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Don’t forget to check our website at www.hobartsynagogue.org
7
Holocaust Documents Archive to be Opened
After Resisting for Decades, Germany Agrees to Open Archive of
Holocaust Documents
(Extracts from an article by DAVID STOUT, Published: April 19, 2006)
WASHINGTON, April 18 Germany agreed Tuesday to allow access to a vast trove of information
on what happened to more than 17 million people who were executed, forced to labor for the Nazi
war machine or otherwise brutalized during the Holocaust.
The German government announced at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here that it
was dropping its decades-long resistance to opening the archives kept in the town of Bad Arolsen.
The files, which make up one of the largest Holocaust archives in the world, are more than 15 miles
long and hold up to 50 million documents, some seized by the Allies as they liberated concentration
camps.
Paul Shapiro, the director of advanced Holocaust studies at the museum here, said the documents
would offer insights into the day-to-day evils of the Nazi era, "the routine process of deportation,
concentration camps, slave labor, killing." And perhaps, he said, the paperwork will offer clues to
"a few new perpetrators" who, if no longer subject to earthly justice, can at least stand before the
bar of history.
ECAJ Takes a Stand on Darfur
On 27 April 2006, the President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry wrote to the Foreign
Minister, calling for action on the situation in Darfur. The President said:
“Most of the world stood by while the Nazis and their collaborators murdered six million Jews. Basic
morality demands that we no longer ignore the victims of today’s appalling crimes against humanity.
“In response to the horrific situation in Darfur which has resulted in more than two hundred thousand
deaths, the displacement of millions of people, the continued presence of Janjaweed militias armed
and supported by the Sudanese Government, and persisting Sudanese Government and Janjaweed
attacks on the Darfurian people, the Australian Jewish Community calls upon the Australian
Government to:
Recognise the events in Darfur constitute Genocide as defined under the UN Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Use its influence at the United Nations to improve regional security by increasing numbers of
international troops in Sudan and giving them the mandate to protect civilians as articulated
under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Call for the UN to impose an immediate arms embargo on the Government of Sudan and rebel
forces.
Call for the UN to implement specific sanctions against the Government of Sudan and any
associated individuals or businesses.
Support all efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the campaign against the people of
Darfur.”
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