Nazi Archive Still Closed
January 3, 2007
American lawmakers, including the incoming head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are pushing foreign governments to speed up the ratification process of an agreement that will grant access to millions of Nazi-era German documents.
"Further delay in the release of this archive material would be unjust to Holocaust survivors -- virtually all of whom are now elderly -- still seeking compensation for the unspeakable crimes of the Nazi regime," Senator Joseph Biden, a member of the Democratic Party who takes over the Senate committee Thursday, wrote in a letter to British Ambassador Sir David Manning.
"We owe it to them as well as their relatives to act promptly," he wrote.
The letter echoed others sent to other countries on the commission that oversees the archive.
Dangerously deluded
Last spring, the 11-nation governing commission of the International Red Cross' International Tracing Service, which oversees the archive in Bad Arolsen, agreed to provide greater access to the information contained in it. Prior German concerns over privacy rights had kept the files closed for five decades.
The ongoing delay is due to the member countries' failing to ratify the agreement at home. The agreement's signatories are: Germany, the US, Israel, Britain, France, Luxembourg, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Poland and the Netherlands.
US lawmakers said that the archive is also important to refuting the claims of Holocaust deniers: "(The documents will provide) further proof, if any were still needed that those who deny the occurrence of the Holocaust are dangerously deluded," wrote Biden.
That issue resurged recently after Iran held a much-criticized conference which debated whether the Holocaust actually happened.
A travesty
Other lawmakers added that access to the files is important for survivors and their families in regards to restitution and compensation issues as well as information about lost family members.
Lawyer Sam Dubbin, who represents Holocaust survivors, told the Associated Press that such issues are often overlooked.
"We know that so much information has been hidden, and there have been so many surprises when these Nazi records are actually examined," he said.
"It would be a travesty to allow past restitution arrangements to stand until survivors and family members are given complete access to the entirety of the files."