The Hague, Netherlands – The director of a long-secret archive of Nazi records said Wednesday that preparations for allowing scholars access are moving faster than expected and the entire collection will be ready for research within a year.
But unless the 11 governing nations overcome legal hurdles, it could take years before the documents are actually released.
The United States is leading a campaign to hasten ratification of an agreement reached last year to unlock the massive storehouse kept at Bad Arolsen, Germany, to researchers.
U.S. officials said a majority of the countries were likely to complete procedures within two months. But under existing arrangements, all 11 must endorse the agreement before it can be implemented, and some require approval from their parliaments.
The governing commission of the International Tracing Service, the arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross that runs the archive, began a two-day meeting Wednesday to review the legal status.
Normally, the commission gathers once a year, but several countries requested this week’s meeting to heighten the pressure on member states that are lagging behind, mainly Belgium and Italy. The next scheduled session is in May.
Reto Meister, the head of the Tracing Service, said he had “good news”: the first collection of documents – incarceration records, death catalogs, camp registries and transportation lists – will be digitally scanned and ready for transfer to Holocaust institutions by this summer.
