BA / MA digital files

[nickterry]

A slow but steady summer for the Bundesarchiv
3.1.23 - 351.408 files
29.5.23 - 378.213 files
29.6.23 - 382.753 files
27.7.23 - 387.368 files, +4615 for the month
31.8.23 - 392.342 files, +4974 for the month

Freiburg is still best at publicly communicating what will be digitised via the list of blocked record groups, this one from May 2023 will surely be updated fairly soon
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/ ... cationFile

Of the hit-list, Wehrkreise XVII and XVIII were largely done this summer, along with adding more to OKH - more AHA and Heereswaffenamt with a bias towards Peenemuende, some RH 2 records adding to previous uploads and to RH 3. Luftwaffe records also grew, Kriegsmarine was slower. By now there are emerging clusters of operational army records below Heeresgruppe level, with concentrations on Norway (various infantry divisions and corps), Italy, and for 6th Army. But complete access to such materials is evidently years off.

I hope the Nachlaesse continue to be worked through at Freiburg, as long as they are then made accessible (which some are annoyingly not).

Koblenz have been the most systematic branch, working their way through war crimes records in the ALLPROZ series. They completed the Belgian Falkenhausen trial and are three-quarters of the way through the Manstein trial.They also digitised a lot of Bundeskanzleramt records as well as pre-1866 records.

Berlin-Lichterfelde have been adding most to the Reichskanzlei, but there have been sporadic additions to SS/Police, Reichsarbeitsministerium, OT, railway and other records of relevance to WWII.

[Eax-E]

Thanks Nick, please keep your "newletter" coming ! Much appreciated !

[nickterry]

Latest on Twitter; there was no update on Monday.

This evening's update @BundesarchivD was +206 for 31.8-5.9.23, 392.548 total. Koblenz finished off almost all of the Manstein trial and started on Eichmann (1 file so far!). Berlin-Lichterfelde added to Reichskanzlei, RWM and RVM. Freiburg added a little (+22 to KTB keyword).
https://twitter.com/historiannick/statu ... 6368141466

To add: the new Manstein trial files in ALLPROZ 5 boosted the 'OKW' keyword search by about +30. The raw hits went 3261-92, within the pre-1945 Reich section only to 3219-20, thus the rise was elsewhere, and rapidly spotted under Nachlaesse und Sammlungen, then the trials sub-section. W/o looking at the specific files, presumably 'OKW' stems from the NMT High Command Trial.

I didn't work out the exact source for the Kriegstagebuch increase, this is within Reichswehr/Wehrmacht but not Luftwaffe it would seem (this did not budge compared to last week).

[Georg_S]

I agree, very nice of you Nick to give us the info regarding Barch much appriciated

Best regards
Georg

[Sean Oliver]

I'm trying to navigate invenio Tectonics (various RH 2 OKH Gen St folders) using 'Navigierende Suche' but no results are shown on the right screen. I've tried navigating sections which I know have been (almost) entirely digitised and downloadable, but still getting the message "Diese Ebene enthält keine Informationen zu Unterlagen,..." for every single one. Nothing turns up when using word searches either. I sent email to BAMA but I'm hoping someone here might help explain what's wrong.
This is the first time this problem w/ invenio has happened to me.
I've never registered with BAMA, but was able to download around 50-60 zip folders of jpegs over the past year or two. Is registration w/BAMA required now? Or is there something weird going on w/BAMA today? Or is it my computer? Help! if you can.

[Mori]

Oh, didn't even know one could access the downloads without being registered.

I get you may try registration as a first step. Don't worry, they never send any spam and don't limit the number of downloads.

[TH]

Try clicking 'Klassifikation vollständig anzeigen' (lower left corner). I've found the search to be unreliable at times, with parts of the results not showing up.

[Sean Oliver]

Invenio seems back to normal today. I can access the downloads etc. Maybe they were offline yesterday for a few hours.

[nickterry]

Oh, didn't even know one could access the downloads without being registered.

I get you may try registration as a first step. Don't worry, they never send any spam and don't limit the number of downloads.

