R.1 - German Foreign Office

R.1 - Documantation of the German Foreign Office, 1870-1945 Research conducted from the year 2000 and following regarding Nazi Germany has demonstrated that as opposed to the image promoted after the war, the German Foreign Ministry workers were actively involved in the extermination of the Jews of Europe. Almost all of them were working towards strengthening Germany and implementation of its goals, including the Nazis who joined the Foreign Ministry following the Nazi rise to power and the veteran Foreign Ministry workers. Among the goals of the Foreign Ministry was the amplification of antisemitism throughout the world and afterwards the extermination of the Jews. The Ministry workers worked to persuade the various regimes to hand over their Jewish citizens to the German authorities in order to facilitate what they termed resettlement. An especially active role was played by the Inland II Department, a special Foreign Ministry department which dealt with Jewish affairs. The documentation found in the Yad Vashem Archives dates from the establishment of the Second Reich through the end of the Third Reich, 1870-1945. In the Collection there is documentation on the following subjects: 1. Jewish affairs in all the countries in which Germany had diplomatic legations, as well as general files photocopied from archives in countries such as the USSR and Ukraine during those periods when central events regarding the Jews took place; 2. Complete files regarding Middle East affairs and mainly Eretz Israel were photocopied; 3. All documentation regarding the Jews was photocopied from files from the period of the Nazi regime including all the files of the Inland II Department.