Berlin Document Center

The Berlin Document Center (BDC) was created in Berlin, Germany after the end of World War II. Its task was to centralize the collection of documents from the time of Nazism, which were needed for the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials against war criminals. The BDC was under US American administration until 1994, when the German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) was allowed to take control of the BDC.

Inventory

* central index of members of the NSDAP, 10.7 million record cards (90 percent)
* 60 percent of the personal files of the SS, around 600000
* 500000 files from the 'Main Department of Race and Settlement' (Rasse- und Siedlungs-Hauptamt) of the SS
* 1.5 million party correspondences
* several 100 thousands personal files of the SA, the NS-Teacher Alliance (NS-Lehrerbund, the NS-Alliance of German Technicians (NS Bund Deutscher Techniker) and other NS organisations
* information on over 2.5 million Volksdeutsche
* Files of the Reich Chamber of Culture & Music, the Volksgerichtshof and of Gestapo offices

Under certain circumstances and with legitimation, it is possible to gain access to the files.

Literature

*Babett Heusterberg: "Personenbezogene Unterlagen aus der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Das Bundesarchiv in Berlin und seine Bestände, insbesondere des ehemaligen amerikanischen Berlin Document Center (BDC)". In: Herold-Jahrbuch N.F. 5 (2000), 149-186.
*Stefan Heym: "Eine wahre Geschichte". In: Ders. (Hrsg.): Die Kannibalen und andere Erzählungen. Leipzig 1953, 51-76.
*Robert Wolfe: "A Short History of the Berlin Document Center". In: The Holdings of the Berlin Document Center. A Guide to the Collections. Berlin 1994, XI-XXII.

External links

* [http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aufgaben_organisation/abteilungen/reich/00340/ Berlin document center]