NARA rolls made digital

[jpz4]

Hi guys,
I'm looking for T78 R340 and/or T78 R710.

I've checked the Sturmpanzer list and neither are mentioned, but I figured I'd ask anyway just in case. Might get them partially digitized if no one here has a copy

FWIW, I just placed the order to get R710 partially digitized.

[dterrier]

Hello

I'm looking for the T78 R345 Roll.

Rgds
Dirk T.

[Birdsong]

Hello Guys,

Has anyone recently ordered Rolls from NARA recently, are they still producing them? Just wondering if I could cancel my order.

[Rossano]

Hello gentlemen
I was making my new names register to roll T78 R903 (sorry, now corrected), but I just realized that my roll is short of many pages.
Infact following pages are missing, from 1618 to 2000. Is somebody (Jeff or others) so gentle to send them to me (to my new email [email protected]) per WeTransfer ? I would be very grateful for Your generosity.
Rgds., Rossano

[Rossano]

Many thanks Ulrich for the missing pages sent to me, much appreciated ! Kindest regards, Rossano

[Jeff Leach]

Hello Guys,

Has anyone recently ordered Rolls from NARA recently, are they still producing them? Just wondering if I could cancel my order.

Some orders have been filled but there are still long delays.

[Mori]

I have updated the list of rolls made digital. No file this semester, but the search engine on sturmpanzer.com will be updated soon.

What's new in the first half of 2021?

=> ca. 310 new entries vs. end 2020 (+5%).
This is a steady improvement, in spite of a NARA still closed down.

Almost all of the additional rolls are the equivalent files from Bundesarchiv, available in much better quality than microfilms. As a matter of fact, if BAMA keeps digitizing at the current pace, NARA rolls will soon be obsolete. Everyone will move to the nice color copies offered by the Germans.

=> Total makes more ca. 5,850 rolls. Series with more than 50% available rolls are T311, T314, T315, T1021, now joined by T501 and T313

=> Per my count, more than 94% of the rolls are available on websites or by asking around (that's +1pt vs. 6 months ago). The remaining 6% of rolls are only available for a fee or are held by people who are still shy of sharing. Some of such rolls popped up for free at BAMA so it's time these people realize they don't own a treasure anymore

I have updated the list of rolls made digital. The search engine on sturmpanzer.com will soon reflect that.

What's new in a year since my last post?

NARA has resumed digitizing rolls on demand. Some pre-covid orders have been delivered. Besides, 2 full series were put online. Meanwhile, BAMA keeps digitizing documents at a steady pace. Only a fraction of what BAMA did is reflected in the figure below.

=> ca. 300 new entries vs. one year ago.
Per my count, we are above 6,100 rolls. T501 (Rear areas), T178 (Reich ministries) and T1021 (War crimes) are full digitized. T78 (OKH), T311 (Army groups), T313 (Panzer armies), T314 (Army corps), T315 (Divisions) are close or above 50% digitized.
And ca. 95% of the rolls are available on websites or by asking around.

I started tracking the digitized rolls 6 years ago. I counted 4,000 then, and that summed all the effort made since the beginning of the century. At 6,100 mid-2022, we see +50% in 6 years, through more effort at the archives and larger circulation of the rolls. And given what BAMA and NARA are uploading, this should rise further and faster.

[Melax]

thanks for your work Mori

[Max104740]

Thank you for your great work Mori
Max

[Melax]

Hi,

has anybody an idea if and where the "Personalveränderungs-role" T-77 R-943 is online available?

just saw that this one is missing -.-

would be great

thnaks,
Alexander

[nickterry]

The entire 'various records' (T84) series is now online and downloadable from the NARA catalog, just like T501 = 489 reels fully digitised and online.
https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=* ... Sort%20asc

This includes NARA's copies of many 'crown jewels' from Hitler (Lagebesprechungen, the 1944 Linge calendar but not the 1943 one), Himmler (phone logs), the 1940s-available Goebbels diaries, almost all of which are now online at the Bundesarchiv in various Bestaende. There are reams of economic records as well, and all kinds of other tidbits, e.g. Red Cross enquiries about POWs and some KZ inmates.

Military records are a grab-bag but include Rommel's papers (already online via individual reels), some Ersatzheer fragments, and some army group records including one of Army Group Centre's war diaries for 1941 (the other is in T311).

While the pace of digitisation does not suggest this is a high priority for NARA (compared to other digitisation projects), presumably past digital purchases of reels in other series mean they have at least some head starts on further T-series, so hopefully the rate of uploading will gather more momentum. Even if this is on the back-burner, one would expect another series of 300-500 reels by the start of 2023, as it's been about six months in between uploading T501 and T84.

[Mori]

@nictkterry: thanks for posting the news. Just excellent that this moves on quickly.

This series is a hodge-podge of documents, but one always have to check it in case whatever coveted item ended up there instead of T78 OKH or T311 Army Groups. Many scholars will therefore use it.

[nickterry]

A few reels turn out not to be included, e.g. Himmler's phone logs circa reel 45 (but those are partly in BArch NS 19 and the published edition of the 1941/2 Dienstkalender is open access at the FZ Hamburg: http://www.zeitgeschichte-hamburg.de/co ... 941-42.pdf, 377 MB file).

It is however almost all there, so you'll be updating at least 400 reels on your NARA index, Mori, while the online hosts and websites can/should take down the T84 reels, to make space for other series.

The NARA catalog search engine is extremely good, spotting keywords on specific frame via OCR, so one can spot new additions when doing general searches of textual records, or search within the RG or microfilm series, which will pull up passing mentions in files one might not expect going by the finding guides, or give a hint of what might be within a file about a region/country if you are doing a place-name search, etc. Once more T-series are uploaded, this will be even better. The NARA microfilms will still have enormous utility even if the Bundesarchiv finishes digitising the originals, since the OCR search can effectively peek directly into the files.

[Mori]

After a quick check on your site, a few ideas:

US records : 1st Infantry Division, https://firstdivisionmuseum.nmtvault.co ... esults.jsp
Their G2 records may include documents falling in your projet, esp. regarding 1945 liberation of camps.

Canadian records: https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/ooci ... kan_133700 (war diaries ; another link will point to CMHQ)
Same as above + these often include copies of British documents, otherwise not available digital

IfZ: http://archiv.ifz-muenchen.de/liste_sta ... gliederung
Zeugenschrifttum (= post war written testimonies) are digital. Maybe more, I haven't checked for a while.
Some of the ZS are output of post-war research projects, e.g., a lot deal with July 20th failed attempt to kill Hitler. Some sound very much Alltagsgeschichte before the concept was forged in the 1980's.

[nickterry]

I replied in the other thread so this can stay about NARA