Paul Shapiro played an instrumental role in opening the International Tracing Service Archive, based in Bad Arolsen, Germany, and making its contents available to Holocaust survivors and scholars in the United States and around the world. For too many years, these archives were kept secret because of an agreement with the German government. There are 50 million documents contained in these Holocaust-era archives, discussing 17.5 million individuals who were impacted by the Shoah. 

Shapiro is director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, and since 1997 has led the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's effort to provide focused leadership to the field of Holocaust Studies in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining the museum's staff, Shapiro was involved for over a decade on a volunteer basis in the development of the museum's international archival collections, which remains an important activity of the center.