April 19




GERMANY:

FIFTY MILLION NAZI DOCUMENTS

Germany Agrees to Open Holocaust Archive


In a dramatic policy reversal, Germany on Tuesday announced it would work
toward opening the vast Holocaust archives stored in a small, central
German village. Some 17 million individual fates may soon be open to
historians and the public.

For years, the United States, France, Poland and a number of other
countries have been trying to convince Germany to consent to the opening
of the so-called "Holocaust Archives" stored in the north-central German
town of Bad Arolsen. Citing privacy concerns and fears of lawsuits,
however, the German government had consistently refused. The 30 to 50
million documents -- compiled by the Nazis during World War II and
outlining the personal fates of 17 million Holocaust and forced labor
victims -- remained off limits to scholars and historians.

But on Tuesday, Germany changed its mind. At a press conference at the US
Holocaust Museum, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said that
Berlin would work with Washington to make the archives public. A number of
details remain to be worked out, but Zypries said the process should not
take more than six months.

"We still have negotiations to do," US special envoy for Holocaust issues
Edward B. O'Donnell told the Associated Press. "Our goal is to reach an
agreement as soon as possible."

Meticulous Nazi records

An initial hurdle is approaching in mid-May. The archive is overseen by an
11-nation group (Germany, the US, Italy, Poland, France, Belgium, Britain,
Greece, Israel, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) that meets annually to
discuss issues related to the administration of the archive, and all
decisions made about the vast trove of documents must be unanimous. In
1998, the group decided in principal to open the archive, but it has made
little progress toward that goal. Germany, says Udo Jost, a press
spokesman for the International Tracing Service which is charged with
administering the archive, has often been the country putting its foot on
the brakes. In the past, the files were made available for use by the
International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Red Cross to
help people trace displaced relatives whom the Nazis sent to concentration
camps or used as slave laborers. But that work has been completed and some
members, including the US, contend that access should be opened up for
researchers and private citizens.

By making the vast records public, many Holocaust survivors and families
of victims will be able to obtain a much clearer picture of what happened
to their relatives. The Nazis were meticulous record keepers and
documented the fates of a huge number of their victims. Historians hope
that by learning more about individual fates, a more sharply focused image
of how the Holocaust worked will emerge.

"We will definitely be able to learn more about individual cases," Jost
told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Whether it will lead to a completely different view
of the Holocaust, I don't know about that. History will definitely not
have to be rewritten."

In fact, many are hoping it does just the opposite. Citing rising
anti-Semitism, US Holocaust Museum Director Sarah Bloomfield said the
possible opening of the archive couldn't be more timely. Historian
Frederick Taylor, the British author of "Dresden: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1945"
who is currently working on a new book on the Berlin Wall, says the
material held in the archive will not only make it possible for "the
millions of individual tragedies that made up the Holocaust to be properly
and respectfully recorded," but may also put a damper on the widespread
virus of Holocaust denial.

Opening the archives "will help genuine researchers and act to the
disadvantage of the deniers, who treat the Holocaust as if it were a vast,
undocumented fantasy created after 1945," Taylor wrote in an e-mail to
SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Every true and personal story, every fate solidly
documented, represents a small nail in the coffin of Holocaust denial."

Pressure to open the archive had been mounting in recent years and a
number of media reports, including a February story in the New York Times
which accused the German government of blocking the opening of the
archives and cast Germany in the bad guy role. Berlin vigorously denied
the Times allegations and again cited concerns for the privacy of the
individuals whose fates are filed away in the 25 kilometers of documents.
Berlin also noted that the "Bonn Agreements," which were signed in 1955
and provide the legal framework for the administration of the archive,
would have to be amended before anything could be done.

The German turn-around on the issue is of particular interest to
historians who have long been doing battle with Germany's restrictive
privacy laws. The opening of the archive, said Taylor, provides
"refreshing evidence of a new pragmatism in Germany's attitude towards its
past. The privacy laws in Germany are at best a little over-fastidious, at
worst, downright obstructive."

