories were conscripted and deported for forced labour in Germany. Two thirds of them came from Eastern Europe, mostly those from Ukraine and Russia, and are known as Ostarbeiters (“Eastern workers”).

At the end of the war, in 1945, cca 11 million former detainees, most of whom were forced labourers and prisoners of war, were freed. However, they could not immediately move freely. While waiting for decisions on their repatriation or obtaining a refugee status and further emigration, they were organized in so-called displaced persons camps (DP camps).

In the turmoil of these dramatic events millions of families were separated and lost connections. Even now, many decades after the events, a sizeable part of Eastern European genealogy projects involve uncovering the mysteries of the families torn apart by WWII. 

In this post I will share the main resources and tips for starting research on Ostarbeiter or DP family lines. As always, there is not one single list or resource to check. I recommend trying all of the available options, inquire at as many repositories as possible, and then piece the puzzle together.

1. The International Tracing Service (ITS), Bad Arolsen, Germany

This is by far the most important resource of all. ITS was founded immediately after WWII specifically to help reunite survivors with their families. Its archives, holding one of the world’s largest collections on the Nazi forced labour and displaced persons, have been accessible for research since 2007. The Central Name Index of the ITS with 50 million reference cards on 17.5 million persons. It includes original documents on the registration of the survivors after 1945, prisoner identity cards, correspondence between survivors and their families, and many other types of documents. A complete inventory of the ITS’s archival collections and other indexing information can be found here.

How to access ITS documents? Unfortunately, most of the documents are not accessible online. However, a small part of them has recently become available here and there are plans to extend the online collection in the future. But given the tremendous volume of materials, this process is likely to take many years.

In order to obtain documents about your DP or Ostarbeiter relative, you can fill in an online Request form and the ITS personnel will do the research for you free of charge. On the downside, be ready to wait for the results for months or even years (exceptions can be made, however, in case of explained urgency of the matter).

Given the overload of ITS with requests, it may be a good idea to inquire at (or visit in person) one of the ITS’ partner institutions that have access to the ITS Central Name Index, namely:

2. International Red Cross Organization in respective country

International Red Cross was directly involved in the relief efforts and assistance to the WWII prisoners of war and other detainees in the Third Reich. Between 1954 and 2012 IRC was in charge of administration of the ITS. Nevertheless, the resources that the two institutions hold are not identical and therefore it is worth requesting information at both ITS and IRC in parallel. The advantage of the IRC is its world-wide network of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, as well as museums, archives and international organizations that can be of great help in researching the fate of displaced persons and their families. Although the IRC’s focus is also gradually shifting to the DPs of the current or recent international crises, it still accepts inquiries as to the WWII DPs.

Currently, the IRC has a program called “Restoring Family Links” where one can submit a request on a family member. Tracing services are free of charge. To initiate research, contact your local Red Cross chapter. Just to mention a few IRC chapters, commonly involved in WWII displaced persons research:
  • American Red Cross Restoring Family Links program took over the requests to the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Service, closed in November 2012. This service is not for genealogical traces, but may be done on behalf of family members with direct ties to victims of World War II and the Holocaust.
  • The German Red Cross Tracing Service. Queries on the missing of World War Two are still arriving at the German Red Cross at a rate of 8,000 per year. German government funding would expire in 2023, so the German Red Cross officials advise to anyone who wants to send queries, to do it as soon as possible.
  • Center for Search and Information of the Russian Red Cross is relevant for research involving all the ex-Soviet countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Central Asian countries. To initiate research, you can download a request form, find contact information etc. (available in Russian only). A tip from my own experience with this institution is that following a request with a phone call can speed up the process.
3. A Memorial or Archives of a Particular DP / Labour Camp

In addition to the above tracing services, try to find resources that are specific to the particular place of detention in question. There are plenty of resources, such as memorials, museums, small archives, dedicated to a DP or forced labour camp. These can offer unique materials, such as personal archives, oral histories, memories, found nowhere else. Examples of local museums and memorials of particular camps or survivors communities:
These websites, listing places of detention, can be used to identify the needed camp and basic information about it for further tracing:
4. Searchable Online databases 
  • For Soviet research: “The Other Side” (“Та сторона”) is  a Russian resource on prisoners of war, contains information, interviews, biographies, cca 2 400 names and stories. It features 300 interviews recorded from the late 1980s to the latest, and about 400,000 letters from former Ostarbeiters received by the Memorial society in 1990-1991. A database with 320 thousand names of Soviet Ostarbeiters, based on the mentioned letters, has been launched. Here is a detailed blog post on how to use the database. 
Further Resources

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