Navigating the Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property

The Portal page serves as the project's navigational hub. Each link below directs users to the search interface for the finding aids and records available from each participating institution. The records are arranged and described according to each institution's policies and procedures. The descriptions are therefore in the national language of each institution.

• The National Archives of the United States
• Bundesarchiv (The Federal Archives of Germany)
• The National Archives of the United Kingdom
• France Diplomatie: Diplomatic Archive Center of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
• Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO)
• State Archives in Belgium
• Commission for Looted Art in Europe
• Claims Conference
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Deutsches Historiches Museum
• Mémorial de la Shoah
• NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Navigation and Links

The National Archives of the United States

The records made available on the Portal from the U.S. National Archives include over 2.3 million pages of documents created or received by the U.S. Government during and after World War II as part of its investigations into cultural assets that were looted or otherwise lost during the war. The records have been digitized and made available online by our partner Fold3.com (formerly Footnote). The digitized records on Fold3.com are available for free in all National Archives research rooms and many large libraries, or for a fee by subscription. The records are primarily in English, although some seized records are in German or other languages. There are no privacy or other access restrictions on the records. Each link on the following page directs the user to the National Archives National Archives Catalog, which provides a description of each corresponding series of records. Once a catalog description is selected, click on the URL provided in the "online resource" section to be directed to the digitized records on Fold3.com.

Bundesarchiv (The Federal Archives of Germany)

The National Archives of the United Kingdom

The British records available through this portal are held by The National Archives in London, the repository since Domesday of all British government documentation. They represent records from all government departments involved in countering the Nazi spoliation of Europe and in resolving restitution and reparation claims arising after the war.

The records highlight the wartime policy initiatives taken by the British government including the Inter-Allied Declaration against Acts of Dispossession Committed in Territories under Enemy Occupation and Control, issued in London on 5 January 1943, and the establishment of the Vaucher Commission in April 1944 and the Macmillan Committee in May 1944.

Both during and after the war, the UK committed efforts and resources to establish collecting points and restitution commissions in Europe and effected the return of looted property to countries across Europe.

Documents range from policy proposals to forms submitted by claimants seeking post-war restitution, as well as photographs of missing works of art and lists of individuals involved in the looting and damaging of cultural property. One of the distinctive features of this collection is the focus on losses from both public and private collections in countries such as Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands and Yugoslavia.

France Diplomatie: Diplomatic Archive Center of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO)

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) was the main Nazi agency engaged in looting cultural valuables in Nazi-occupied countries during the Second World War. At the moment, the ERR archives are dispersed in 29 repositories in 9 countries.

One of the biggest and most important parts of the ERR archives is kept by the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO). These records provide information about arts, books, and archival materials confiscated from museums, libraries, and archives in former Soviet Union territory, as well from private collections (mainly Jewish) in Nazi-occupied North France and Belgium.

Three TsDAVO collections of ERR and related records were digitized and presented on-line by Archival Information Systems. The project was sponsored by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

About 137,000 digital images of ERR documents are available free of charge through this Portal, which provides a direct link to the TsDAVO website. The descriptions, as well as the index of individual, geographic, and organization names, are available only in the Russian version at the moment. But Ukrainian, English, and German versions are planned.

State Archives in Belgium

The future Belgian records on the portal will be in a first phase limited to the archives of the post World War 2 service for the recovery of artworks, which was part of the Office de Récupération Economique (ORE), the Office of Economic Recuperation.

From its creation in 1945 until its dissolution in 1967, this Belgian public agency was responsible for the recovery and restitution of Belgian properties, including cultural properties. This resulted in the creation of various interesting record series on stolen artworks, including declaration forms, various files, file cards and a collection of photographs and glass negatives. The records are primarily in French and/or Dutch, and sometimes in English.

This records collection isn't available online yet, as it still needs to be made accessible and digitized. The State Archives in Belgium aim to finish this operation in the course of 2013 and to make as much information as possible available online, while respecting the Belgian privacy legislation. In the meantime, those who are interested can contact the State Archives in Belgium for more information.

Other contributions may follow in the future. Documents about stolen works of art have for instance been discovered in the archives of the Service for War Damage of the former Ministry for Public Works and Reconstruction: description and digitization of these and other potentially interesting records depend on available means and personnel.

Image: Office of Economic Recuperation (Office de Récupération économique), identification forms of missing and retrieved artworks. Copyright AGR - ARA (Belgium).

Claims Conference & United States Holocaust Memorial Musuem

Deutsches Historiches Museum

Mémorial de la Shoah

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR, no. 093a) archive at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies consists of 4,1 metres of documents. During the occupation of the Netherlands the ERR agency was engaged in confiscating and relocating property from houses owned by deported Jews. The collection consists of lists with confiscated real estate, inventories of property and certificates of delivery. With the kind support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, all documents have been digitized and are now freely accessible online.