concentration camp complex - National Archives and Records ...

appendix b
Catalogue of Mauthausen Materials Held by the
International Tracing Service, Grosse Allee 5–9,
34444 Bad Arolsen, Germany
As early as 1943, Allied military leaders foresaw the need for a centralized
tracing bureau to gather information on vast displaced persons populations
and to assist in the reunion of families. The SHAEF Civil Affairs Division,
Displaced Persons Branch assumed initial responsibility. In April–July 1945,
SHAEF/DPB set up Tracing and Location Units to collect information, such
as concentration camp registers, nominal rolls for repatriated displaced per­
sons, and other materials. With the dissolution of SHAEF in July, responsi­
bility passed to the Combined Displaced Persons Executive (CDPX), which
immediately issued a directive calling for a central records office and cen­
tral tracing bureau. In November 1945, Arolsen, Germany, was selected as
the permanent seat of the Central Tracing Bureau (CTB). Under its origi­
nal charter, the CTB operated under the Allied Control Commission’s
Prisoner of War and Displaced Persons Directorate (PWDP) in cooperation
with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNR­
RA), which bore major responsibility for displaced persons camps in the
European Theater of Operations. In July 1947, the International Refugee
Organization (IRO) assumed charge of the CTB, renamed the International
Tracing Service (ITS) in January 1948. In April 1951, the ITS was placed under the
direction of the Allied High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG). With the
repeal of the Occupation Statute for Germany in 1954, the ITS passed to the
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