The U.S. Senate will soon be taking up legislation that would open to the public all American records on Nazi war criminals and stolen assets of Holocaust victims.
The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, approved unanimously last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would amend the Freedom of Information Act to ease the release of Nazi-era records, while creating a special interagency group to identify, declassify and make available to the public all Nazi war records held by the government.
“The perpetrators of the Holocaust committed unthinkable crimes against humanity,” said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), who is sponsoring the bill along with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.). “It is time to ensure all doors are fully open on this subject.”
Sponsors of the bill believe U.S. openness would set an example for Switzerland and other countries to follow as they trace the movement of Nazi gold and assets stolen from Holocaust victims.
A similar bill authored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), which would also seek to illuminate the U.S. government’s role in employing known Nazi war criminals after World War II, is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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.
