Ratification by the Senate this week-end of the Paris pacts to grant sovereignty and NATO membership to West Germany may expedite the return to Germany of Nazi documents seized by the United States Army in 1945 including Nazi lists of fifth columnists abroad and concentration camp records.
The Nazi data has been used for research by the U.S. Defense Department to uncover military secrets and information valuable to occupation authorities. The archives are now located in the Washington, D.C., area, stored in filing cabinets having a total length of five miles.
The archives not only reveal the inside story of directives and S.S. reports on Jews, but also contain information on the treatment of persons only partially Jewish. The records begin with the Nazi Party archives of the 1920’s and continue through the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945. Virtually all phases of Hitler’s hate program are recorded from original documents which are so extensive that even day to day reports of happenings at various concentration camps are to be found.
Jewish researchers are fearful that the files will be returned before photostats can be made. The huge store of information has hardly been touched as most of it remains classified and denied to the public. A small amount of material was declassified recently. This was found to include many vital records of Jewish interest, virtually the inside story of how the Nazis organized mass murder. Some research has been done here by the YIVO, Yiddish Scientific Institute, but the surface has hardly been scratched.
The State Department this week-end indicated that if feels the files rightfully belong to the new German Government and should be returned, with the possible exception of purely military secrets including German material on the Communist forces.
Negotiations, for return of the files are depicted here as being in an early stage, pending final ratification of the various agreements to restore full sovereignty to the Bonn Government. A Defense Department spokesman told the JTA that any plan for return of the material would be coordinated by the State Department with the Department of Defense and the Army. The spokesman said he knew of no immediate plans. Other sources said that Germany has already made known it wants the documents and that high U.S. officials have initiated steps to facilitate their return.
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