Color portrait of Edwin Black. by Edwin Black

Bad Arolsen series honored by an Integrity Award for
News Coverage
 
The world's largest Holocaust archive, the International Tracing Service in Germany, has finally agreed to open its secret files. Now in a series of exclusive reports, Edwin Black reports first time details of what’s inside, section by section, complete with filing and record group numbers. The evidence is that Bad Arolsen holds more than the terrifying history of millions of individual victims, but also how big corporations, insurance companies profited. What’s more, the evidence of IBM’s involvement in the day to day victimization of Europe is only further magnified with thousands of new documents. Moreover, Black’s latest coverage has revealed the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s plans to sequester the documents to its own site in Washington, or function as a middleman vetting all requests, plans which have outraged survivors and second generation members. From coast to coast, members of the Holocaust community have gone on the record to vocally disapprove of the Museum's plans and urge Congress to mandate remote access via the Internet or a universally accessible database like any other government documents are.
Read revelations that Bad Arolsen records are being transferred in Internet-ready XML computer language, and offers to place the files on the Internet by France and Red Cross were twice spurned - August 2007:
As Holocaust survivors continue to demand Internet access to the Bad Arolsen documents and the Museum denies it is technically feasible, impatient Red Cross officials reveal that the transferring files are already in Internet-ready XML computer language and that both France and Bad Arolsen made official suggestions--twice spurned--for an Internet-accessible "virtual private network."
Read Updated Perspective and Analysis articles about the Museum's continuing conflict with Holocaust Survivors over the Bad Arolsen documents – July/August 2007:
As Holocaust survivors become increasingly militant about their right to remotely access the Bad Arolsen documents and the Museum becomes increasingly entrenched, Edwin Black provides some analysis and perspective on some of the legal issues over ownership and access.
Read details and coverage of the “Survivors Town Hall Meeting to discuss the Holocaust museum and the Bad Arolsen documents – June 2007:
A “town hall meeting” of Holocaust survivors, second generation members and other Jewish communal leaders was held on Monday, June 18, 2007 on the main campus of Nova Southeastern University. They asked questions through a national conference call, by email and from a live audience. Discussions covered the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen Germany, their archives and contents; and a lively discussion on why so many survivors oppose the transfer of documents from Bad Arolsen to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Officials of Bad Arolsen took calls from the audience and callers and were warmly received. The event was taped for Edwin Black’s forthcoming new TV show, “The Cutting Edge,” scheduled to be broadcast into 32 million households in 54 basic cable markets via the new JLTV network. Copies of the DVD will be distributed. The event was cosponsored by a coalition of some two dozen grass roots Holocaust survivor associations, second generation groups, national Jewish organizations, and other Jewish communal groups, as well History Network News and the Cutting Edge TV Program.
Read syndicated coverage: “Survivors outraged at Holocaust museum over Bad Arolsen” – May 2007:
Many in the Holocaust and second generation community have long harbored quiet seething resentment against the Museum’s aggressive fund-raising tactics, denial of Sephardic victimization, refusal to recognize the role of the Mufti of Jerusalem and Arab leadership in the Nazi axis, alleged failure to address the widespread poverty of elderly survivors, and the Museum’s long-standing taboo against acknowledging American corporate involvement in the Holocaust. But the issue of prohibiting immediate remote access to the Bad Arolsen documentation, the way other government documents are routinely accessed, brought many in the Holocaust community to publicly express networked anger in a way never before seen.
Read the Full Version: Read the Group Edited Version:

Read syndicated coverage detailing why: “Survivors oppose transfer of Holocaust archive to USHMM” –
May 2007:
Edwin Black reveals details of the records transfer and why survivors, archivists, and critics do not want the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which enforces an unwritten taboo a gainst discussing American corporate involvement in the Holocaust, to take custody of Bad Arolsen records, or restrict remote access by the victims in Florida and New York.
Read the Analysis piece “History Demands an Uncompromised Home for Shoah Archive” – August 2006:
In the hardhitting analysis piece, Edwin Black asks whether or not the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which enforces an unwritten taboo against discussing American corporate involvement in the Holocaust, is the right institution to control the soon to be released Bad Arolsen records.
Read the Follow-up Coverage on Resulting Legislation – March - April 2007:
Reaction to Edwin Black revelations of corporate complicity, unrevealed insurance company involvement and the great number of IBM punch cards among the papers in a secret archive in Bad Arolsen have reignited a grass-roots campaign among Holocaust survivors to recover Nazi-era insurance claims against companies such as the Italian insurance giant Generali. The result: a fierce campaign in Congress to supersede international agreements brokered by the State Department to settle insurance claims through the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), as well as a variety of adverse Supreme Court rulings that have denied survivors the right to sue to recover policy claims or disgorge profits from the insurance companies.
Read the original investigation – January - March 2007:
Read the Full Version: Read the Condensed Version:

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