NS-Unterlagen aus dem Berlin Document Center und die Debatte um ehemalige NSDAP-Mitgliedschaften

"The Berlin Document Center (BDC) - today a part of Germany's Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) - with its holdings of Nazi files and documents has been and still is a central point of public interest. As a result of the military defeat of Germany, the BDC was founded in July 1945 by the American Armed Forces in Berlin-Zehlendorf as a collecting point for NS state and party records and documents of varied origin which had been confiscated by the American troops during the last months and weeks of World War II. The center piece of these collections were the NSDAP membership file cards of almost 11 million party members transmitted from Munich to Berlin in late 1945. Additionally biographical data and person-related files of various Nazi organizations were kept at the BDC under American administration. In 1994, the BDC holdings were transferred to the Bundesarchiv and German legislature provided rules for public access to the Nazi files for the first time. About 10.000 requests with regard to the former BDC files still reach the Bundesarchiv every year. The recent disclosure of several German celebrities' nominal membership in the NSDAP has re-stirred a public and scientific debate over NSDAP memberships, the circumstances of enlistment, and the NSDAP membership files themselves. In this article, the subject is discussed from a BDC and Federal Archives insider's perspective." (author's abstract)