Unsealing the Holocaust Papers

Bad Arolsen, Germany is home to the International Tracing Service (ITS). The ITS possesses 50 million pages documenting the Holocaust. 'The Holocaust Papers' represent the world's most extensive documentation of the Nazi-perpetrated slaughter of 6 million Jews and 6 million others who were political dissidents, mental patients, and others deemed to be 'undesirable.'

Within these 50 million pages are references to 17.5 million individuals--by name.

The ITS has kept much of the information under lock and seal for a half a century, out of respect for the family members of the victims. Many of these families, however, have maintained that the greatest good can come from opening the books to public view, that the memory of their loved ones who suffered horrors beyond human comprehension is best served if the world can see, up close and personal, the whole story of tyranny unleashed.

Gradually, the ITS is releasing more and more information. Today, the modus operandi is for ITS officials to travel to Washington, the Hague, and other major governmental centers to consult with officials about unraveling the untold stories of the victims.

Some of that information has already been made available.

For example, there is the story of a 21-year-old Russian who sat in the office of the clerk of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate, detailing the the furnaces of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where he had been a prisoner a few weeks earlier.

He stated, 'I saw with my own eyes how thousands of Jews were gassed daily and thrown by the hundreds into pits where Jews were burning. I saw how little children were killed with sticks and then thrown into the fire. Blood flowed in gutters, and Jews were thrown in and died there. Even more were taken off trucks and cast alive into the flames.'

This is but one story among millions. A visitor to the archives can find a bound book containing a list of names of the Jews who were rounded up in Holland and transported to the death camps. Within this list is the name of one 'Frank, Annelise M.' Her date of birth is June 12, 1929. Her last known Amsterdam address before she went into hiding is listed. The date she was sent to the death camp is also listed--September 3, 1944. She died an anonymous death at the age of 15 in the camp.

'Annelise' is none other than Anne Frank.

After the war her diary, which became known as 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' was discovered and has become one of the most widely read books on the Holocaust. The diary covers Ms. Frank's 25 months of hiding in a tiny apartment with seven others, prior to her arrest and detention in the Nazi death camp.

The Holocaust Papers have identified over 20,000 detention camps throughout Europe during the war, roughly 15,000 more than what was first thought. But, as communist Eastern Europe fell, more and more records were discovered that detailed the fact that not only did the Nazis operate 5000 or so death camps in Western Europe, but 15,000 more in Eastern Europe.

The process of releasing these valuable historical records should be accelerated. Today more than ever before, the world needs to see, hear, and read the complete story of the Holocaust. With Iran stating unequivocally that it wishes to conduct another Holocaust against the Jews and anyone who supports them, the Holocaust Papers are as relevant today as they ever were.

And, as Winston Churchill warned as early as 1934, for a free society to merely negotiate with and appease tyrannical governments only invites more of the undesired behavior.

If the West refuses to wake up and fight to WIN against Jihadists in the Middle East and dictators in North Korea, we will one day wake up to the bombs falling on Washington as they did on London during WWII.