The American Jewish Congress charged today that a tacit “gentleman’s agreement” existed between the State Department and West Germany aimed at suppressing information about the role of ex-Nazis in the Bonn regime.
In a letter to Secretary of State Herter, the AJC protested a decision by American authorities in West Berlin denying newsmen and civic organizations access to the Berlin Document Center. The Center’s archives contain “one of the few comprehensive records of the Nazi party and of the persons identified with it, ” the letter noted.
Ira Guilden, chairman of the Commission on International Affairs of the AJC, said the “inescapable conclusion” of the U.S. action was that “our government seems to be engaged in a deliberate attempt to conceal or suppress relevant information relating to German history and. specifically, to the past record of German officials. “
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