Guide

Prisoners of German concentration camps

For families of people arrested by the Germans and held in concentration camps: political prisoners, hostages taken in street round-ups, expellees, civilians deported after the Warsaw Uprising. The first mass transport to Auschwitz, 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów, arrived on 14 June 1940; according to Franciszek Piper at least 1.3 million people were deported to the camp and at least 1.1 million died there, among them some 70,000–75,000 Poles. Tens of thousands of Poles passed through Dachau, and in Gusen, a subcamp of Mauthausen, Poles were the largest group of prisoners. The fate of Jews murdered in the extermination camps is covered in a separate guide to Holocaust victims.

How to search

1. 01Start with what the family has kept: letters from the camp (written on camp forms, with the prisoner number and block), a death certificate or telegram, photographs, post-war certificates and former prisoners' association cards. A prisoner number, the date of arrest and the place the transport left from make every later search much easier.
2. 02Next, search the two large name databases: the Arolsen Archives online collection (surname, first name, maiden name, place and date of birth, prisoner number) and the IPN database straty.pl, which also accepts the parents' first names. A missing name proves nothing: both databases cover only part of the records, and many camp files were destroyed by the SS.
3. 03If the camp is known, search that camp museum's own database: the Auschwitz Museum has 445,163 records of prisoners and deportees online, the Gross-Rosen Museum a database of prisoners who died, and the Stutthof Museum part of its prisoner list. The State Museum at Majdanek also has its own 'Szukaj bliskiej osoby' (find a relative) search. Names are often written in German spelling and with errors, so try several variants.
4. 04Then write to the museum's archive. Auschwitz accepts enquiries by form or e-mail and says a reply takes about 8 weeks; Stutthof checks the data and posts a certificate confirming the stay in the camp, but only to former prisoners, their families and institutions; Gross-Rosen has a 'prisoner search card' form. The Dachau, Mauthausen and Ravensbrück memorials take enquiries through forms on their websites (in English or German); Ravensbrück warns that after a cyber attack its collections cannot be searched until further notice.
5. 05At the same time, send an enquiry to the Arolsen Archives (the form is also available in Polish; the site gives an average reply time of 5 months and a maximum of 13) and to the IPN's Second World War Victims Information Centre, which holds among other things a card index of Dachau prisoners and lists of Auschwitz prisoners. The IPN form asks for the first name, surname and date of birth (an approximate year will do), the parents' first names, the place of residence during the war and whatever is known about the person's fate.

Where to search

• Online searchArolsen Archives – online archive and enquiries ↗Records on some 17.5 million people, including files from concentration camps, ghettos and Gestapo prisons and lists of murdered and liberated prisoners. Part of the scans can be searched online by name; for the rest, use the enquiry form, which is also available in Polish.collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search
• Online searchPersonal Losses and Victims of Repression under German Occupation (IPN) ↗IPN name database of some 5.57 million victims and people repressed by the Germans, including prisoners of concentration camps, prisons and jails. Search by surname, parents' first names, place and date of birth; a questionnaire lets families add information about a relative.straty.pl/szukaj-osoby.php
• Archive / collectionSecond World War Victims Information Centre (IPN Archive) ↗Answers families' questions about relatives repressed by the Third Reich and the USSR, using IPN holdings and databases (among them a card index of Dachau prisoners, lists of Auschwitz prisoners and Sachsenhausen prisoner files). Enquiries go by online form, e-mail or post.ofiary.ipn.gov.pl/ofi/form/dodaj148,Przeslij-zapytanie.html
• Online searchAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – Archival Analysis and Information Section ↗Answers questions about people imprisoned in or deported to Auschwitz; the museum's online databases hold 445,163 records, but only about 10% of the SS documentation survives. Enquiries go by form or e-mail; an authenticated copy of a document is issued on a written request stating its purpose.auschwitz.org/historia/informacja-o-ofiarach/sekcja-analiz-i-informacji-archiwalnej
• Online searchStutthof Museum – tracing prisoners ↗Partly preserved records of KL Stutthof; names are known for about 75% of the prisoners, and only part of the list is online. After receiving a search card (by e-mail or post), the archive sends a certificate confirming the person's stay in the camp.stutthof.org/archiwum/poszukiwanie-wiezniow
• Online searchGross-Rosen Museum – database of deceased prisoners and search card ↗A database of 9,396 prisoners whose deaths in KL Gross-Rosen and its subcamps were recorded in German documents (with date and place of birth and date of death). For prisoners who survived, use the 'prisoner search card' form.gross-rosen.eu/baza-zmarlych-wiezniow
• Archive / collectionDachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site – prisoner enquiry ↗A form (in English or German) passed to the memorial's archive; give the person's details and your relationship to them. Those who died in Dachau, its subcamps and the death marches are listed in a separate online Memorial Book.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/research-and-collection/information-request-for-prisoners-in-the-dachau-concentration-camp
• Archive / collectionMauthausen Memorial – searching for persons ↗An enquiry form about prisoners of Mauthausen and its subcamps, including Gusen; the memorial advises checking the Arolsen database first. The camp's dead are commemorated in the online 'Room of Names', which has a search.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Research/Searching-for-persons

We checked the addresses and holdings on these institutions' own websites. Their rules can change, so check their current pages before sending a request.

Read in the chronicle

• 1940Witold Pilecki arrives at AuschwitzOn 19 September 1940 Witold Pilecki let himself be caught in a Żoliborz roundup to enter Auschwitz. As prisoner no. 4859 he built a camp resistance network.
• 1941Himmler orders the expansion of AuschwitzOn 1 March 1941 Himmler first visited Auschwitz. He ordered the camp enlarged for 30,000 prisoners and 10,000 prisoners provided to build the IG Farben plant.
• 1945The liberation of AuschwitzOn 27 January 1945 soldiers of the Soviet 60th Army entered Auschwitz. They found some 7,000 prisoners, hundreds of bodies and stores of victims’ belongings.
• 1941The camp at MajdanekFrom 1 October 1941 the SS was to build a camp near Lublin for 50,000 Soviet prisoners of war. So began Majdanek, where nearly 80,000 people died.
• 1933The Dachau concentration campOn 20 March 1933 Himmler announced a concentration camp near Dachau. Two days later the first prisoners arrived, and the camp became the SS model.
• 1945The liberation of DachauOn 29 April 1945 soldiers of the US Seventh Army entered Dachau, the first concentration camp of the Third Reich, and freed more than 30,000 prisoners.
• 1945The liberation of MauthausenOn 5 May 1945 a patrol of the US 11th Armored Division reached Gusen and Mauthausen. At least 90,000 people died in the camp complex.
• 1939Sonderaktion KrakauOn 6 November 1939 the Germans lured Kraków professors to a bogus lecture in the Collegium Novum, arrested 183 people and deported them to Sachsenhausen.