Frequently asked questions about the NaziCrimesAtlas

The NaziCrimesAtlas (NCA) is a digital, location-based atlas of Nazi crimes between 1933 and 1945. It makes around 25,000 documented court records of crimes at locations in present-day Germany accessible as an interactive map and searchable database. Crimes are organised by crime category: pogroms, „euthanasia" murders, concentration-camp crimes, forced labour, deportations and more. The atlas is available both as a web dataset at nazicrimesatlas.org/output/ and as an iOS and Android app. The host organisation is dieKunstBauStelle e. V., based in Landsberg am Lech, funded by Stiftung EVZ and the German Federal Ministry of Finance.

The NaziCrimesAtlas was developed by dieKunstBauStelle e. V., a non-profit cultural association in Landsberg am Lech. Scientific direction was provided by Dr. habil. Edith Raim † (1965–2025), a historian of Nazi persecution and post-war justice with habilitation at the University of Augsburg; significant scientific groundwork was also contributed by Dr. Andreas Eichmüller. Project lead, concept and design are with Wolfgang Hauck. The cooperation partner for the technological foundation is berlinHistory e. V., whose app architecture is the basis of the NCA app.

The NaziCrimesAtlas was launched in July 2024 as a project of dieKunstBauStelle e. V. It was publicly presented on 10 December 2024 at a press conference in Berlin. The iOS and Android apps went live in their respective stores on 7 May 2025. The atlas has been continuously expanded and maintained since.

The NaziCrimesAtlas pursues three connected aims. First: to make Nazi crimes visible where they happened — with precise geographical attribution. Second: to bring together knowledge dispersed across post-war court records into a publicly accessible database, rather than leaving it locked in individual archives. Third: to offer a low-threshold mobile application that enables remembrance in everyday life — on the way to school, on a city walk, while travelling. In this way memorial culture becomes local and participatory.

An atlas, in the classical sense, is a systematic cartographic work that opens up an entire region. The NaziCrimesAtlas applies this principle to the crimes of National Socialism: it maps the geography of Germany with regard to all documented crime scenes between 1933 and 1945. Unlike thematic memorial sites that examine individual places in depth, the atlas provides the overview — and makes visible how widespread the crimes were.

The official project name is „NaziCrimesAtlas" — written as a single CamelCase compound. Wikipedia articles and some media use the spaced form „Nazi Crimes Atlas". Both refer to the same project; the closed form is preferred by the host organisation. In German the subtitle „Digitaler Atlas NS-Verbrechen" is used; in English „Digital Atlas of Nazi Crimes".

The NaziCrimesAtlas is referenced in several Wikipedia articles — currently in German-language Wikipedia. Articles include those on Endphaseverbrechen, Novemberpogrome 1938, NS-Staat, Rheine, Jüdische Gemeinde Trabelsdorf, Jüdische Gemeinde Aurich, as well as the biographical articles on Wolfgang Hauck and Dr. habil. Edith Raim. A full overview of documented Wikipedia and external references can be found at https://nazicrimesatlas.org/en/references/.

The NaziCrimesAtlas is referenced in several contexts. First, in German-language Wikipedia as a source in currently eight articles on crime categories, individuals and local topics. Second, on the official project page of the Foundation EVZ under the Bildungsagenda NS-Unrecht. Third, in national and international press (see press review). These external references strengthen the project’s credibility and discoverability as an academic reference.

Currently around 25,000 court records on crime scenes in present-day Germany are documented. These are distributed over roughly 8,000 localities, which corresponds to about 90 per cent of all German municipalities. A further roughly 25,000 proceedings with crime scenes abroad (territories occupied during the war) are in preparation and will be added in a later project phase.

The dataset is essentially based on the court records of post-war proceedings in Germany. The main sources are the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, the German Federal Archives at their various sites, the Arolsen Archives (formerly the International Tracing Service) and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. State and regional archives as well as numerous municipal archives provide locally specific sources.

The atlas documents Nazi crimes between 30 January 1933 (the Nazi seizure of power) and 8 May 1945 (the end of the war in Europe). The underlying court proceedings range from the post-war period from 1945 to the present — from the first post-war trials, through the Ulm Einsatzgruppen trial, to late twenty-first-century proceedings against elderly former concentration-camp guards.

In its current form the NaziCrimesAtlas covers crime scenes in present-day Germany — i.e. the Federal Republic of Germany within its borders since 1990. This includes the territory of the former GDR as well as the federal states of the former West Germany. An extension to crime scenes abroad (occupied territories during the Second World War) is planned for a later phase — around 25,000 further proceedings have already been gathered for this purpose.

The dataset is based on decades of historical research, particularly by the Central Office in Ludwigsburg and institutions such as the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. Dr. habil. Edith Raim brought scholarly foundations into the project with her habilitation thesis on „Justiz zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie" and her long-standing research on the reconstruction and prosecution of Nazi crimes in West Germany 1945–1949. The transformation into a location-based, digitally usable form took place in 2024/25.

