Nazi archive will go digital.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis

Vast records documenting Nazi war crimes and victims--filling 16 miles of shelves--collected by the Allies liberating death camps after World War II will soon be scanned, digitized, and made available to the world for the first time.

Thanks to an agreement made in May by 11 countries that govern the archive in central Germany, electronic copies of documents, which detail about 17.5 million concentration camp victims--will be transferred to the 11 nations and be available to victims' families and historians.

However, according to The New York Times, the agreement stipulates that the institutions that receive the documents--including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem--cannot offer "unfettered access" until all 11 countries pass amendments to a treaty, adopted last year, to open the archives. France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Greece have not yet ratified the treaty, but all have approved the digital transfer of the documents, which may indicate their willingness to ratify the treaty, according to the Times.

Last year, Germany dropped its opposition to allowing wider access to...