The new directorate of the Yad Veshem, the institution which will erect a world memorial in Jerusalem to the memory of the 6,000,000 Jews martyred by the Nazis, has started negotiations to save the archives and files of the International Tracing Service at Arolson, Germany, it was announced here today by Minister of Education Ben Zion Dinur.
The ITS, currently operated by the Allies, is expected to be turned over to German administration after the Allies sign a peace treaty with Bonn. Concern has been expressed in Israel that if the Germans take over the ITS they will destroy evidence bearing on the Nazi crimes against the Jews.
The directorate of the Yad Veshem, set up by an act of the Israel Parliament, held its first meeting here yesterday. It elected an executive committee including S.Z. Shragai, Dr. Marc Dvorzetsky, Joseph Weitz and Moshe Kol. The executive was instructed to commence work on plans for the memorial, including its site. The directorate also adopted a provisional budget which will be supplied jointly by the Israel Government, Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund and World Jewish Congress.
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