Formerly known as the International Tracing Service, the Arolsen Archives was established by the International Red Cross and Allied forces at the end of World War II to trace missing and displaced people and help reunite survivors with their relatives. In this lecture, Dr. Serafima Velkovich will demystify the Arolsen Archives by describing its history, the types of files it holds, and what information can be gleaned from those files. Additionally, she will offer strategies for identifying relevant documents and key clues when searching its Online Archives and additional collections available at the Arolsen Archives and partner institutions worldwide, including Yad Vashem.

Dr. Serafima Velkovich is a Head of the Family Roots Research Section in Yad Vashem Archives. She obtained her PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2024. The theme of the interdisciplinary research is "The Next Chapter: DP Born Baby Boomers in Search of Their Identity". The topics of interest are microhistory of Holocaust survivors’ families in DP camps, DP baby-boom, Holocaust memory, former DP babies’ personal and group identity. Serafima was EHRI fellow in Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. She participated in many IAJGS conferences, gave lectures to numerous JGS. Last publication is “Polish Citizenship as a Way to Freedom: How Soviet Jews Escaped Totalitarian Regime Using Polish Documents” in K. Friedla and M. Nesselrodt, History and Memory of Polish Jews in the USSR. She is also an IAJGS board member.