(The following is from publications by the AHSGR: “Using the Records of the Berlin Document Center for Genealogical Research” by Allyn Brosz, Clues, 1996 Edition, Part 2, and “Unite Your Family with the Berlin Document Center Records” by Marianne Wheeler, Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 (Fall 1997).

USING THE RECORDS OF THE BERLIN DOCUMENT CENTER FOR

GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH

Allyn Brosz

Allyn Brosz, a former AHSGR board member living in Washington, D.C., is probably best known for his excellent and time-consuming compilations of passenger lists. He spends many hours each week researching in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. He is also the Village Research Coordinator for Alt-Posttal, Bessarabia

This article describes some of the biographic records of the Berlin Document Center (BDC) and explains their usefulness for Germans from Russia historians and genealogists. Information is available at the United States National Archives for individual Germans from all regions of the Soviet Union who were resettled to the German Reich under National Socialism, with most records covering those immigrants who arrived between 1939 and 1945. These records have long been available at the Berlin Document Center (BDC) in Germany, and selected portions have been included for some years in the Captured German War Documents collection in the United States National Archives in Washington, D.C. However, with the transition of the BDC from U.S. to German control, the entire BDC collection is being accessioned at Archives II in College Park, Maryland. This represents an improved opportunity for researchers to gain access to these important genealogical records in North America.

At the end of World War II, the United States Third Army captured a large number of documents generated by the Nazis, covering a wide range of activities of the German government. These documents have remained in U.S. custody since that time, housed in the 6889 Document Center in Berlin. This article describes one small subset of those documents, pertaining to the activities of the Einwandererzentralstelle (EWZ) or Immigration Center, the special German immigration authority that regulated the return and naturalization of ethnic Germans between 1939 and 1945. 1 According to the National Archives Guide to the EWZ Collections, the BDC general collections include information for more than 2.1 million individuals processed by the EWZ, reproduced on approximately 8,600 microfilm rolls.

The function and purpose of the EWZ is described as follows:

The EWZ was created by Reichsfuhrer‑SS Heinrich Himmler in October 1939 to facilitate the resettlement within Germany of hundreds of hundreds of thousands of people from eastern and southeastern Europe who had been identified as ethnic Germans. The EWZ used an elaborate set of racial criteria to control both immigration and naturalization, and directed the flow of settlers into annexed territories slated for complete 'Germanification.' The operation of the EWZ was thus an integral part of Nazi racial planning for Germany and occupied Europe, and its activities should be understood in this context. It was administered by the SS Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and operated under the authority of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSH)." 2

The secret to using the EWZ records effectively to locate the person you are researching is to understand the principal EWZ collections and their interrelationships. The remainder of this article is devoted to three of these collections: E/G Kartei (card file); Stammblatter (family group sheets), and Antrage (applications for naturalization).3

E/G Kartei

The E/G Kartei contains almost three million alphabetized file cards that form a central registry. E‑cards (E-Karten, also referred to as EWZ‑Karten) were completed for every immigrant aged 15 years and older. Thus, this collection should serve as the starting point for any researcher seeking to locate individuals within the EWZ collection. The front of each card contains the following information: EWZ‑case number, name, place and date of birth, religion, marital status, education, profession, professional training, citizenship, relatives traveling in the same group of immigrants, and decisions about the immigrant's eligibility and qualification for resettlement. The reverse side of the E‑card contains additional information on previous and intended future occupations, property remaining in the country of origin, and (for former farm owners): size of previous homestead, crops raised, and type of soil of previous homestead.

The G‑card (Gesundheits‑Karte) duplicates some of the data found on the E‑card and also includes summary results of the immigrant's health examination and a physical description. The reverse side of the G-card contains a photograph of the immigrant as well as some (usually sketchy) data about the immigrant's parents and children. For some immigrants, this photograph may be their only surviving likeness.

Perhaps the most important datum on either of these cards is the EWZ‑case number (referred to on the card as the "EWZ‑Nr." or "EWZ‑Durchschleusung‑Nr. "). This six‑digit number is the key to locating the corresponding Stammblatter and should be noted for each person being investigated.

Both the E‑cards and the G‑cards are arranged alphabetically by surname and given name, but there is some ordering that may not always be intuitively obvious to the researcher. For example, surnames beginning with "W" and "V" are grouped together under "W." Likewise, surnames starting with "C" may show up under "K." Most of the information entered on the cards is handwritten. I have not experienced any problems reading the cards.

