Archivportal-D: How do you find sources on the post-war period?

The Second World War in Europe ended on 8 May 1945. The occupying powers France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA took over the government in Germany until 1949. This period was characterised by the initial reconstruction of the destroyed cities, the punishment of crimes committed during the National Socialist era, denazification and the start of so-called reparations. Which sources can provide you with information on these topics?

Use the search function in Archive Portal-D and enter various terms in the search bar that were important at the time. You can find some suggestions for such search terms here.

Military government, ordinance, report

Ordinances and reports from the military governments or correspondence show you which decisions the occupying powers made and how they implemented them. Useful terms for the search can be ‘military government’, “ordinance” or ‘report’. Take a look at the search results for ‘military government’ here.

Destruction, war damage: city maps and photos

Destruction and reconstruction were often visualised with the help of maps, city plans, architectural drawings and photographs. Search for terms such as ‘destruction’, ‘war damage’ and ‘reconstruction’. On the search results page, you can also select archive types such as ‘maps / plans’ or ‘image / photo’ under ‘Filter’ on the left. Here you can find an example search for ‘war damage’. The search has been restricted to hits from North Rhine-Westphalia, with digitised material and the archive item type ‘Image / Photo’.
 

Allied Trials, Nuremberg Trials, War Crimes Trials

Immediately after the end of hostilities, the Allies began investigations to punish those responsible for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Documents on the Allied trials can be found in the German Federal Archives, for example. You can find them by searching for ‘Allied Trials’. If you search for ‘Nuremberg War Crimes Trials’, you will find a large number of files in the Nuremberg State Archives.

Denazification

At regional level, incriminated persons were dismissed from their offices and punished as part of the denazification process. The archives contain numerous denazification files in which this process can be summarised. As the names were always recorded, you can search for the term ‘denazification’ in combination with a person's name, for example. Here you can see an example search for a former judge by the name of Clemens Janssen. He was categorised as a ‘minor offender’ with level III. Around 4% of the 800,000 people checked in North Rhine-Westphalia were assigned to this level. The vast majority (approx. 95%), however, were categorised as ‘exonerated’ or ‘fellow travellers’.

Reparation and compensation

‘Reparation’ refers to the attempt to take responsibility for National Socialist crimes and to compensate people for the suffering they experienced. This includes, for example, returning stolen property or paying compensation. You can combine ‘Wiedergutmachung’ and ‘Entschädigung’ in the search slot, as you can see in the example here.

The files on restitution from North Rhine-Westphalia are currently being digitised in order to make them accessible online later. So you can't search them online yet. To read them, you have to go to the reading room of the relevant department of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archives. You can find more information on this in the Restitution portal.

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