(source: Der Spiegel)




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Germany Agrees to Open Holocaust Archive


Germany agreed Tuesday to allow access to a vast trove of information on
what happened to more than 17 million people who were executed, forced to
labor for the Nazi war machine or otherwise brutalized during the
Holocaust.

The German government announced at the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum here that it was dropping its decades-long resistance to opening
the archives kept in the town of Bad Arolsen. The files, which make up one
of the largest Holocaust archives in the world, are more than 15 miles
long and hold up to 50 million documents, some seized by the Allies as
they liberated concentration camps.

"We now agree to open the data in Bad Arolsen," Justice Minister Brigitte
Zypries said at a news conference here. She said her country would seek
revision of an international arrangement that governs the archives, The
Associated Press reported.

The accord ends a nasty diplomatic dispute between the United States and
Germany. More important, officials at the Holocaust museum said, it will
open the documents to historians and researchers, whose access has been
blocked because of Germany's strict privacy laws.

"Sixty years after the end of the war, it's time," Arthur Berger, the
Holocaust museum's senior adviser on external affairs, said after Ms.
Zypries pledged that Germany would work with the United States to make the
documents available. The 11-nation commission that oversees the archives
is to meet on May 16 in Luxembourg.

Paul Shapiro, the director of advanced Holocaust studies at the museum
here, said the documents would offer insights into the day-to-day evils of
the Nazi era, "the routine process of deportation, concentration camps,
slave labor, killing." And perhaps, he said, the paperwork will offer
clues to "a few new perpetrators" who, if no longer subject to earthly
justice, can at least stand before the bar of history.

Mr. Shapiro said museum officials hoped to make the documents "truly
accessible," available for computer viewing at Holocaust research centers
around the world. Since 1998 about half of the documents have been copied
in digital form. About 20 percent of the documents were copied on
microfilm before 1998, Mr. Shapiro said.

Until now, Holocaust survivors and their relatives have been able to seek
information from the Bad Arolsen archives, but they have sometimes waited
years, said Sara J. Bloomfield, director of the Holocaust museum in
Washington.

The files are controlled by the International Tracing Service, which
operates as an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The
service, which since the end of World War II has used the files to help
people learn about relatives who were victims of German atrocities, has
been swamped. Its budget, provided by Germany, has been cut as part of
national austerity measures.

The tracing service is run by a commission representing the United States,
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Israel,
Poland and Luxembourg. Germany has long insisted that for the archives to
be opened, all 11 countries would have to vote to amend the 1955 treaty
that set up the tracing service as it restored German sovereignty.

In Washington on Tuesday, Ms. Zypries said Germany would move at a meeting
in Luxembourg next month to change the treaty to open the archives. She
said her government would try to persuade Italy, which had also resisted
opening the documents, to go along.

The State Department's special envoy for Holocaust issues, Edward
O'Donnell, said the United States favored opening all records on the
Holocaust.

"We're very encouraged by the statement of the justice minister," he said.
"We look forward to continuing the negotiating process."

In its resistance to making the archives widely accessible, the German
government has cited the personal nature of much of the information in the
files. The papers may disclose, for instance, who was treated for lice at
which camp, what medical experiments were conducted on particular
prisoners, and which inmates were tempted to collaborate with their
captors.

But Ms. Bloomfield said such considerations were invalid. "The history is
the history," she said, adding that Holocaust documents released earlier
also contained personal information. "Let it be open."

While historians and researchers will find the material invaluable, the
real beneficiaries are the relatives of Holocaust survivors. "Many are
dying every day," Mr. Berger said. "They deserve to know what happened to
their fathers or their uncles."

The Holocaust museum officials praised the German justice minister as a
warm and open person and credited her with helping to sway her government.
They had kind words also for Wolfgang Ischinger, until recently the German
ambassador to the United States, and his successor, Klaus Scharioth.

Only two months ago, when the United States and Germany were still at
odds, Ms. Bloomfield called Germany's stand "a scandal and a big scar" on
the country's image, and Mr. Shapiro said Germany's position was "a form
of Holocaust denial."

But on Tuesday, Mr. Berger said Germany's leaders had embraced their
country's responsibility for the evils of the Nazi era. As for the harsh
words of February, he said, "That's history."

(source: New York Times)