Records of the Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit, Sektion für Rasse- und ...

After the War, the United States and British Armies, with the authority of a number of
Allied Control Council Orders including Number 4 of May 13, 1946, seized Nazi documents
that were deemed important for prosecuting war criminals or containing propaganda
regarding Nazi racial theories, including those in this collection; the Pentagon took
possession of the IDO-SRV papers. After the U.S. Army had determined the IDO-SRV
papers were of no value for medical intelligence purposes, they were given to the
Smithsonian as a “federal institution specializing in [anthropology],” on “permanent loan.”
The IDO-SRV records were formally accessioned as number 176333 on May 27, 1947 by
Dale Stewart, the head curator of the Anthropology Department. NAA archivist Jim Glenn
included the IDO-SRV collection in the NAA Collection Guide beginning in 1989, but the
collection was not fully processed for research use until 1998, when Gretchen Schafft and
Gerhard Zeidler arranged and described it.
Over the years, parts of the IDO-SRV collection were de-accessioned from the Smithsonian
and transferred to other institutions. The IDO-SRV personnel records were returned to the
Pentagon by the Smithsonian prior to accessioning because they were deemed non-scientific
in nature; the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) eventually maintained
them. Artwork was transferred to the National Gallery and Dumbarton Oaks. The
materials at NARA were repatriated to the German Bundesarchiv in the 1950s; it is planned
that they will eventually be transferred from the Bundesarchiv to the Jagiellonian University
Archives, where another portion of the IDO records have remained since the war.
In the fall of 2003, the Polish government formally requested the transfer of the
Smithsonian’s IDO-SRV materials to the Jagiellonian University Archives. A task force,
established by Christián Samper (Director of the National Museum of Natural History),
chaired by Edie Hedlin (Director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives) and including
Jake Homiak (Director of the NAA), Alan Bain (senior archivist at the SIA), Elaine Johnston
(Office of the Smithsonian General Counsel), and Ruth Selig (Special Assistant to the
Director of the National Museum of Natural History), studied the request. After consulting
with anthropologists and legal advisors, the Task Force recommended that the IDO-SRV
collection be transferred to Poland with the caveat that a digital surrogate of the entire
collection remain in the Smithsonian National Anthropological Archives. Samper formally
announced the decision in late September 2004. Generous support of the Jagiellonian
University Archives and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum made the preparation for
and digitization of the collection possible. The collection was prepared for digitization
beginning in the fall of 2006; the original collection was returned to Jagiellonian University in
the fall of 2007.
Select Bibliography (IDO-SRV publications)
Fliethmann-Henseling, Elfriede. “Bericht über anthropologisch-ethnologische
Untersuchungen in Szaflary und Witów, zwei Goralenorten im Kreise Neumarkt.”
Deutsche Forschung im Osten 2 no. 7 (1942): 272-274.
_____. “Vorläufiger Bericht über anthropologische Aufnahmen an Judenfamilien in
Tarnów.” Deutsche Forschung im Osten 2 no. 7(1942): 92-111.
Gottong, Heinrich. “Männer des deutschen Sonderdienstes.” Deutsche Forschung im Osten 2 no.
1 (1942): 21-37.
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