Indeed, I've not logged in to my registered account for almost 2 years now. I assumed this was known already!

Invenio was working fine yesterday after 7pm UK time, I was downloading (without logging in) after 8pm, but not from RH 2.

The cataloguing can be slightly unstable, with keyword hits fluctuating week to week, sometimes files that were definitely there temporarily disappear, at least in the Invenio search. This happened with NS 3/425 - it vanished last week and the results within NS 3 dropped by one, then they rose by one and it reappeared.

If the entire system is offline, then they are temporarily uploading or there's a more serious system error. Uploads happen at 3am UK time Mondays, and just after 7pm UK time Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was no upload this Monday - not every upload day adds new files, but there are not generally uploads out of these time-slots.

Uploads are also when the catalogue can be reorganised; yesterday for example, R 19 added a new category in the Klassifikation of files from the NS-Archiv, which seemed to be previously under 'not catalogued', some officer personnel files. The keyword hits for Ordnungspolizei did increase slightly and I'd presume the new addition appeared in the new category.

[nickterry]

Small update @BundesarchivD tonight, +113 files above Tuesday, but Koblenz have seriously started on the Eichmann trial (ALLPROZ 6 - 19 of 261 files so far), while a copy of Mengele's BDC file is in NS 4 Au/15. Also some new files in NS 51 Kanzlei des Fuehrers.
https://twitter.com/historiannick/statu ... 0987185425

Keyword searches for OKH and Luftwaffe did increase by 1-2 hits, but the small size of this week's updates means, wait for a hopefully bigger Freiburg update in the next few weeks.

[Orlov]

[...]
Indeed, I've not logged in to my registered account for almost 2 years now. I assumed this was known already!

Dear nickterry,
So is it better not to log in to Invenio?
And what to do with Argus?
Bstrg Orlov

[Georg_S]

Personally its easier for me to log, with that I can create "merkzettel" etc. I dont know if that is possible for those not logged in.

Best regards
Georg

[nickterry]

[...]
Indeed, I've not logged in to my registered account for almost 2 years now. I assumed this was known already!

Dear nickterry,
So is it better not to log in to Invenio?
And what to do with Argus?
Bstrg Orlov

If you use the Merkzettel then login,if you just wish to search and download from Invenio, then it's not necessary. I've never used the Merkzettel, unlike George. Argus is a separate system, and I've never quite worked out what is there that isn't on Invenio, other than finding guides and some publications.

[Orlov]

Thanks to Argus, I located documents regarding Skorzeny and the SS-Jagdverbande (probably in 2016 it was not listed in Invenio - Vopersal archive). And there are also communist archival sources from SAPMO. However, I'm not fluent either - I'll have to ask my archive master about Argus when I fly with him to Freiburg.

[nickterry]

Thanks to Argus, I located documents regarding Skorzeny and the SS-Jagdverbande (probably in 2016 it was not listed in Invenio - Vopersal archive). And there are also communist archival sources from SAPMO. However, I'm not fluent either - I'll have to ask my archive master about Argus when I fly with him to Freiburg.

Yes, Argus was good when Invenio was less populated as a finding guide, and back then there were also links to some DDR/occupation era documents now on Invenio as well. Sometimes, one finds a listing on Argus for a contemporary/official publication when googling, but not the actual publication, so i associate it with too many dead ends.

The Vopersal archive (N 756) seems now to be properly catalogued on Invenio, but not digitised systematically. Would be interesting...

There is still a lot to be added to the cataloguing/indexing on Invenio, and most big terms have increased slightly over the past two years as more files are indexed. In December 2021 a keyword search for OKH generated 35,051 hits, today it gets 38,107 hits; of these 3758 were digitised in February 2022 (circa 10.7%), today it's 9944 (26%).

The Nachlaesse at Koblenz definitely need finalising, as some N codes cited in the literature are not on Invenio at all - most are, but not all. I think also the same for some Freiburg Nachlaesse, but in both cases the results seem close to the whole for raw cataloguing.