[NYTr] Copies of Vast Nazi Archive Go to Israel, US Museums

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell

BBC - Aug 21, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6956691.stm

Copies of Nazi files transferred

The keepers of a vast archive of Nazi documents on the Holocaust have 
transferred copies of millions of files to museums in Israel and the
US.

The electronic transfer is part of an agreement to open up the Bad 
Arolsen archive, overseen by the International Committee of the Red 
Cross (ICRC).

The files, kept in Germany, were found in concentration camps and other 
Nazi prisons at the end of World War II.

Several countries have not yet ratified the agreement, delaying full 
access.

The archive will only be fully opened to the public when the 2006 
protocol is ratified by Italy, France and Greece. That is expected
later this year.

The ICRC says the archive has now transferred many documents from the 
archive to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the US and to the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Centre in Israel.

Chilling details

The 47 million files stored in the spa town of Bad Arolsen hold 
meticulously recorded information on forced labourers, concentration 
camp victims and political prisoners. They take up 26km (16 miles) of 
shelving.

Historians believe many more details about the Nazis' murder and brutal 
exploitation of millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and other victims will 
be revealed.

"After a long political process, we can now give researchers and the 
public access to the files," said Reto Meister, director of the ICRC's 
International Tracing Service (ITS).

So far, 12 million documents have been digitised for electronic 
transfer, the ICRC says.

In grey, bureaucratic language the Nazis kept records on the smallest 
details - from the number of lice on a prisoner's head to the exact 
moment of their execution.

The archive has been used to help people trace their relatives. But 
access has been restricted to protect victims' privacy.

The archive is controlled by an 11-nation treaty signed in 1955 and 
amended by the 2006 protocol. The countries are: Belgium, Britain, 
France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, 
Poland and the US.

© BBC MMVII