Records of the Former Military Archive in Potsdam Archivalien des ehemaligen Heeresarchivs (Fond 1275)

Copyright Holder: Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv The full collection at the source archive consists of records consolidated from various sources concerning German military forces during WWI and WWII. Includes Bormann orders, records relating to operations on Leningrad, intelligence activities, war diaries of the Strafbataillon (German Penal Battalion) (1944); German leaflets against British and French government (1939); leaflets, posters, newspapers; bulletins of anti-fascist organizations of Denmark (1943-1944); information bulletin of the International Union of Trade Unions; war diaries from occupied countries and from German-Soviet front; albums of photographs relating to life and work of the commander-in-chief of the 2nd German Army on the German-Soviet front (1942-1943); war diaries of German military units (1939-1945); reports on the activities of German military units (1940-1944); statistics on pension payments to invalids of the war and survivors of German fatalities 1940-1941) [Opis 1-2]; materials on various German troops, reports from the 444th Security Division (444 Sicherungs-Division) on duty in the southern Ukraine 1941-1943; situation reports on number, distribution of, and plans for eliminating Jews in numerous locations; reports about the Ukrainian pogrom against Jews in Velikiy Boryslav in July 1941; reports on forms and proofs of Aryan purity of members of the German army; reports on administrative matters including efforts to revive industry and mining, the disposal of collective farms, the attitudes of peasants, and food supplies for the population; information about forced Ukrainian labor for work in the Reich, civilian vehicular traffic, and the confiscation of gold; routine administrative reports from 286th Security Division (286 Sicherungs-Division), including ammunition reserves, rifle training, and weapons maintenance [Opis 3]; records related to WWI (war diaries, newspaper clippings, essays, lectures, and brochures); records relating to WWII: correspondence, radio messages, arrangements, orders and instructions in the military units of German Army, a list of the troop units intended for the implementation of the Barbarossa plan by German Wehrmacht (1941); registers of missing persons (1942-1944); secret messages of the German Press Office on industry, cultural events and the press in the occupied countries; war diaries; geographic maps of the military air raids, German anti-Soviet leaflets; memories of an unknown eyewitness of the German war in Poland in the WWII; essays, articles, clippings, speeches (Mussolini) related to WWII matters; diaries of a prisoner of war [Opis 5]; investigation files of the war guards of the German army; lists of German soldiers; interrogation records of soldiers; personal records of the German troops, records of various German military units including registers of death soldiers, expanses of prisoners of war, geographical maps [Opis 6]. Note: USHMM Archives holds only selected records. . The Reichsarchiv in Potsdam served from 1919 to 1945 as a central archive for all acts of the German Reich. Among the tasks of the archive was the collection and cataloging of all produced since 1871 records of the German Reich, especially the files of the recently ended World War II. In addition, it should provide users with information and allow an exploration of imperial history-especially the history of the World War. The Heereasarchiv in Potsdam-Former Military archives in Potsdam was established in 1919 with the goal of collecting, preserving and study documents of the German military and German history. Archives authority was responsible to survey archives in the German occupied territories and transfer selected records to the Reich. [Source: Wikipedia]