From another list [sorry for duplicates] The following announcement was made by the National Coalition for History (NCH) in NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #21; 4 May 2006). If you want to know more you could try contacting R. Bruce Craig at <rbcraig@HISTORYCOALITION.ORG> ---------- GERMANY AGREES TO OPEN HOLOCAUST FILES Last week, Germany took a major step forward toward opening Nazi era records relating to up to 17.5 million Jews, slave laborers, concentration camp prisoners, and other victims of the Holocaust. Germany pledged to work with the Unites States and other nations to ensure access to some 30 to 50 million documents that are stored in an archives in the German town of Bad Arolsen. Until now, Germany has refused to open the records, citing privacy concerns. Much of the credit in this recent development falls to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. which for nearly two decades has been seeking to pry open the records. As the situation currently stands, some 11 nations jointly oversee the records which for some 60 years have been used nearly exclusively by the International Committee of the Red Cross to help trace missing or dead persons. Reportedly, the Red Cross still gets about 150,000 requests a year. Except for fulfilling those requests, the records have been off limits to historians and the public. Plans now call for eventual digitization of records. Decisions on how best to proceed to open the records will be made during a meeting scheduled for 17 May in Luxembourg. At that time the 1955 treaty regarding the records is expected to be amended.