German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said that Germany will help  open the Holocaust archive. (Newsphoto)

    BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Germany announced Tuesday that it will lift a ban on access to the archive which contains records on over 17 million Jews, slave laborers and other Holocaust victims.

    The archive, administered by the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, includes Nazi lice inspections from concentration camps, reports on the reasons prisoners were held in camps and insurance policies that German firms were required to take out when they used forced labour.

    The files were used by humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross to reunite refugees in the chaos of post-war Europe. Their lists and records were also added to the archive.

    Researchers have long called for the archive to be opened to build up a detailed picture of where people went: into exile, hiding or concentration camps. But Germany always argued against making them available, saying that doing so would breach its strict privacy laws.

    Until now only individual victims have been able to check their personal records. But on Tuesday Germany's Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries, said that Berlin would work with the U.S. and others to release the files and the process should take no more than six months.

    Sara Bloomfield, the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, said: "This archive will have immense historical significance and will be a terrific boon for scholars for several generations."

    A final decision on allowing access will be made at the annual meeting of the 11 archive commission countries in Luxembourg on May 17. Enditem

(Agencies)