Where are the original RSHA or HSSPF orders from June 1942 archived and how can researchers access them?
Executive summary
The primary documentary traces of Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) and regional Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) orders from June 1942 are held in a dispersed set of institutional archives: chiefly the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv), specialized research institutes and museum collections such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), and U.S. federal archives that received captured German files after World War II — notably the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) following interagency review and declassification projects [1] [2] [3]. Researchers must treat the file trail as fragmented: series-level citations exist (for example BArch NS 19/1570), but individual orders may appear scattered across RSHA, HSSPF, WVHA and occupation-command files in multiple repositories and in some commercial or private holdings [1] [4].
1. Where the German central records point: Bundesarchiv and contemporary German collections
Surviving central RSHA documentation has been accessioned into Germany’s Bundesarchiv and related repositories; scholars cite specific NS-series file numbers such as NS 19/1570 when tracking RSHA reports and orders from 1942, and the Bundesarchiv remains the primary place to consult original RSHA correspondence and the Korherr report mentioned alongside RSHA material [1]. In addition to the Bundesarchiv, German research institutes that collected war-era police and SS files — for example the IfZ and other specialized collections referenced in scholarship — hold complementary fragments and finding aids [1].
2. Allied captures and American custodians: NARA and OSS/IWG releases
A substantial tranche of German security-service material reached U.S. custody after 1945 and has since been processed into NARA record groups; researchers are therefore advised to consult NARA’s World War II and Allied occupation holdings and the public releases from the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), which in 2000 made hundreds of thousands of OSS/SSU pages available that can contain German-era interrogations, captured files, and related material [5] [3]. NARA guides to World War II electronic records and the Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters outline relevant series and microfilm copies that sometimes include German-origin orders or their Allied translations and indices [5] [6].
3. Museum and research-collection surrogates: USHMM and cataloged collections
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum catalogs large sets of RSHA-, HSSPF- and Einsatzgruppen-related files collected from postwar trials, survivors, and captured archives; its collections search returns numerous items related to HSSPF activities and RSHA organizational records from 1941–1944, making the USHMM an indispensable online and on-site research portal for orders and regional directives from 1942 [2] [7]. The museum’s catalog entries often contain descriptive metadata that points back to German file numbers or Allied confiscation series, so consulting its database can reveal both originals and photocopied fragments held elsewhere [2].
4. Regional records, printed corpora and secondary leads
Orders issued by HSSPFs — the regional commanders — sometimes survive in provincial administration files, Wehrmacht and police command papers, or printed documentary collections; historians point to examples such as HSSPF Katzmann’s orders and regional selections documented in monographs and edited source-books, and editors reference specific archival shelfmarks that lead back to German and occupied-territory collections [8] [9]. Published document collections and edited corpora therefore function as an essential bridge when the original orders are dispersed or when only excerpts survive in allied holdings [8].
5. Practical steps for researchers seeking June 1942 orders
Begin with targeted queries to the Bundesarchiv using cited series like NS 19/1570 and to IfZ finding aids for SS/RSHA material, then cross-check USHMM’s online catalog for corresponding entries and NARA’s WWII/IWG indexes for captured-file identifiers; consult published editions and editorial notes (which often cite archival sigla) to triangulate missing originals [1] [2] [3]. Expect to submit formal reading-room requests or reproduction orders, to work with microfilm or digitized surrogates in NARA/USHMM catalogs, and to follow each repository’s access policies; note that some individual items have reappeared on the private market or in dealer inventories, which complicates provenance but can provide leads to originals or authenticated copies [4].
6. Limits of the public record and how to interpret absence
The documentary record is demonstrably incomplete and dispersed: many RSHA/HSSPF orders survive only as copies, translations, or references in other files (trial exhibits, OSS interrogations, published corpora), and researchers should be cautious about assuming any single archive holds a complete set for June 1942 — the surviving trail must be reconstructed across Bundesarchiv holdings, Allied-captured collections at NARA, and institutional catalogs such as the USHMM [1] [2] [3]. If a particular order cannot be located in these repositories, existing reporting and catalogs do not permit asserting that it never existed; instead, the absence usually reflects fragmentation, wartime destruction, or dispersal through Allied seizures and postwar legal channels [3].