The policy change of the United States to favor opening the United Nations files on Nazi war criminals was lauded here Thursday by American Jewish leaders.
UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar disclosed Tuesday that he received a letter from U.S. Ambassador to the UN Vernon Walters informing him of the change in the American policy. The UN archives, located here, contain some 40,000 files on Nazi war criminals and their collaborators.
Morris Abram, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, praised the American decision. “Our country now becomes part of an international effort to remove a major impediment to justice,” Abram stated. “There was never a reason why the UN should have decided to keep the archives secret. This confidentiality has served only to permit Nazi war criminals still at large to escape justice. The cause of justice itself has been ill served.”
Burton Levinson, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, also welcomed the news. In a telegram to Secretary of State George Shultz, Levinson wrote that inherent in the U.S. move was recognition that “justice will not truly be served until information regarding the wartime activities of thousands of Nazis and Nazi collaborators sees the light of day and those still alive are called to account for their crimes.”
In his letter to the Secretary General, Walters said that the U.S. view is “that the current rules governing access to the material in the War Crimes Commission archives should be amended to permit access by persons specifically accredited by their governments to the UN for this purpose. It is our view that this access should be granted to individual files specifically identified by name.”
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, (D. NY), a former UN Ambassador, said Tuesday night, “While I welcome the apparent new openness suggested by the Administration’s policy change, I would suggest the true test will be whether all organizations and individuals wishing to perform research will be allowed to examine the files.”
The U.S. joined Holland, Australia and Yugoslavia in seeking the opening of the files to the public. All four were members of the long defunct 17-member War Crimes Commission that established the UN archives. Israel also has advocated public access to the files.
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