The atlas covers the central crime categories of Nazi crimes comprehensively: pogroms (particularly the Novemberpogrom of 9/10 November 1938), „euthanasia" murders (Aktion T4 and its decentralised continuations), concentration-camp crimes in main and sub-camps, forced labour in industry and agriculture, deportations of Jewish people, Sinti and Roma and political opponents, executions by special courts and summary courts, end-of-war crimes 1944/45 (death marches, shootings just before the end of the war), and crimes by police and judiciary inside Germany.

Pogrom denotes a violent, usually organised attack against a minority. In the Nazi context, the Novemberpogrom of the night of 9–10 November 1938 is especially relevant — informally and euphemistically known as „Kristallnacht". More than 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms were destroyed or damaged, more than 30,000 Jewish men deported to concentration camps, at least 91 people killed and many more in the days that followed. In the NaziCrimesAtlas, individual pogrom sites are documented as pins on the map — with file reference, sequence of acts and a link to the underlying proceedings.

The atlas documents the main sites of „Aktion T4": the six central killing centres of Grafeneck, Brandenburg, Bernburg, Hartheim (today in Austria, so outside the current NCA scope), Sonnenstein and Hadamar, in which around 70,000 people with disabilities or mental illness were murdered by carbon monoxide between 1940 and August 1941. After the official end of the central Aktion T4, the killings continued in a decentralised manner in numerous psychiatric institutions and care homes — these places too are recorded in the atlas where archival records exist. The total number of „euthanasia" victims is estimated at around 200,000 to 300,000.

The atlas covers the main concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Bergen-Belsen, Flossenbürg, Mittelbau-Dora, Neuengamme) and the hundreds of sub-camps in which prisoners were forced into labour. Recorded are the crimes documented in court proceedings: murder, ill-treatment, neglect, shootings, medical experiments, burnings, starvation. Especially the sub-camps — there were more than 130 attached to Dachau alone — are often little known regionally but are made visible by the NaziCrimesAtlas.

The atlas records sites that were tried in proceedings on forced-labour crimes. During the Nazi era around 13 million people from occupied territories were deported to forced labour in Germany — in industry, agriculture, mining and construction. Particularly recorded are those locations where documented ill-treatment, killings, executions or grave provisioning deficits occurred. For comprehensive documentation of forced labour, the atlas also points to the Arolsen Archives in Bad Arolsen, the world’s largest archive on the victims of Nazi persecution.

Recorded are the main assembly points and deportation stations in German cities from which Jewish people, Sinti and Roma and political opponents were deported to ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps. Important sites: Berlin Grunewald platform 17, Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof, Frankfurt wholesale market hall, Hamburg Hannoverscher Bahnhof, Munich Milbertshofen, Köln-Deutz, Düsseldorf-Derendorf, Wuppertal-Steinbeck and many more. Deportations took place between October 1941 and spring 1945, with the main phase in 1942–43.

End-of-war crimes are the murders and acts of violence committed in the last weeks of the Second World War 1944/45 — as the regime collapsed and SS, NSDAP, Wehrmacht and Volkssturm unleashed further violence. Documented are the death marches from concentration camps towards the west or south, during which thousands of exhausted prisoners were murdered, as well as shootings of Wehrmacht deserters, forced labourers and dissenting civilians shortly before the war’s end. These sites are often little known regionally but are judicially documented.

The NaziCrimesAtlas records the execution sites of the civilian and military Nazi judiciary — places where people were killed without due process or on the basis of Nazi judicial procedures. Main sites: the execution facilities of Plötzensee (Berlin), Stadelheim (Munich), Brandenburg-Görden, executions by the People’s Court, by special courts and by Wehrmacht courts on the spot. In the final years of the war there were also numerous summary-court executions at improvised locations.

The NaziCrimesAtlas offers three modes of search. First, by interactive map — you navigate to a place and see all pins documented there. Second, by place search — you enter a place name or address and jump directly to it. Third, by filter — by crime category (pogroms, „euthanasia" murders, etc.), period or victim group. Every pin contains a description, date, victim group, file reference and source citation.

Yes. In the app and the web dataset, filters are available for the main crime categories: pogroms, „euthanasia" murders, concentration-camp crimes, forced labour, deportations, executions and end-of-war crimes. You can show or hide individual categories — for example to view only deportations in a region. Filters can be combined.

The app stores map data and crime-scene information locally on the device, so it can be used without an active internet connection — useful for on-site research or in regions with poor coverage. The web dataset at nazicrimesatlas.org/output/ requires an internet connection.

Every documented act in the NaziCrimesAtlas includes the file reference of the underlying court proceeding — for example „2 Ks 1/65 LG München I". With it you can continue your research in the respective state archive, examine the full file and use it for academic or journalistic depth. The atlas does not replace archive work; it opens the door to it.

Yes. The NaziCrimesAtlas is available as an app for iOS and Android. iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/nazicrimesatlas/id6738484195. Android app on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.historyapp.nazicrimesatlas. The app is free and ad-free.

The app is the central platform for research and depth. It contains detailed text on individual crimes, source references, illustrations and educational content — the website shows the structured metadata and overview but not the full depth. The app is also offline-capable and location-based: the smartphone shows on the ground which crimes happened exactly here.

