The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has thousands of rolls of microfilm and microfiche  containing German government and military documents captured at the end of the Second World War. NARA also has many original captured documents, along with thousands of photographs, film, and audio recordings. These records are stored at the Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland, and like the countless other records preserved by NARA, access to them is free.

If you're interested in researching the captured German War Records collection, your first step should be to visit the NARA web site's Microfilm Search utility. This is a vast improvement over some of the earlier iterations of their search tools, and while it won't get you down to the document you want, it will at least get you into the right Record Group - the higher level of cataloging for the microfilm - and the Publication Number (which comes "under" the Record Group).

Most of the German military records are in Record Group 242, divided into a bunch of Publication Numbers. If you type "242" into the search box of the Microfilm Search utility, it'll return all the RG 242 microfilm publications, and a few oddballs that happen to have "242" in them.

Unfortunately, as you'll quickly find out if you click around in the results a bit, there is very little extra detail. The big downside to the captured records collection is that it is not all that well indexed, and what indexes are available aren't available on-line.

So, let's say you make a trek to Archives II at College Park to do some research. When you first go in, you'll need to get a visitor card: there's an office off to the right as you first enter where they'll take your photo, have you enter your particulars (name, address, etc.), and then they'll print out a card for you right there. If you need a place to stash any extra stuff (coat, whatever), go across the main floor from the badging room and find the stairs down to the basement: there are lockers down there (remember to take a quarter with you; you'll get it back when you're done with the locker).

Now for some cautions! First, obviously don't take anything in that could either be construed as a weapon or that could be taken for something to play havoc with the records (like cans of spray paint - bad idea). I know that you can take in a laptop and/or a camera, but for anything else I'd check at the NARA web site before you go. And remember: anything you take in with you must be checked at the front desk so they can give you a property slip! If you don't have your property slip when you try to take your laptop or camera out, you're going to have trouble with the security folks when you try to leave.

Okay, so now you're squared away: you've got your brand-new Archives ID, your gear, and your property slip. Next stop: security. You can't miss the security point leading to the elevators, so head over there. Now, as a general rule, the security folks I've encountered have been very nice, but very thorough. They seem to take their jobs very seriously, and they will look through things carefully and make sure all your paperwork's in order.

Once you're through that, if you want to go to the microfilm room, head up to the 4th floor. Once you get there, I believe you hang a right out of the elevator, and you should come to a room with double glass swinging doors. You're here! The first thing you need to do is sign in at the desk, then go find an empty carol and stash your stuff.

Now, chances are you may not have had much of an opportunity to really figure out where to look for what you want. Now, there are what are called "finding aids" or indexes for the various collections. For the captured war records these are in a series of boxes, binders, and a couple of bound books on a long table toward the front of the microfilm room. If you don't already know which ones you need, feel free to poke around through them. If you're on a tight schedule, don't be bashful about asking the room monitor for help. Usually it's a college student, but the ones I've encountered seemed to be knowledgeable and friendly.

The first thing is to figure out what Publication Number you need to look for. The "pubs" are groups of microfilm rolls or microfiche, often comprising a few thousand rolls, each with up to a thousand or so images on them. There is a pub - T176 - that has 33 rolls of microfilm but is itself just a set of indexes to much of the collection!

So, let's say you've found the pub you need. Now you need to dig through the finding aids for your pub - let's say it's T283, which contains manuals and technical documents - and find what you're after. The finding aids have very general descriptions of the documents in the pub, and what roll(s) of microfilm they're on. So let's say that you're interested in the firing tables for the Theodor-Kanone. That's in RG 242 (the captured records collection), publication T283 (manuals and technical documents), and after you flip through the finding aid in the three-ring binder you come to find that it's on roll 21 and starts on frame 4522699.

I recommend you take a notepad (although there are also paper supplies and pencils in the room) and write down a summary entry on your paper like "T283, roll 21, frame 4522699 - Firing tables for Theodor-Kanone." I usually list a number of items that I'm interested in and then go on a hunting spree through the microfilm.

Now it's just a question of finding the right drawer: head back along the right-side wall (as you're facing into the room), which is made up of a bunch of big pull-out shelves. Find the ones marked "T283", then find the drawer that has the sequence that will include roll 21. Pull that sucker out, find roll 21, take it out, then close the drawer.

Please do NOT go and grab a bunch of different rolls. Just take one at a time so you don't accidentally mix them up. And remember that there's only one copy available for everybody, and if you have a pile sitting on your desk, nobody else can look at those (and the room monitor will probably yell at you - and rightly so).

Now you take the film back to your desk and put it in the microfilm reader. Personally, I prefer the motorized ones, because if the images you need are far into the roll, you can be turning the hand crank a long time. But for any of the different readers, if you need help, please ask! If you don't know what you're doing, you can damage the microfilm. Granted, these aren't the master copies, but still: take care of them.

So now comes the real question: how do you want to "capture" what you're looking at? If you want to make paper copies, there are a few microfilm copiers toward the front of the room. They generally do a decent job, although in my opinion the older models actually printed out better. But to use these things, you'll need to get a money card: there is a machine in a room right around the corner to the left where you can get one (ask the room monitor where it is). But be warned: copies are $0.25 per page! If you need the highest possible fidelity, then by all means use the copier. Just be prepared to pay a chunk-o-change if you have to copy more than a few pages.

On the other hand, if you just really want the information and don't much care if it's as good as possible, just take a half-decent digital camera and take pictures of the display screen on the reader. It won't look great, but I've found that this renders readable images and is completely free! So if your documents are a couple hundred pages long, who cares? Just take happy snaps until your card is full. And if your batteries run low, no worries: there are power plugs in the work station areas.

Finally, when you get ready to leave please make sure that the room monitor stamps the back of your paper copies! He either has to stamp each one, or staple them together and then stamp the back one (at least). Take all your stuff with you, and please don't take anything at all that you didn't bring or the monitor didn't stamp. When you head out through security, they'll check everything. And they're generally much more thorough going out than going in.

So, that's a very quick run-through of the captured German records collection at College Park. There is obviously a lot more there - photos, hardcopy documents, film, audio - but this should get you into the ballpark and introduce you to some of the resources you'll need. Have a great trip and happy researching!