[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Files from the former USSR

[PETER VON LIPINSKY]

                           Files from the former UDSSR

Since the beginning of the 1990's, the DRK ( Deutsches Rotes Kreuz = German Red Cross )  tracing service has been researching the former Soviet archives.These  new sources make it possible to access information about prisoners of war and civilians that went missing as a result of events connected with to the Second World War. The analysis of the material requires detailed searching in the Cyrillic documents to identify the right person under various name variations.

Agreements about the purchase of documents have currently been agreed with the following institutions: 

*The Russian State Military Archive
*The Main Information Centre of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
*The Archive of the Russian Federal Security Service
*The Archive of the Ukraine Federal Security Service  
*The Archive of the highest organs of power in the Ukraine
*The KGB Archive in Belarus 
*The Ministry of Internal Affairs Archive in Belarus 

Since 2004, the DKR ( Deutsches Rotes Kreuz = German Red Cross ) tracing service has digitalised 
2 million files relating to German prisoners of war and missing civilians  from the State Military Archive in Russia and has created a database with personal information and information about their fate.
 
The digitalised personal files contain information, such as: 

* Death certificates and released documents
*Records of sickness
*Personal records of the prisoners
*Pay books
*Family photos and
*other personal documents

Therefore it is possible that a  " trace inquiry " may end up providing the surviving family members with final confirmation and information about where that person is buried.

Please take note:
I have taken this write-up from the "German Red Cross", Suchdienst  web site for the sole purpose to pass the  information on to members of the SGGGEE list service, so that it may help somebody to locate
some information on missing relative or other missing person.