exclusive
Employees loudly accuse the management of the Arolsen Archives In contrast-Information bullying before. A toxic atmosphere prevails in the world‘s largest archive on Nazi victims. Minister of State for Culture Roth has initiated an investigation.
Employees bring serious allegations against the management of the Arolsen Archives, formerly known as the International Tracing Service (ITS). To the ARD-political magazine In contrast there is a dossier on a “culture of fear”, a “toxic working atmosphere” and verbal abuse. It was put together by the lawyer Daniel Vogel.
He says he found out about what happened in his private life. According to Vogel, he spoke to 25 people who work or have worked at the center for research into Nazi persecution in Bad Arolsen in northern Hesse. In contrast was able to speak to a number of those affected, who reinforced the main allegations – including people in management positions.
We are talking about bullying and downright attrition tactics. They hold the director and her deputy, who have been running the facility since 2016 and 2017, responsible for this. The conditions would have “worsened” over the course of the tenure. Since then, according to Vogel, at least 25 highly qualified people have prematurely terminated their employment contracts. In one case, the director is said to have told a person that if they did not accept a termination agreement, they would be fired for operational reasons.
anxiety and panic attacks
The management is also said to have molested employees outside of working hours. The deputy director, it has been accused, uses video calls to contact his colleagues on their personal cell phones. Anyone who finds this to be excessive and instead asks for a phone call will be portrayed as “complicated”.
According to the dossier, the director is said to have contacted employees who were on vacation in order to give them work assignments that were not urgent. The reference to the holiday was ignored by the director.
Anyone who had fallen out of favor with management was isolated. According to the dossier, employees accuse the deputy director of “psychological warfare”. Among other things, he threatened employees that he would “make life hell” for them. Those affected report persistent anxiety and panic attacks.
“I don’t sleep well at night anymore,” says one person. “I cried for days” admits another. According to the dossier, one person states that she sat in front of the computer for hours “with trembling hands” and thought about the wording in e-mails to the management.
According to a letter from the works council, In contrast is available, the management is said to have given notice to an employee from her immediate environment. According to its own statements, the works council has lodged an objection. “In the run-up to the termination, the person concerned had addressed grievances at the Arolsen Archives, which in retrospect led to termination without notice from our point of view.”
Vogel’s dossier could support this account: According to this, the management is said to have tried to fire an employee who had spoken to the director about the behavior of her deputy. The victim is said to be the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Employees at the Arolsen Archives had already complained about bullying in the 2000s, and the allegations were directed against the management at the time.
Brief an Claudia Roth
The employees’ reports hardly fit the self-image propagated by the Arolsen Archives: “Diversity, respect and democracy”. The institution with more than 200 employees has the world‘s most comprehensive archive on the victims of National Socialism and is part of the UNESCO World Memory.
Files on around 17.5 million people are listed there. The organization is managed by an International Committee (IA) with representatives from 16 nations, financed from the budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture (BKM).
At the beginning of March, those affected contacted the IA and Claudia Roth via the lawyer Vogel. As Minister of State for Culture, the Greens politician in the federal government is responsible for the Arolsen Archives. Vogel asked Roth to “act as an intermediary”. The In contrast The present dossier is part of a letter he sent her at the beginning of March; those affected are anonymous.
In a letter dated March 7, Roth is “affected” and demands: “Detected abuses must be remedied immediately.” In the days that followed, she traveled to Bad Arolsen herself and visited the center.
A commission headed by an external lawyer is now to investigate the facts. The employees of the Arolsen Archives are called upon to submit their experiences in writing “regarding allegations of misconduct by management” by the beginning of June. This commission was set up by the IA – on behalf of Roth as BKM. Your spokesman announced today: “On the basis of the final report and any interim reports from the law firm, the International Committee will discuss possible labor law consequences during and after the investigation and, if necessary, decide on them.”
No comment from management
In conversation with In contrast Neither the director nor her deputy wanted to comment personally on the allegations made against them. When asked if she knew Vogel’s letter to Roth, the director said on the phone: “No, not really.” She referred to her press office and the investigation that was launched as a result of that same letter. Her deputy also asked to contact the press office of the Arolsen Archives.
This shared In contrast to have found out about the letter on March 7th. “We take the anonymous allegations you raised very seriously.” It is welcomed that the IA commissioned a law firm to investigate the facts of the case. “Management is required not to comment on the allegations until the ongoing investigation has been completed.” The Arolsen Archives will not be able to answer questions about the allegations until then.
So far, these may only be allegations that have not been proven – but these are serious. There is a lot of rumbling among the employees.