Bad Arolsen, Germany – Public Access to Nazi Records Hits Snags

Bad Arolsen, Germany – In the town of Bad Arolsen, technicians are scanning the largest closed collection of Nazi documents, sheet by sheet. The archive is managed by the International Tracing Service, to track down missing persons and help reunite families.

The Tracing Service's files constitute the most complete record on Nazi victims. Its estimated 50 million pages of concentration camp papers, death lists, transport documents and postwar displaced-persons folders contain the names of 17.5 million murdered or persecuted people — about one-fourth of them Jews.

But even after all technica work is done, families still won't be able to browse the files freely. Instead, staff will search for material they request.

"Such an arrangement falls far short of genuine open access," said the Holocaust Survivors' Foundation, based in Miami. Survivors want to see the records "with our own eyes and on our own terms."

Archivists in Jerusalem and Washington defend their colleagues in Germany, citing an array of legal and technical problems.
One problem for Bad Arolsen is legal. The 2006 agreement says receiving countries must "ensure adequate protection relating to personal data" and block access to sensitive information about the victims.

Then there's the Tracing Service's system. All but 3 million are written by hand, many in German script, and aren't machine-readable. [Globe]