Archive

The archive of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial is available for researchers, academics, and the public. The archive stores documents, photographs, plans, posters, and drawings, as well as audio and visual media. In addition, there is a collection of three-dimensional objects. The focus of the archive’s collection is on the history and legacy of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps, resistance and persecution in Northern Germany, and the history of Hamburg during the Nazi era.

The archive answers requests from family members of former prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp about their relative’s fate. For this purpose, information from various archives is compiled into a persons-related database.

In April 1945, the SS-leadership of Neuengamme attempted to destroy any traces of their crimes and had prisoners burn all their files. Regardless, some prisoners hid stacks of death registers and laboratory records from the infirmary. These documents are among the most important remaining documents from the Neuengamme concentration camp’s administration. The archive of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial also holds a significant collection of personal documents, survivors’ testimonies, and interviews.

For use of the archive, submitting a written request to view the archive’s collection with a short explanation of the research project is required. For inquiries regarding a single former prisoner, providing personal data and requesting research into this person is sufficient (please use this archive request form). Please send any further archive requests to: archiv@gedenkstaetten.hamburg.de