Senators introduce Arolsen resolutions

Two U.S. senators introduced legislation urging European nations to allow open access to the Holocaust archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) introduced separate resolutions this week regarding the archives, which contain 50 million records regarding the fate of some 17 million victims of the Nazis. Clinton’s resolution mirrors one introduced in the House of Representatives last month by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which Clinton is a member.In order to allow for open access, each member of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service – the United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom – must ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords. Only the United States, Israel, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have done so.Biden’s resolution also commemorates and links the issue to Yom Hashoah, which takes place Sunday.