Women in the Archive: Locating the International Tracing Service in German Memory Work

The International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen is one of the largest collections of documents related to the Holocaust and Nazi persecution in the world. Originally set up as a tracing service to help provide information for survivors and family members of victims, it has become an invaluable centre for documenting Nazi persecution since it was opened to researchers in 2007. This paper analyzes the interaction of the people of Bad Arolsen with the ITS, which was set up in their small town without their consent. By focusing on the gender relations inscribed into the archive and on the way the people of Bad Arolsen interacted with the archive, I show how we arrive at an expanded notion of the archive on the one hand and at a more multi-dimensional understanding of cultural memory on the other.