Haaretz
Shvat 29, 5767
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -
Technical experts have completed a blueprint to make millions of Nazi
documents stored in Germany accessible to Holocaust researchers, but the
11 nations overseeing the massive archive must give the green light, the
archive director said Thursday.
The outline approved at a
three-day meeting in Bad Arolsen, Germany, for transferring huge amounts
of data was a critical step toward opening the long-secret files
maintained by the International Tracing Service, an arm of the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
Holocaust survivors and
researchers have waited decades to see information buried in the gray
metal cabinets and on shelves in six nondescript buildings in the small
German spa town. Many are yellowed and fragile with age.
Among the
records meticulously kept by the Nazis are transport documents and death
lists, and notes on concentration camp inmates ranging from their
hereditary diseases to the number of lice plucked from their heads.
After years of wrangling, the 11-nation oversight body voted last
May to amend the 1955 agreement governing the archive to give access to
researchers and permit electronic copies.
But each nation must
ratify that decision before it comes into force, which could take years.
Survivors say they may long be dead by the time that happens.
The
member countries are due to meet again in May, when the U.S. and other
delegations are expected to propose shortcuts that could open the archive
almost immediately.
The task to scan and digitize 30 million
sheets of paper was a huge technical and logistic challenge, said Uwe
Ossenberg, an expert quoted in a statement from the Tracing Service. He
said he knew of no similar project anywhere in Europe or the United
States.