Berlin Document Center question

Dear Judith,

The microfilm copies of the biographic collections held by the former Berlin Document Center (BDC) were accessioned by the National Archives in 1994. These collections, totaling approximately 39,000 microfilm rolls, include: personnel records for SS (including Waffen-SS) officers and, to a lesser extent, SS enlisted personnel; membership registries and associated correspondence of the Nazi Party; documentation on membership in Nazi-affiliated or -sponsored organizations; and records relating to the naturalization of ethnic Germans during World War II.

Researchers can access these collections (and their accompanying finding aids) in the Microfilm Reading Room (Room 4050) at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

There are many useful resources that document the history of these records. For instance, there are several informative posts in the National Archives' blog Pieces of History about the Berlin Document Center and other Captured German Records. Here are two examples by Sonia Kahn:

https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2016/08/10/the-gems-of-record-group-242-foreign-records-seized/

https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2016/08/24/the-return-of-captured-records-from-world-war-ii/

For a comprehensive look at the records, we recommend that you review the finding aid for the BDC records: The Holdings of the Berlin Document Center: A Guide to the Collections and The Holdings of the Berlin Document Center: A Guide to the Microfilm (both by the Berlin Document Center, 1994).

Additionally, a history of the American and Allied, public and private projects in which these records were created or assembled, exploited, described and microfilmed can be found in: Robert Wolfe, ed., Captured German and Related Records, A National Archives Conference (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1974) 279 pp. [ISBN 8214-0172-6] [LC 74-82495].

Best of luck with your research and novel writing!