Postwar Card File

Scope and content

The so-called Postwar Card File is the oldest collection of the ITS. It is divided into 18 subunits, the first unit, "Postwar Card File (A-Z)", making up the bulk of the collection with a total of 3,520,120 documents.
More recently, a large number of other card types have been added in addition to copies of DP 2 cards. They originate from various DP camps and from different organisations that took care of the Displaced Persons (DPs) after the end of the Second World War. The documents contained, including DP identification papers, are the result of registrations of DPs by, among others, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the International Refugee Organization (IRO), DP camps, other relief organizations or authorities.

Contained are – among others - the following card types:
• DP 2 cards
• DP 3 cards
• Central index card of the CCLJ (Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the American Occupied Zone in Germany)
• DP Statistical Card Austria
• IRO card (French and british occupation zone)
• Registration cards DP camp Mittenwald / Transient Camp, partly with photographs
• Cards of the DP hospital Munich-Schwabing
• Cards of the AJDC Location Service Belsen
• Registration cards resettlement center Munich-Freimann
• Refugee/Displaced Persons statistical cards
• DP identity cards (French occupation zone)
• Karta Ewidencyjna

The 17 other subunits are structured according to individual cities or municipalities and mainly contain DP 2 cards. In a few cases, other notification or registration cards can be found. The last subunit contains household and wage cards of the DP camp Solingen.

Regarding the DP 2 cards the e-guide of the Arolsen Archives says:
In November 1944, the Allies stipulated that DPs had to be registered. In the British and US occupation zones, they used two DP 2 cards per person to do this. After registration, the DPs took the original card with them when they moved to a different camp or returned to their country of origin. The duplicate card was sent to the ITS and other tracing services. Since multiple people added information to the cards during this process, many cards are strewn with stamps, abbreviations and handwritten notes.

For further detailed context information concerning the origin, meaning and use of the different cards, see: https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/