Bad Arolsen - U.S. Wants Holocaust Archives Opened

Bad Arolsen, Germany. - U.S. officials and Holocaust museum leaders want the historical archives of the Nazi genocide opened to the public despite German vows to keep it closed.

The International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen, Germany was set up toward the end of the war as an International Committee of the Red Cross program to consolidate information and documents Allied forces recovered.

Information on 17.5 million people are stored in it, including details on which prisoners were experimented on and who, including Jews, collaborated with Nazis.

Recently the United States -- one of 11 countries on an advisory board for the archives -- has sought it opened to the public. But the director of the archives, and the German and Italian governments are against it. They cite privacy issues in their own country, possible further claims for reparation.