Lawmakers: Open Nazi-era archives

A bipartisan slate of U.S. lawmakers urged nations controlling access to a Holocaust archive to open it to researchers. The Feb. 1 letter, signed by a bipartisan slate of members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urges the parliaments of Britain, Belgium, Greece, France and Italy to ratify an agreement last May by the 11-nation International Commission of the International Tracing Service to open archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Of the 11 nations, the United States and Israel have ratified the agreement and Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland have agreed to do so by the time the commission reconvenes in May. The five others have yet to announce their intentions. “Please stand with us now in bringing the record of these horrors to light,” says the letter, initiated by Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). Bad Arolsen is the largest of three major Holocaust-era archives.