Germany's Federal Archive reports 75,000 requests for Nazi-era files

Eight decades after the end of World War II, Germany's Federal Archives still receives tens of thousands of requests for files relating to the Nazi era from academics as well as those digging into their own family history.

A total of about 75,000 requests were received in 2023, a similar number to previous years, the archive announced on Monday.

To mark the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi's Auschwitz extermination camp on January 27, the archive is displaying selected documents in a thematic focus online.

The files include camp sketches, secret orders and reports from Nazi leadership and personal files of German perpetrators, including a handwritten curriculum vitae of reviled Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, infamous for his murderous medical experiments conducted on prisoners.

Documents from the Nazi German army, the Wehrmacht, as well as the membership files in the Nazi Party (NSDAP) are also in the Federal Archives collection.

Files from the Nazi period are stored at several archive locations, including at multiple facilities in Berlin and in the south-western German city of Freiburg.