Holocaust archive remains closed to researchers

A unique Nazi-era archive containing millions of documents could remain off-limits to researchers for years, officials said.

Eight months have passed since the 11 countries administering the vast storehouse of log books, transport lists and death registers in Germany agreed to open the archive for research.

For nearly a decade, the group had wrangled over objections that disclosure would violate the privacy of some victims.

When German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries announced her nation’s decision to drop its resistance, she told reporters in Washington last April that agreement among member states should take no more than six months.

But that agreement was just the first step in a lengthy legal process to amend a 1955 treaty governing the archive of the International Tracing Service, or ITS, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the German town of Bad Arolsen.

So far, only Israel and the United States have fully endorsed the amendments adopted last May by the 11-nation International Commission, with other members saying ratification is still in their legislative pipelines.