The 16 volumes of the edition are ordered chronologically and geographically. The purely chronological order, dispensing with thematic decisions, is meant to avoid interpretation or dramatization. The first three volumes (PMJ 1 to 3) as well as PMJ 6 and 11 document the persecution of Jews in Germany, annexed Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The other eleven volumes cover areas under the occupation of the German Wehrmacht and those collaborating or under German hegemony: Southeast Europe and Italy (PMJ 14), Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria (PMJ 13), and Northern and Western Europe (PMJ 5 and 12). A particular focus lies on those regions where the largest numbers of Jews lived: Poland (PMJ 4, 9, and 10), the occupied part of the Soviet Union (PMJ 7 and 8), and Hungary (PMJ 15). Auschwitz and the death marches during the final phase of the war are covered in a separate volume (PMJ 16).