Eight families from Argentina, England, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and the USA visited Munich from November 4 to 8, 2024. As descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis, they followed in the footsteps of their family members who once lived in the Bavarian capital. The exploration of their Munich roots also took them to the Main Bavarian State Archives

Research on the fate of persecution

The families were given an introduction to the organization of the Bavarian State Archives and the holdings of the Main Bavarian State Archives as well as the neighbouring State Archive Munich. Furthermore, they learned about the large scale project “Transformation of Wiedergutmachung” of the Bavarian State Archives, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Files with information on the respective ancestors were available for the subsequent workshop “How to find your family resources”. Archivists assisted with transcribing and translating the original German-language documents and explained the bureaucratic and historical contexts.

The files in the Main Bavarian State Archives originate from the “Landesentschädigungsamt” (State Compensation Office) or Bavarian ministries, among others, which were entrusted with “Wiedergutmachung” by the authorities. This refers to all measures to compensate victims of persecution under the Nazi regime. A distinction is made between “compensation” and “restitution” in the application process and official procedure. Compensation focuses on immaterial damage to life, body, health, freedom or economic advancement as a result of National Socialist persecution. Restitution, on the other hand, aims to return identifiable assets that were confiscated as a result of persecution or to pay compensation.

If no application for “Wiedergutmachung” was filed by a persecuted person, no documents can be found. In other cases, only rudimentary information has survived. However, if an application has been submitted, it usually contains forms that can provide information about the life and fate of the persecuted person. Sometimes even a passport photo is enclosed. Witness statements, a description of an escape route or details of apartment furnishings can provide further clues. Evidence of a repeated change of location also indicates that the ancestors were persecuted. 

However, it is often necessary to consult several archives in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the fate of the persecuted person. The Online collection “Wiedergutmachung for National Socialist Percsecutin” therefore aims to digitally bring together documents that were created by different authorities throughout Germany and are kept in different archives today.

Personal exchange in Munich

The idea for the joint trip to Munich was born during Zoom meetings with provenance researchers. They had been researching the provenance of 145 silver objects from the Münchner Stadtmuseum and looking for entitled heirs. Between 1939 and 1940, the museum acquired silver objects from the Municipal Loan Office, which had to be handed over by Jewish families under state compulsion (the so-called “Silberzwangsabgabe”). Through research in recent years, 47 names of Jewish owners have been identified. In order to find out more, some of the families decided to travel to Bavaria. The “Munich roots” program was put together by Dr Regina Prinz, Head of Provenance Research at the Münchner Stadtmuseum, and carried out together with eleven cooperation partners. It included guided tours and lectures, for example at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of the National Socialism, the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, the New Jewish Cemetery and the Ohel Jakob Synagogue.

At the restitution ceremony for the silver objects in the Jewish Museum Munich, relatives of those persecuted by the Nazi regime took the floor. They spoke movingly about the life stories and fate of their grandparents, great-grandparents and other relatives. Finally, they handed over the restituted objects to the Münchner Stadtmuseum and the Jewish Museum Munich so that they can be exhibited at their place of origin in the future. Instead of objects, the families took with them new knowledge about the fate of their ancestors. Some of them even found out about previously unknown relatives whom they met for the first time in Munich.

Fabienne Huguenin, Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Archive Bayerns