[1] Alongside the Arolsen Archives and Yad Vashem's central database, it is considered an important resource for Holocaust research.
[8][9][7][10][11] In 1960, upon request from Yad Vashem, the Federal Ministry of the Interior issued a letter instructing state and local governments to begin collecting records about their former Jewish populations.
The German Federal Archives needed 25 years to complete the "immense task"[12] of compiling and reviewing this data.
The second edition included victims who had lived within the 1937 borders of the German Reich, with a total of approximately 149,600 names.
[15] Since December 2007, the Gedenkbuch has been available online; the German Federal Archives continuously publishes additions and corrections based on research and submissions.