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Stammblatter

Typewritten Stammblatter were prepared for more than one million ethnic German applicants and their families the EWZ considered for admission as German citizens between 1939 and 1945. These forms contain much more complete and detailed family relationship information than what is sketched on the G‑cards. The Stammbldtter, or family group sheets, represent the most exciting part of the EWZ collections and will undoubtedly yield the highest. return for researchers.

The Stammbldtter are available on 742 rolls of microfilm. Entries are organized by the EWZ‑case number given on the E‑card or G‑card, so this collection can be somewhat more difficult to use than the E/G Kartei. Nevertheless, the arrangement of case numbers on the microfilm rolls generally corresponds to groupings of immigrants by geographic region. Germans resettled from Bessarabia and the Dobruja were assigned most of the case numbers between 400,001 and 467,000. Moreover, within this span of numbers, the immigrants appear to be further grouped by village. All former residents of Alt‑Posttal have sequential numbers from about 433,933 onward. Because emigration from the Soviet Union was not necessarily by village, those immigrants may not be grouped numerically in the same way.

I have focused my village coordinator activities for Alt‑Posttal, Bessarabia, on the construction of a database of Alt‑Posttal residents and their ancestors and descendants. Using the EWZ collections, especially the E‑cards, I quickly located Stammblatter for residents of Alt‑Posttal, most of whom were resettled to Lager Ecksberg near Muhldorf, Bavaria, in October 1940. It was relatively easy to match the data given on these Stammblatter with the data I had previously extracted from LDS microfilms of Evangelical‑Lutheran church records for that village.

In comparing the EWZ information with data I extracted from the LDS records, I have found a high degree of agreement, at least for the Bessarabian village I studied. However, mistakes do occur in the EWZ records: Surnames are sometimes misspelled (HARG vs. HAAG), and birth dates can be confused.

Antrdge (Applications for German citizenship)

This EWZ collection contains more than 400,000 applications by ethnic Germans to the EWZ for naturalized German citizenship in the years 1939 to 1945. These applications are grouped by country or region, and individual files within each group are presented alphabetically by surname. To give some idea of the size of this collection, consider that Series EWZ 50 for the former Soviet Union consists of about 110,000 files on 843 rolls of microfilm and Series EWZ 51 consists of approximately 82,000 files on 700 rolls of microfilm.4

The contents of an individual file in this series are likely to be more variable than for the other series discussed. Some of the documents that might be found in an Antrag file are: identity papers establishing an applicant's ethnic German background (Volkstumsausweis) or resettler status (Umsiedlerausweis); a family group sheet (Stammblatt) listing the ethnic backgrounds of the applicant's parents, spouse, and children; a naturalization application form (Einbfirgerungsantrag); a declaration of naturalization(Einbiirgerungsverft'iguiig); a copy of the naturalization certificate (Anschrift der Einburgerungsurkunde); and related correspondence.

Many of the files I examined also included a brief handwritten document entitled "Mein Lebenslauf, " which chronicled the major events in the applicant's life. These were often very moving and would make interesting reading. Any researcher uncovering such a document written by one's ancestor would be fortunate, indeed.

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How to Access the BDC Records

Berlin Document Center records are available in North America only in the Textual Reference Division at Archives II, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20800. I have spoken with archives staff, and they know of no plans to make any of this collection available at the U.S. Regional Archives. Furthermore, the archives staff does not search records for individuals. Therefore, you can access this information in one of three ways:

1. You can visit Archives II in person to conduct research. Please write to the address given above for directions and hours of opening.

2. You can retain the services of a knowledgeable researcher. Mrs. Rita Scheirer, 2328 19th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009, is highly qualified to perform such work. She is fluent in German, familiar with the BDC records, and very well informed about the history of the Germans from Russia. Please write directly to her to engage her services.

3. You can determine which roll(s) of microfilm contain the information you need and order those rolls directly from the National Archives at a cost of $34 per roll. If you purchase rolls for your own research, I would recommend that you consider donating them to AHSGR after you finish.

Summary

The EWZ records available at the U.S. National Archives are part of the vast Captured German War Documents collection. The EWZ records are an important source of genealogical information for Germans from all regions of the former Soviet Union: Black Sea, Bessarabia, Volhynia, Volga, and Crimea. The E/G Kartei serves as the entry point to the associated collections such as the Stammblatter and the Antrage, giving genealogists valuable information not just about ethnic immigrants to Germany during World War 11, but about their nineteenth‑century ancestors as well. Although

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access to the EWZ records is limited to those who can visit the National Archives in person or who can engage the services of a professional researcher, this collection should not be overlooked, because it contains a broad range of information and documents the lives of a great many Germans from Russia.

