Vast Nazi Archive Opens to Public

[bemildred]

Source: AP

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — After more than 60 years, Nazi documents stored in a vast warehouse in Germany were unsealed Wednesday, opening a rich resource for Holocaust historians and for survivors to delve into their own tormented past.

The treasure of documents could open new avenues of study into the inner workings of Nazi persecution from the exploitation of slave labor to the conduct of medical experiments. The archive's managers planned a conference of scholars next year to map out its unexplored contents.

The files entrusted to the International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been used to find the fate of missing persons or document atrocities to support compensation claims. The U.S. government also has referred to the ITS for background checks on immigrants it suspected of lying about their past.

Inquiries were handled by the archive's 400 staff members in the German spa town of Bad Arolsen. Few outsiders were allowed to see the actual documents, which number more than 50 million pages and cover 16 linear miles of gray metal filing cabinets and cardboard binders spread over six buildings.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gUI4zi4gtLbygYK4AWVX...

[MadMaddie]

1. Wonder if * Granpappy is in those records...

oh wouldn't that be something.

[sce56]

8. You beat me to that gem!

Got Fascism Yet?



http://www.georgewalkerbush.net/bush-nazilinkconfirmed....




Fascism Accomplished!

[SpiralHawk]

18. "In hoc signo vinces." - Bush Family Occult Cabal

[Demeter]

19. These Are Records of the Victims, Not the Oppressors and Enablers

Besides, we seem to have more than enough documentation on Bush family and its network already.

[provis99]

2. did they have pictures of Preston Bush and Harriman Bank?

[valerief]

3. When I saw your subject line, I thought you meant Karl Rove's emails

were recovered and available to the public.

[MaineMike]

12. Good one! First thing that popped into my mind was....

....they opened the George W. Bush presidential library early?

[DavidDvorkin]

4. What do Holocaust deniers say about such Nazi records?

That they're forgeries? Or do they just ignore them entirely?

[bemildred]

5. I would expect them to pick through the records selectively.

All sorts of new bullshit will be forthcoming.

[rAVES]

6. Are they allowed?

Its illegal to be a holocaust denier in most of Europe.

[bemildred]

7. It is illegal to speak about it, you can still think whatever you like.

I would imagine they would be able to get copies through friends, it they could not get direct access.

[TheWraith]

16. They tend to ignore most records, or selectively highlight them.

Being a holocaust denier is kind of like saying that the Earth is 6,000 years old. You need to be really good at selectively twisting half-truths. Some or most of them probably don't even believe it themselves, they just try to gull the otherwise ignorant.

[Recursion]

20. While the Nazi's kept precise records, they were euphemistic

Or not even really euphemistic, just in bureaucratese (a language at which the Germans have historically excelled). A death camp's records would be very clear about the number of people who came in and out (generally, hundreds of thousands and zero, respectively) but the bureaucratic instinct is strong enough that they wouldn't say "2500 killed today" but rather "2500 processed" or something like that.

I don't really think it was from any sort of conscience on the Nazis' part as much as it's the inevitable tendency of bureaucratic organizations to use loftier-sounding words than is necessary. But anyways, the deniers I've seen have used that as wiggle room many a time.

[aquart]

9. Will they tell me where my great grandfather died?

With his wife and all but one of his children, my grandmother...who was already here.

[bemildred]

10. Maybe.

It is my understanding that there is a vast detail of what happened to individuals.

[emilyg]

13. And my father and uncles.

[Hardrada]

11. There should also be a lot of info on Russian and French

& other allied POW's who were used in the Krupp Waffenfabrik and other Reich industries. It could be an interesting economic study also in revealing the inner workings of the still rather opaque wartime Nazi economy.

[Socal31]

14. I guess I'm not surprised that

there cant be a discussion about one of the most horrible events in history being compared to anything our country is doing now. So sad.

[cali]

15. sure there can be. it's done all the time here- comparing

the Nazis to bushco. Usually it's done pretty sloppily by people who don't know much, but go for it.

[MadMaddie]

22. What's being compared is what is important

Nazi Germany didn't just come into being over night....It happened incrementally....Reichstag, merging the church with state, merging corporations with state, erasing the rights of the citizens, the demonizing of certain citizens...

History can and often does repeat itself...it may not be pure but it does happen. I now understand that apathy is the biggest enemy of Freedom and Democracy!!

Don't think for a minute people like Rove didn't believe this and pursued it...that's the real crime.

Goerring:

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Hermann Goering quote

[hang a left]

17. just wait...

I don't think the last chapter has been written yet. I do not want to be disrespectful of the holocaust, but I do believe that the machinations that led to such a horror are being replicated, right here, right now.

[KingOfLostSouls]

21. Thats incredible

I didn't think the george w. bush presidential library would open til AFTER he was out of office

something new everyday, I tell ya....