Every Name Counts

I’m not sure how to enter the data. Where can I get help?
You can find general information about how to enter the data in the respective tutorials. The “Need some help with this task?” link will take you to detailed instructions with pictures and examples of each individual field. More in-depth information and useful documents, such as lists of abbreviations, are available in the user guide. The team of moderators from the Arolsen Archives will also be happy to help if you post a question in the forum (follow the “Talk” link).

I made a mistake I can’t correct anymore. What should I do?
Every document is transcribed at least three times, and any mistakes will be corrected in the following quality control phase. If you’ve made a mistake you can’t correct, you can always let us know in the forum using the #doubts hashtag.

I have a question or comment about a document. How can I get in touch with you?
Once you have transcribed all the information in a document, click “Done & Talk”. In the forum, you can send us information about specific documents. The user guide includes a list of the most important hashtags to use for this.

Why are some of the documents blurry and hard to read?
Many of the documents are originals that have been through a lot. For example, we have lists that went down with the Cap Arcona, a ship the Nazis had converted into a concentration camp, when it sank in 1945.
Other documents are enlargements of old microfilms. Furthermore, the digitization process began in the 1990s and does not meet today's standards. This is why the documents are gradually being re-scanned. But until this process is done, only old copies of some documents are available.

What should I do if I can't read a document?
If a document isn’t legible, just refresh the page and you’ll be offered a new document.

The documents contain names and other personal data. Doesn’t publishing them in an online archive violate privacy rights?
The Arolsen Archives are not subject to national data protection directives, but to specific international provisions. The International Commission (IC), which consists of government representatives from eleven member states, supervises the work of the institution on behalf of the former victims of persecution.
You can find detailed information about privacy protection on our website.

Why don’t the Arolsen Archives use OCR software to index the documents?
We do use OCR (optical character recognition) for some documents, but this technology is not ideal for mass indexing our collections. Most of the collections in the Arolsen Archives are extremely diverse, and OCR only produces good results on fairly standardized documents.
Our website provides detailed information about where we are using OCR and what its limits are.