The archive of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen stores 26,000 running metres of various types of record. The alphabetically and phonetically arranged Central Name Index contains over 50 million reference cards for over 17.5 million victims of Nazi persecution. Previously, viewing the archive was limited only to survivors and close relations of the dead. The general public has been granted access for research purposes as of 28th November 2007. The recent opening of the archives to historical research was marked at a ceremony on 30 April 2008 at the archive centre.
Digital copies of much of the archives have already been sent to the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the National Institute of Remembrance in Warsaw.
Text also available in: German