Germany finally to open Holocaust archives

Germany agreed Tuesday to help clear the way for the opening of Nazi records on some 17 million Jews and enslaved laborers who were persecuted and slain by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust more than 60 years ago.

At a news conference at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said her country would work with the United States to assure the opening of the archives held in the German town of Bad Arolsen and allow historians and survivors access to some 30 million to 50 million documents.

Until now, Germany resisted providing access to the archives, citing privacy concerns.

From the Guardian. Also, and a day later, in the NY Times.

This was a longstanding outrage, with the privacy excuse a brazen insult. However much the German people may have changed, German bureaucracy in many respects hasn't. A personal example: my uncle, while supervising some of our family's restitution and compensation claims, discovered that the German government still required all claims to be submitted with all names in their Nazified form, complete with the "Israel" that the Nazis ordered all Jews to append to their own last names -- the onomastic companion to the yellow star. This was just a couple of years ago.

Posted by David on April 19, 2006 8:53 AM