Complete collections of invaluable documents of unique historical and political significance are decaying and at the same time they are virtually inaccessible, necessitating the invention of robust and efficient methods for their conversion into a searchable electronic form. This paper presents the issues encountered and problems addressed in the MEMORIAL project, whose goal is the establishment of a digital document workbench enabling the creation of distributed virtual archives based on documents existing in libraries, archives, museums, memorials, and public record offices. Successful approaches are described in the context of the chosen data class: a variety of typewritten documents containing personal information relating to the presence of individuals in World War II Nazi concentration camps.