The Commission on Social Action of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) sent a telegram to Secretary of State George Shultz Monday urging him to demand the release of information on Nazi war criminals from the United Nations.
The Reform Judaism group authorized the telegram at a “Consultation on Conscience” which opened here Sunday night to mark the 25th anniversary of the UAHC’s Religious Action Center here.
The telegram, signed by Harris Gilbert, chairman of the commission, asked Shultz to urge UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to allow public access to the UN files on Nazi war criminals. De Cuellar rejected last month a similar request from Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN.
“The War Crimes Commission, in giving these files to the UN, never intended that the records be hidden from the UN,” the telegram to Shultz said. “The UN action in keeping them under lock and key has no standing in law and no moral justification. “We respectfully urge you to demand that the files be and made available to all scholars, researchers, students and others with legitimate reasons to have access to this information.”
Gilbert also stressed that “burying the record of the past dooms us to repeat it. Locking away the files from public view protects only those who have something to hide. Let the facts be made public, let the truth be told.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
