The material from the USA will rekindle the debate over the Stasi. So far the Americans have only released information that allowed East German spies in West Germany to be exposed. But the files also contain details of those unofficial co-workers who spied for the HVA within East Germany. Experts estimate that there were 10,000 to 20,000 of these, and hardly any of them have been exposed to date. The introduction of the euro is going to be a gigantic money-changing operation if the euro bankers have their way, it will be prepared in just two weeks.
Security experts are afraid of hold-ups, fraud and a flood of counterfeit money.
As a precaution, the Council of Domestic Affairs Ministers of the European Union extended the authority of the European police authority Europol to include criminal offences related to the euro. The crime experts have suggested that the bills should be made void immediately on being handed in, so as to reduce the danger of hold-ups when they are transported away, but the idea has been rejected by the monetary regulators. The bankers of the European Central Bank argue that while they understand the logistical problems, they are interested in issuing the euro money rapidly for reasons of security and cost. The Ovitz family, artistes of abnormally small stature, went through the hell of the Auschwitz extermination camp. The concentration camp doctor called the Romanian Jews his seven dwarfs and saved them from the gas chambers.