NAZI FILE FOUND IN AN OPEN ARCHIVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100130009-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: May 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/03/02 :CIA-RDP9O-012088000100130009-0
11RT1C~E N%W YORE T:.Mf~
ON PAGE T 4 May 1986
'-Nazi File Found in an Open Archive
By ELAINE SCIOLIIVO
SPedei to The Nea YoR Times
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., May 13 -
The master lists of more- than 36,000
Hies of war criminals; suspects and
witnesses kept secret in the United Na-
tions archives for.nearly 90 years have
been discovered on an open shelf in a
military archive in Maryland.
The 80 mimeographed lists, organ-
ized chronologically by the United Na-
tions War Crimes Commission from
:1943 to 1948, read like a i~Vho's Who of
'
the Axis. They include the names of
major wartime figures -from Hitler
to Mussolini - as well as some. of the
most wanted Nazi war criminals
sought by the Israeli Government and
Nazi-hunters such as the Simon Wies-
enthal Center for Holocaust ,Studies,
based in Los Angeles.
Among the most prominent names on
the lists .are Alois Brunner, a former
deputy to Adolf Eichmann accused of
brutality, who is reportedly living in
Syria; Walter Kutschmann, a former
Gestapo leader accused of murder,
who was arrested last November in
Buenos Aires, and Dr. Hans Wilhelm
Kiinig, a former deputy of Josef Men-
gele at Auschwitz wanted for. "com-
"plicity in murder and .ill treatment,"
who 9s believed to be living in Switzer-
land or Sweden. '
The name of former Secretary Gen-
eral Kurt Waldheim, who is listed as
wanted for murder and the taking of
hostages, appears on the 79th list.
The lists include the names of Ger-
man industrialists and factory owners
accused of "complicity in forced
labor," Jews used by the Germans as
prison guards,' Japanese soldiers
:wanted as war criminals by Australia,
as well as Italians, Albanians, Bulgar-
ians, Hungarians and Rumanians.
The lists will provide an invaluable
resource to .governments, organiza-
tions and historians in tracking down
war criminals and will increase gov-
ernments' access to the sealed files.
'It's Wonderful,' Israeli Says
"It's wonderful," Benjamin Neta=
nyahu, Israel's chief delegate here,
said. "It's an important discovery that
reinforces the argument that the.entire
U.N. War Crimes Commission ar-
chives should be made open to public
scrutiny."
Nathan Perlmutter, ,national direct,
- for of the AnU-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith, called the discovery "the
beginning of the road down which we
'will be able to sort out rumor and suspi-
cion from fact."
The lists, which number. about 3,000
pages, were found by accident last The discove of the lists indicat
week by Richard L..Boylan, an archiv- American irate igence off' '
ist, on a shelf in the basement of the had the regources ~ learn about the
Washington National Records Center w me t o r. elm w en
in Suitland, Md., while he was search- succe~ or ecreta General
ing for other documents. "It didn't in 1 and 1976 an unsuccess 1 in
.strike me as anything special, because ,
they have been available," he said. !A Very Significant Development'
They include brief descriptions of the
accused, ratings according to culpabil=
ity and reference numbers to files de-
tailing the charges. The only master
copy of the files is believed to be sealed
in the United Nations archives.
The United Nations has refused to
give any government blanket access to
'all. the files, but has turned over files
when specific requests have been
made. .
Now that the lists have been discov-
ered, the Israelis, who have been seek-
ing access to the files, could theoreti-
cally ask for the files of every name on
the lists. On Monday the Israeli Gov-
ernment sent a letter to Secretary Gen-
eral Javier Perez de Cudllar listing
1,379 officers, enlisted men and offi-
cialswanted byIsrael for war crimes.
Much 1lntormaNon Is Sketchy
Much of the information on individu-
als is sketchy and will take months or
even years to verify. In some cases, en-
tire units are listed as guilty of war
crimes; many individuals are identi-
fied only by job description or unit,
their names "unknown." Others are
identified only by nicknames or last
names.
The United Nations War Crimes
Commission sat in London from 1943 to.
1948. - It collected evidence on war
crimes from the governments of its 17
members, investigated the charges
and opened case files on individuals
and units.
After it opened a sufficient number of
cases, it published "wanted" lists that
were sent to its members in the hopes
that the accused criminals, suspects
and witnesses could be found for the
purposes of prosecution. When it dis-
banded, the commission turned over its
38,810 files to .the United Nations for
safekeeping without ever establishing
precise rules for access.
The Suitland archive, which is part of
'the National Archives, received the
commission lists from the Department
of the Army in 1968, according to
Edwin A. Thompson, head of the De-
classification Division of the National
Archives. They were reviewed in 1973
and again in 1976 to see if they should
be declassified under a program that
allows declassification of documents
after 30 years, he said. All were declas-
sified by April 1979.
"This is a ve si 'ficant develo
men sows t e ante i
ence communit was ' !t of rosy
ne Bence aDArovmg
'
urt
a
Heim as ecretarv .?>*~*y+ '-~
Rabbi Marvin Hier dean oft a Simon
Wieseathal Center. ' `All tit to
do was put a couple of researchers in
the archives and they would have found
his name.,.
Rabbi Hier said his organization may
urge a Congressional inquiry to investi=
gate how senior diplomats from other
countries are approved by the United
States Government.
DIscbvery. that. the lists are in the
public domain will force the United Na-
tions to consult with the 17 countries.
that made up the commission to deter-
mine whether the rules governing ac-
oess should` be changed, said John
Scott, a UNted Nations legal counsel.
Mr. P~ de Cudllar has already
asked officials from the countries that
made up the commission to designate
member of their missions for informal
consultations to consider an Israeli re-
quest that the tiles be opened to the
public.
United Nations officials said they ,
weirs particularly surprised that the
original lists were discovered in Wash-
ington. In 1980 the Justice Department
told the United Nations that it had lost
its documents relating to the work of
the War Crimes Commission, and the'
United Nations photocopied replace- i
meet copies of .the. documents, includ-
ing all the lists, acxording to a high-
ranking UNted Nations official.
Justice Department officials had no
comment on whether they were aware
of the existence of the original lists in .
the anc~ives or whether the United Na-
tionsever duplicated the lists for them. ,~
"We're still researching ~it," Jce i
Krovisky, public Wormation officer,
said. "We can't comment until our re-
search is completed."
The original commission members
,were Australia, Belgium, Britain,
.Canada, China, Czechoslovakia,
France, Greece, India, Luxembourg,
'the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nor-'i
w.ay, Poland, South Africa, the United
States and Yugoslavia. South Africa
dropped out after initial consultations;
Denmark became a member in 1995.
--,,,~ _, ~_,~ Approved For Release 2011/03/02 :CIA-RDP9O-012088000100130009-0