I was wondering where the most complete on-line source for authentic Nazi Government archives - from 1933-1945 - would be. I’m especially interested in sites that have English translation of the documents. Thanks in advance.
A couple of volunteers answered this question:
1) I'm not sure that these resources have been used and also not sure what is available online in more than bibliographic format. That being said I found 2 interesting leads:
Our very own: National Archive, archives.gov, which has lots of FOIA documents on Nazi Germany, though I'm unsure how many are primary, and in English (...and full text online can be elusive).
The second source I found relates specifically to Nazi propaganda and does have links to some speeches, etc.
Nazi Germany Propaganda Archive, 1933-45
2) Online resources for Nazi government archives are really pretty minimal.
There are sites that deal with specific issues related to Nazi history that offer a selection of documents online. Most of them are in English translations.
A professor at Calvin College has collected online a large variety of Nazi propaganda: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/.
There are several sites that specifically deal with the Holocaust and Nazi genocide:
Documents Relating to the Holocaust War Crimes and Genocide by a professor in the UK.
And Documents of the Holocaust from the Yad Vashem institute in Jerusalem.
The largest collections of original Nazi government documents wound up the hands of the U.S. and the Allies after Germany's defeat in World War II.
The U.S. National Archives describes its holdings (which include 70,000 rolls of microfilm) here:
http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/index.html#intro.
The British Archives holdings (from the German Foreign Ministry, 1920-1945) are described in a research guide here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=355.
If you are interested the National Archives cites a book which describes its efforts to collect and organized the documents:
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].
Please let me know if you need any further information.