Endnotes

1. The records of the Berlin Document Center also include biographic data on members of the Nazi party and the SS. These records are all part of the enormous collection of Captured German War Documents. The Captured German War Documents collection also includes records of the Deutsches Auslandsinstitut (DAI), the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, and the Kommando Stumpp. For a complete overview of this collection, see National Archives unpublished and undated, Guide to the Captured German War Documents. The largest group of relevant records can be found in National Archives Microfilm Publication T81, Records of the National Socialist German Labor Party (NSDAP) and the Deutsches AuslandsInstitut, Stuttgart, Rolls 264‑330. Interested researchers should also consult National Archives Microfilm Publication T580, German Records Filmed at Berlin for the American Historical Association, 1960, Rolls 73‑76 and Rolls 700‑743 for information about the policies of the EWZ. Generally, material of a strictly genealogical nature was not microfilmed. The Library of Congress also has a sizable collection of Captured German War Documents, including many records of the DAI.

2. George Leaman, The Holdings of the Berlin Document Center: A Guide to the Collections. Berlin: The Berlin Document Center, 1994. See also Valdis O. Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe,1933‑1945. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

3. Other EWZ collections include the Rasse Kartei. Reichskommissar fur die Festigung deutschen Volkstums (RKFDV), Amtliche Deutsche Ein‑ and Ruckwandererstelle (ADERST), EWZ‑Korrespondenz, EWZ‑Wehrmacht, and various miscellaneous EWZ files.

4. Other series less likely to be of interest to Germans from Russia researchers include Series EWZ 52 for Poland (approximately 100,000 files on 701 rolls of microfilm), Series EWZ 53 for the Baltic States (approximately 73,000 files on 587 rolls of microfilm), Series 5410 for Yugoslavia (approximately 23,000 files on 150 rolls); Series 5420 for France (approximately 14,000 files on 223 rolls of microfilm); and Series 5430 for Bulgaria (approximately 700 files on six rolls of microfilm) M.

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(an excerpt from the AHSGR Journal/Fall 1997 article by Marianne Wheeler)

How to Find the Berlin Document Center Records

Location:

National Archives II

4th Floor, James Kelling

8601 Adelphi Rd.

College Park, MD 20740‑6001

Available for purchase:

National Archives Trust Fund Board

P. 0. Box 100793

Atlanta, GA 30384

1‑800‑234‑8861 order with credit card

Indices to EWZ Series 50, 57, 58 and 62 record donated to:

AHSGR

631 D Street

Lincoln, NE 68502

Card file to check current German addresses:

Heimatortskartei

Kirchlicher Suchdienst‑Amtlich

anerkannte Auskunftsstelle

Rosenbergstrasse 50

7000 Stuttgart 1

Deutschland

Suggested Reading

1. Walth, Richard H., Flotsam of World History: The Germans from Russia between Stalin and Hitler, A Publication of the Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe. University of Dusseldorf, Vol. 5, Rev. ed. April, 1996.

2. Brosz, Allyn, "Using the Records of the Berlin Document Center for Genealogical Research," Clues, Vol. 2, 1996.

Step by Step Process in Researching BDC Records

1. Look up your surname in the index for the EWZ‑57. The prefix for all the microfilm in this series is A‑3342‑EWZ‑57 followed by the individual roll number. The individual roll number is found much like looking for a name in the phone book, e.g. my Sauter name is on the microfilm number A‑3342‑EWZ 57 R 0101.

2. To purchase a record, call 1‑800‑234‑8861 with a credit card number and give the microfilm number A‑3342‑EWZ‑57 RO101. Wait 2 to 8 weeks for delivery. Cost $34 per roll.

3. If the family or families are found, then precede to the next level of records, the EWZ‑50. Look up your surname in the index the same as above. The prefix for all of these microfilms is A‑3342‑EWZ50. My Sauter name was found on roll number H013 and also H014. The microfilm to order would be A3342‑EWZ50 H013 and A3342‑EWZ50 H014. See no. 2 and order film.

4. The next level of research would be to order the Stammblatter. This is organized by EWZ number, which is found on the EWZ‑57 and EWZ‑50 cards. Remember that blocks of numbers are used for geographic areas. Cluster your numbers from the previous microfilms and see the numeric pattern. The prefix for this series is A3342‑EWZ 58. Johann Sauter's EWZ number was 941462. Then I ordered the microfilm number A3342‑EWZ 58 H014.

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AHSGR Journal/Fal11997

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