H. Res. 240 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
April 25, 2007. 
Whereas the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives lo-
cated in Bad Arolsen, Germany, which are administered 
by the International Committee of the Red Cross, contain 
an estimated 50,000,000 records on the fates of some 
17,500,000 individual victims of Nazi war crimes; 
Whereas the ITS archives at Bad Arolsen remain the largest 
closed Holocaust-era archives in the world; while access 
to individual records can be requested by Holocaust sur-
vivors and their descendants, many who have requested 
information in the past have reported facing significant 
delays and even unresponsiveness; furthermore, the 
records remain inaccessible to researchers and research 
institutions; 
Whereas the 1955 Bonn Accords, the treaty governing the 
administration of the ITS, established an International 
Commission of 11 member countries (Belgium, France, 
Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Nether-
lands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United 
States) charged with overseeing the administration of the 
ITS Holocaust archives; 
Whereas following years of delay, in May 2006 in Luxem-
bourg, the International Commission of the ITS agreed 
upon amendments to the Bonn Accords which would
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allow researchers to use the archives and would allow 
each Commission member country to receive digitized 
copies of archive materials and make the records avail-
able to researchers under the respective national laws re-
lating to archives and privacy; 
Whereas the May 2006 Amendments to the Bonn Accords re-
quire each of the 11 members of the International Com-
mission to ratify the amendments before open access to 
the Holocaust archives is permitted; 
Whereas although the final signature was affixed to the 
amendments in October 2006, only 4 out of the 11 Com-
mission member countries (the United States, Israel, Po-
land, and the Netherlands) have ratified the amendments 
to date; 
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has 
for years been working tirelessly to provide public access 
to the materials in the Bad Arolsen archives; 
Whereas on March 8, 2007, representatives from the 11 
member countries of the International Commission of the 
ITS met in the Netherlands and reviewed the current 
ratification status of each country and the ratification 
process in its entirety; 
Whereas it is a moral and humanitarian imperative to permit 
public access to the millions of Holocaust records housed 
at Bad Arolsen; 
Whereas it is essential that Holocaust researchers obtain ac-
cess now, while survivors are living, so that the research-
ers can benefit in their scholarly work from the insights 
of eyewitnesses; 
Whereas in the Holocaust’s aftermath, there have been far 
too many instances of survivors and heirs of Holocaust
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victims being refused their moral and legal right to infor-
mation—for restitution purposes, slave labor compensa-
tion, and personal closure; 
Whereas opening the historic records is a vital contribution 
to the world’s collective memory and understanding of 
the Holocaust and efforts to ensure that the anti-Semi-
tism that made such horrors possible is never again per-
mitted to take hold; 
Whereas anti-Semitism has seen a resurgence in recent years; 
as recently as December 2006, the President of Iran, 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, held the second Holocaust denial 
conference in Tehran in one year; and 
Whereas in light of this conference, President Ahmadinejad’s 
anti-Semitic rhetoric, and a resurgence of anti-Semitism 
in part of the world, the opening of the archives at Bad 
Arolsen could not be more urgent: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) commends in the strongest terms all countries 
that have to date ratified the amendments to the Bonn 
Accords to allow for open access to the Holocaust ar-
chives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) located 
at Bad Arolsen, Germany; 
(2) commends those countries that have committed 
to expedite the process of releasing the archives and ex-
pects those countries to abide by their commitments; 
(3) strongly urges all countries that have to yet to 
ratify the amendments to abide by their treaty obliga-
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tions made in May 2006 and to expedite the ratification 
of these amendments; 
(4) strongly urges all Commission members to con-
sider the short time left to Holocaust survivors and 
unanimously consent to open the ITS archives should all 
countries not ratify the amendments by May 2007; 
(5) expresses the hope that bureaucratic and diplo-
matic processes will not further delay this process; and 
(6) refuses to forget the murder of 6,000,000 Jews 
and more than 5,000,000 other victims during the Holo-
caust by Nazi perpetrators and their collaborators. 
Attest: 
Clerk.