diff --git a/import_md/hedgedoc_import.py b/import_md/hedgedoc_import.py
index 72a68386d2e8caa3f08b7f926fa0cf5665abe2bf..990e49c11d0e46188720f85d09d6aac3a48b1edb 100644
--- a/import_md/hedgedoc_import.py
+++ b/import_md/hedgedoc_import.py
@@ -33,13 +33,21 @@ def import_into_hedgedoc(instance_url, session_id, export_folder, archive_file):
         f"Checking existence of archive file ({archive_file})")
     check_file_exists(archive_file)
     # get exported history map
-    with open(os.path.join(export_folder, "history.json")) as map_file:
-        history_dictionary = json.load(map_file)
+    history_json_filename = "history.json"
+    history_dictionary = {}
+    try:
+        with open(os.path.join(export_folder, "%s" % history_json_filename)) as map_file:
+            history_dictionary = json.load(map_file)
+    except FileNotFoundError:
+        print_block_heading(
+            f"INFO: could not find file {history_json_filename}. Continuing anyways with random generated paths for "
+            f"documents")
 
     # mapping from title of a document (= filename without md extension in archive) to its id (= note url in CodiMD)
     lookup_map = {}
-    for entry in history_dictionary["history"]:
-        lookup_map[entry["text"]] = entry["id"]
+    if "history" in history_dictionary:
+        for entry in history_dictionary["history"]:
+            lookup_map[entry["text"]] = entry["id"]
 
     # URLs to visit to make the new document available in the history
     urls_to_visit = []