Yes, the app is free. It contains no advertising and no tracking. Development and operation are funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the German Federal Ministry of Finance under the Bildungsagenda NS-Unrecht.

The app requires only the permission for location access — and only if you wish to use the location-based „what happened near me" function. You can also use the app without granting location access and work with manual place entry or map navigation. No personal data is collected or transmitted.

The content of the NaziCrimesAtlas may be used for non-commercial purposes of research, education, journalism and memorial culture — with attribution as „NaziCrimesAtlas — dieKunstBauStelle e. V.". Use of individual entries, quotations or datasets for academic work, journalism or educational materials is permitted on this basis.

Recommended citation: „NaziCrimesAtlas — Digital Atlas of Nazi Crimes. dieKunstBauStelle e. V., Landsberg am Lech 2024 ff. URL: https://nazicrimesatlas.org/". When referring to individual crime scenes, please also cite the file reference given in the atlas so that the primary source remains traceable. For academic depth we recommend consulting the underlying file in the relevant state archive.

The following are not permitted: downloading the dataset in full or substantially in full; using many datasets at once, e.g. for aggregate statistical analyses or to build your own databases; passing on substantial portions of the dataset to third parties; using the dataset to populate or train external databases or AI systems with the entire collection or substantial parts of it. Any use beyond these limits requires prior written permission of dieKunstBauStelle e. V.

Yes — for lectures, workshops, seminars and school teaching, screenshots of the app and the website are permitted with attribution. Please use „NaziCrimesAtlas — dieKunstBauStelle e. V." as the caption. For commercial use (e.g. publishers, commercial online platforms) written permission is required.

Yes. The NaziCrimesAtlas was designed in part for use in schools. The location-based approach makes history directly tangible for pupils — they see that Nazi crimes did not happen „somewhere far away" but right next to their school or home. The atlas is suited to secondary level I and II, for history, social studies, religious-education and ethics lessons as well as for cross-curricular project work.

The NaziCrimesAtlas is intended for users from about 14 years of age. For younger children the content is unsuitable due to the historical weight and detail. Pedagogical accompaniment is explicitly recommended — especially where pupils encounter concrete crime scenes in their surroundings that may be emotionally distressing.

Yes. dieKunstBauStelle e. V. regularly offers online workshops and training sessions for teachers and multipliers. Topics include: introduction to the NaziCrimesAtlas, didactic use in the classroom, research methods, links to local memorial sites. Current dates: https://nazicrimesatlas.org/en/get-involved/workshops/.

Perpetrators are generally not named individually in the NaziCrimesAtlas; they are identified by function — e.g. „SS guard", „camp doctor", „mayor", „police officer". This decision has two reasons: first, the personality-rights protection that applies after the relevant periods; second, the methodological focus of the project on visibility of act and victim rather than on personalising perpetrators. Researchers can use the file reference to access names and proceedings in the archive.

Victims are recorded in the NaziCrimesAtlas by victim group — Jewish population, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexual people, people with disabilities, forced labourers, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians. Where individual victims are documented, names are given so far as they are recorded in the files and no protected interests stand in the way. The dignity of the victims has methodological priority over depiction of perpetrators.

The dataset is extensive but not exhaustive. Three limitations: first, not every act came to court — many crimes were never reported, not investigated or discontinued for lack of evidence. What was not tried is not in the records. Second, the location data in the files cannot always be translated into an exact address or coordinate. Third, the West German judiciary was itself shaped by its times — it granted many perpetrators the status of accessory, sentences were often lenient, acquittals occurred. Records describe the proceedings, not necessarily the full scale of the act.

Yes. The NaziCrimesAtlas understands itself as a participatory project. If you wish to contribute local research, memorial texts, historical photographs or hints to further crime scenes, please contact us at info@nazicrimesatlas.org. Contributions are reviewed and, after editorial work, added to the app. References to Stolpersteine, plaques and memorial sites are also gratefully received.

Please send corrections or additions by email to info@nazicrimesatlas.org. Please state the file reference or crime scene as precisely as possible, along with your source. We review every note and make the change after verification.

Yes. The NaziCrimesAtlas hosts regular network meetings where initiatives, educational institutions, memorial sites and researchers come together. To date: launch 10 December 2024 in Berlin; network meeting 9–12 July 2025 in Augsburg (60 participants from across Germany). Further dates are announced via the newsletter.

The host organisation is dieKunstBauStelle e. V., a non-profit cultural association based in Landsberg am Lech, founded in 2014 by the artist Wolfgang Hauck. The association fosters art, culture, education and youth work and has concentrated for more than ten years on innovative history projects. Registered with the Augsburg local court under VR 201542.

The main funder is the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) under the Bildungsagenda NS-Unrecht. The agenda itself is financed by the German Federal Ministry of Finance on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag. The funding makes free access to the app and the dataset possible for all users.

No. The NaziCrimesAtlas is independent of party politics and religion. The host organisation is a civil-society body committed to academic standards and memorial culture. Funding by the EVZ Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Finance is part of public memorial work, not in service of a political agenda.