In case of not finding documents reflecting the extermination of Jews, don't worry, it is another trick form the "perpetrators" as a ITS warning states.
There are special aspects to consider when working with the documents from concentration camps that have been preserved in the Arolsen Archives. It is important to bear in mind that these documents can include contradictory information or downplay the severity of the situation in which they were produced, and most of them were filled out by perpetrators. The following introduction also describes the system of forms used in the camps, and it answers questions such as where the documents were created and how the growing shortage of paper during the war affected their production.
https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/ ... ments/#c52For instance, if f you click on the line :
Which special aspect of the concentration camps documents need to be considered?You''ll find another warning explaining why the documents show only that the prisoners' life at German camps was like at any organized camp during war time, don't be fooled; this is merely another trick from the nasty nazis who did all they could in order to hide their crimes.
Most of the concentration camp documents described in the e-Guide were produced by Nazi perpetrators and other authorities involved in deportation, exploitation and murder. The information on the cards and forms therefore does not reflect how the people named on these documents would have described themselves. Instead, the documents are geared toward the logic of persecution. For this reason, they often include stereotypical attributions by the perpetrators, and they force concentration camp prisoners into pre-defined groupings to which the prisoners would not (necessarily) have assigned themselves.
Additionally, documents such as post control cards, clothing storage room cards and sick bay cards in particular can heavily downplay the severity of the situation in the concentration camps. The soberness of these documents and the information written on them make it appear as though prisoners were always able to correspond with the outside world and always received suitable clothing and medical care. But this was not true – especially after the war started. For example, post control cards were always created even when prisoners did not know the location of relatives who had also been deported. And while a clothing storage room card might indicate that a prisoner was given clothing, it says nothing about the quality of the trousers, jackets and shoes that were issued. The garments were often in a bad state, they did not fit properly, and the prisoners could very rarely change them. The sick bay cards are another example of this. Although there were clinics in the camps, it could be very dangerous for prisoners to report to them. The fact that such documents exist certainly does not mean that the prisoners received the clothing and care they needed. Many concentration camp documents were introduced before the war and continued to be used until the war ended. But the reality in the concentration camps deviated more and more from the impression of order created by these cards.
Money account cards, as they are officially known, were kept on file in the main camps. The cards can have different amounts of information depending on whether money was sent to a prisoner or not. But the cards from different camps and time periods are basically very similar. Money account cards can be identified by their tabular structure.
https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/ ... etails/28/
