Nazi documents cache to be revealed

A vast archive of Nazi documents kept secret for more than 60 years may soon be opened to the public.

The 11 countries that oversee its safekeeping in Germany have completed an agreement on allowing it to be seen, the Red Cross said today.

Greece was the last of the 11 to formally file its ratification papers with the German Foreign Ministry, clearing the way for Holocaust survivors and researchers to access some 50 million pages of wartime documents.

The archive in Bad Arolsen is administered by the International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and has been used exclusively to trace missing persons, reunite families and provide documentation to victims of Nazi persecution to support compensation claims.

“The ratification process is complete,” Reto Meister, director of the Tracing Service, said.

Mr Meister said a long list of academics and research organisations already have applied to begin work in the archive, which includes untapped documents of communications among Nazi officials, camp registrations, transportation lists, slave labour files and death lists that detail the mechanics of the Nazi torment.

“I am pleased that the archive of the International Tracing Service can now be opened for research,” said Guenter Gloser, Germany’s deputy foreign minister responsible for Europe.

“I would like to invite all researchers to make use of this, and work through this dark chapter of German history.