Debate begins on future of Holocaust archives

Published May 24, 2011 at 12:53 pm

George Jaunzemis, 69, who was separated from his mother in the final days of World War II, displays a photograph showing his parents at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, on Thursday, May 19, 2011 after discovering his true identity. Jaunzemis only discovered his true identity 66 years after leaving Germany, where he was born in 1941, through research aided by the ITS.

Photo by AP

BAD AROLSEN, Germany (AP) — Representatives of 11 nations who oversee a unique Holocaust-era archive are meeting in Brussels to determine the future of the trove of 50 million records on Nazi victims.

The International Tracing Service archive, housed in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has been administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross since after World War II. Until 2007, it was used to reunite families and determine fates of missing persons.

The archive opened to researchers in 2007 and has been undergoing a process of reorganization to make it more accessible to scholars, including a decision by the ICRC to stop administration by the end of 2012.

Informal talks aimed at paving the way for agreement on management of the collection open in Brussels on Tuesday.