Untitled, from the portfolio, Holocaust Archives, International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen, Germany

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was set up by the Allies after World War II to archive Nazi documents and locate victims of the Holocaust. Over sixteen miles of records housed in six buildings attest to the meticulous documentation practiced in the camps. Ehrlich, a Cornell alumnus, visited the ITS, producing a portfolio of over fifty images of both larger items such as storage cabinets, file boxes, and shelving units, as well as poignant images of logbooks, ledgers, and correspondence. In this photograph, a Läusekontrolle (louse control) tracks the number of lice found on prisoners in an attempt to prevent typhus outbreaks. Individuals are identified by their prisoner numbers, which would likely also have been tattooed on their arms. The stamp at the bottom right indicates that the information was added to the ITS Central Name Index in 1952. (“This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection” cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – April 12, 2015)