Israel contended here Tuesday that “the decision and responsibility” regarding the granting of free public access to the UN files on Nazi war criminals lies with Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
The Secretary General rejected last Thursday Israel’s request to open the files at the UN archive on war criminals to public scrutiny, contending that the nations which were members of the long-defunct War Crimes Commission had objected to it.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, told a press conference here he hopes that de Cuellar will reconsider his decision in view of information obtained by Israeli researchers who examined more than 300 files obtained by Israel last May from the UN archive on war criminals. The UN archive, located in downtown Manhattan, contains some 40,000 files on suspected Nazis and their collaborators.
CITES DISCOVERIES BY YAD VASHEM RESEARCHERS
“Yad Vashem researchers have determined that public access to the files would generate a significant amount of new information regarding the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said. He said that a thorough investigation of 347 files revealed the extent of information regarding the Holocaust that reached the West before the war’s end.
“File 79/P/G/16 describes the destruction of hundreds of thousands of Jews at Treblinka concentration camp. It was delivered to the UN War Crimes Commission on April 24, 1944,” the Ambassador said. Similar information on the mass murder of Jews at Maidanek and Belzec concentration camps was delivered to the Commission on June 3, 1944, Netanyahu noted. World War II ended in May 1945.
Yad Vashem researchers also discovered, according to Netanyahu, lists of personnel who ran the camps; the nature and amount of property confiscated from European Jewry by the Nazis; the number of victims and survivors of the Holocaust; information on the “Sondergrichte”–the special German courts in occupied Nazi territories; official reports, unknown until now, detailing Nazi policy on European Jewry and the camps; and new details on Nazi medical experiments.
“Public access to the files is indispensable to establish a more accurate record of that historical period,” Netanyahu declared. “The present rules of confidentiality prevent widespread research into this material and its publication and dissemination.”
He added: “Unfettered access to the files would facilitate the work of governmental agencies pursuing and prosecuting Nazi war criminals by providing new historical accounts and legal documents.”
The Israeli envoy noted that many of the files were written in English. “This is highly unusual and would benefit many young researchers not fluent in German, Polish, Czech and other East European languages,” he said.
Netanyahu, confirming the fact that only Australia, out of the 17 nations who were members of the War Crimes Commission, agreed to the opening of the files, was asked why, in his opinion, the majority of the former members of the Commission objected to the opening of the files. “I can assume that some of the findings will be unpleasant to individuals and to governments,” he answered.
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