Source Information
This collection was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, RG-22.014M: Trophy (German and other) records from the collection of the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission to Investigate Crimes Committed by Nazis and their Allies on the territory of the USSR during WWII (Fond 7021, Opis 148). For more information about this collection, click on the collection title above to access the USHMM’s catalog record, or email [email protected].
The World Memory Project is part of the Ancestry World Archives Project. Click here to see additional World Memory Project collections.
About Soviet Union, Records from Soviet Commission to Investigate Nazi Crimes, 1941-1945 (USHMM)
This database includes information from a diverse collection of documents pertaining to the Eastern Front during World War II. German forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and were consistently victorious as they advanced east, until the battle for Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942. As the Soviet army counter-attacked and moved westward in the remaining years of the war, they liberated countries that had been previously occupied by Germany and began documenting wartime damages and crimes. Some of these documents were later used as evidence during the Nuremberg trials of 1945-46. The Original documents are held by Gosudarstvennyiĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat︠s︡ii (GARF).
The types of documents included in this database include the following:
- records and directives of the German Army
- orders, personnel lists, addresses, appeals, and civil and military administration correspondence about the occupied territories
- questionnaires, lists of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), Soviet citizens working in captivity, and persons executed by the Gestapo
- anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic propaganda
- records related to the interrogation of German POWs by Soviet intelligence, pro-Soviet partisan activity, and the treatment of the Soviet POWs
Note: Some documents contain names of German Army officers and soldiers who deserted and were subject to punishment by Nazi authorities. These names may appear in the index. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the World Memory Project do not necessarily recognize all of these individuals as victims of persecution.
What’s in the Records
These records vary widely, but typical details extracted for this database include the following:
- name
- maiden name
- birth date
- birthplace
- nationality
- marital status
- residence
- document type
- document date
Ordering Records
Additional details about these victims may be included in the original records. While the index is freely accessible from Ancestry.com, the images of these records are not available in this database. Copies of the images can be ordered at no cost from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Click here for ordering information.
Historical Background
More information is available in the online Holocaust Encyclopedia about the Eastern Front and Nazi crimes in the Soviet Union. For information about war crimes trials see the Nuremberg trials.
