The archives of the Documentation Centre of the Shoah Memorial consist of more than 30 million archival documents, including a large number of originals bearing the signatures of the leaders of the Third Reich or those responsible for the deportation of Jews from France.
A simplified version of the catalogue of the Shoah Memorial’s archives, which does not include any data concerning the private lives of the persons mentioned, is available on the portal of the Memorial Documentation Centre:
perform a search on the portal
– The general staff of the "Olympic Agency in France" (MBF) The MBF, the German military administration in France, is divided into two main sections: the command staff and the administrative staff.
The archives of the command staff deal with the general collaboration between the occupation authorities and the government of Pétain, the persecution of the Jews, and the general policy of reprisals.
In the archives of the administrative service are documents concerning the hold of the occupation authorities on the French economy (interferences, spoliations, in particular economic aryanisations).
The German Embassy in Paris was very actively involved in anti-Jewish measures, as attested by the numerous telegrams and letters sent several times a day to Berlin by Abetz and Schleier (Minister Plenipotentiary of the German Embassy in Paris).
– The Gestapo in occupied France. The most important part of the collection consists of the archives of the anti-Jewish service of the Gestapo in Paris.
The fonds consists of letters, telegrams, reports concerning internment, deportation and other measures against the Jews, such as the wearing of the yellow star, denaturalization as well as reprisals in general. There are also documents concerning the pressure exerted on Italy’s policy in the Italian occupation zone.
This collection was supplemented by documents on the Gestapo in France, kept in the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv Coblence). It gives us a true picture of the structures and activities of the Gestapo in France, and more particularly of the anti-Jewish service led by Dannecker, then by Rothke.
This is part of all the documentation gathered for the investigation of the international military trial, as well as the trials conducted by the US military court.
A specific system of classification governs this large mass of archives. The main subdivisions of this classification are:
– Archives of the General Commissariat for Jewish Questions. The CDJC has more than 20,000 documents from the General Commission for Jewish Affairs (C.G.Q.J.), as well as the proceedings of the trial of its leaders.
– Professor Montandon’s archives. Montandon was an ethnologist and "expert in racial issues" with the General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs. This fragmentary fund covers the period from 1924 to 1944 and concerns first his scientific work as an ethnologist, then his activities of anti-Jewish propaganda from 1938.
– Institut d'Etude des Questions Juives. The C.D.J.C. preserves most of the papers from this organization created in 1941 at the instigation of Dannecker. The fund contains the correspondence of the Secretary-General and describes all the activities of the Institute.
Other funds. The archives of the C.D.J.C. hold many other documents coming notably from the direction of the Armistice Services, the Police Prefecture, but also from Jewish organizations such as:
the Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants (O.S.E.), the Eclaireurs Israélites de France (E.I.F.) the Fédération des Sociétés Juives de France (F.S.J.F.), the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (C.R.I.F.), the Œuvre de Protection de l’Enfance Juive (O.P.E.J.), the Central Commission for Childhood (C.C.E.) ...
