European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 8, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse W a j is 1. Ii y gig a a a a j g / vhf its . To shift documents Center to German control by Marc Fisher. Washington Post. Ifni Niff Enst am the Gorman filmmaker a a. Whose Triumph of the will chillingly captured the gripping emotional Appeal of Adolf Hitler and the nazis has always claimed that she deified Hitler. And his henchmen Oul of artistic naivete rather than political sympathy. A a �.�. A a. Bui them m West Berlin a behind barbed wire in a heavily guarded Bunker at the dead end of a pretty Street of Villas and Pine Trees in the subi., Zeh Lenwod a a Telegram Riefe Nasahl sent to Hiller sits in a file. The wire written on the occasion of the nazi invasion of Fiance in 1940. Says. Quot with indescribable Joy deeply moved and in fervent gratitude we experience with you my Fuhrer your own and Germany s greatest Victory the arrival of German troops in Paris. You Are accomplishing feats that Are unparalleled in the history of Mankind Quot. A a a. The Riefenstahl Telegram is one of Aboul 100 million pieces of paper in 30 million files in a massive underground. Complex called the Berlin documents Center. A once of the Gestapo a phone tapping opera i Ion the Center is now american property probably the world s largest and most valuable collection of materials documenting the third Reich. But with the two Germany uniting and the american. Role in Berlin about to be dramatically reduced the a documents Center is destined to be handed Over to the German government a a a a in the Days after the German surrender. American. Sof doers found the records in caves in Germany and Austria and brought them to Berlin in armed convoys. The membership Rolls of the nazi party were of a bavarian paper Mill about to be pulped when americans saved the 1 f million cards. A a a , the Berlin Center has been an essential source for prosecutors historians and writers chronicling the third Reich prosecuting nazi War criminals and de a Nazif Ying postwar Germany. Even today the records a party cares and personnel dossiers so numerous that. Many have not yet been examined a a Are in constant use generating about 5,000 requests a month for information. They helped confirm he death of or. Josef Mengele the Quot Angel of death Quot at the Auschwitz concentration Camp. They used in the search for evidence that the austrian president Kurt Waldheim was involved in nazi War crimes. They Are still a primary source for the . Justice department s nazi Hunting office of special. Investigations. A a not a single War crimes trial has been conducted without someone consulting our records Quot said David Marwell the Center s american director. A a. Prosecutors Are by no Means the Only users. Minnesota researchers Are combing through the party membership files to try to figure out what kind of germans became nazis and Why German scholars Are looking at Early party members and the references they gave tracing the paths by which the nazi movement expanded. A. The West German government has used the documents to decide whether to Grant citizenship to tens of thousands of East european refugees who claim to be germans deep in the basement sealed off from the files to prevent burglary or vandalism German women sit at electronic consoles methodically microfilming 40,000.sheets of paper a Day. A a. A video surveillance system allows Security staff to zoom in on the slightest Finger movement of a microfilmed who might try to swipe a document. In the mid-1980s, an estimated 30,000 documents were stolen from the Center ending up in the hands of German Memorabilia dealers who paid up to $3,000 per document. 1 in an adjoining room americans enter information from the documents into computers. After five years when the microfilming is expected to be completed the United states will keep the film the germans will get the a originals. A a. 1 the idea of putting nazi documents Back in German hands offends jewish groups which say they fear Germany might make it More difficult to prosecute War criminals or to conduct historical research. The Center should remain under . Control because Quot we paid for it the hard Way with the blood of american soldiers Quot said world jewish Congress executive director Elan Steinberg a. A a tour of the facility provides a window into the nazi obsession with documentation. Files full of half Century old Pink cards used to evaluate requests for German citizenship include an elaborate pseudo scientific scale for determining aryan. Characteristics. Examiners measured 21 physical features of an applicant including Quot roundness of nose height of nose form of hair and fold of a. An ethnic German living in Romania who was resettled in Germany in 1941 applied to become a citizen. Nazi. Bureaucrats recorded his physical characteristics j catalogued his skills counted his pigs and cows Drew up a detailed family tree and interviewed him about his Quot political reliability Quot and How closely he Quot guarded his. . Members of the elite is had to gel government permission to marry. An officer and his Fiancee had to submit massive files documenting their heritage through six generations. The files show not Only the painstaking work each applicant went through to Trace families Back a 1720, but also the efforts of faceless clerks who double checked each entry in the thick folders. Files of the nazi party a courts describe cases of party members charged with uttering defeatist slogans. Listening to British radio or failing to reveal an acquaintanceship with a jew. A room filled with 10.7 million nazi party cards in heir original cabinets also contains a file of people who were refused membership. Each rejection bears a reason homosexuality thievery masturbation or in the Case of a Man who was refused in 1936, Quot treated by jewish a. a. Over the years the germans have not seemed eager to get the documents Back even though the West a German government has always paid Tor operation of the Aras pad of its obligation to s upper Pat on a a a it a West German government delegation wont to. Manington earlier this year and won the state a tart men t s approval of a Transfer after the microfilming Srp eted. To ask tutors and. Jewish groups object to the restrictive Ebman Public records Laws. While the . Freedom of a Gomalion act gives virtually anyone the right to on bad people German Law permits Only governments and scholars to see the files. A. H addition German privacy rights extend beyond death that Means that the file of Herbert von Karajan the austrian conductor of the Berlin Staat Kapelle during the War. And later of the Berlin philharmonic would not be open to the Public even now a year after his death. And that Means the Public would not be Able to learn is ton Karajan paid his initiation dues and applied to a become a nazi in 1933, although he always claimed that he joined the party much later and then Only to to keep working As a musician a a the Berlin documents Center above probably has the worlds largest and most valuable collection of materials documenting the third Reich. German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl at left with Adolf Hitler claimed she deified Hitler out of artistic naivete not political sympathy. A Telegram she sent to Hitler in 1940 is in the centers collection and indicates otherwise. Impatient for soviet troop pullout East germans see red these soviet troops left East Germany in june but Only temporarily a of go on vacation. East germans want them out for Good. By Craig a Whitney new York times like soviet military installations everywhere in the German democratic Republic the soviet army base for the 12th guards tank division and lighter bomber air regiment just outside the Lake resort of Neu Ruppin is surrounded by a. We 11 new Ash de s t o no a 11. It runs for Miles through the scrub Pines marred at its Cor Trail Point by Hie huge Black Graffiti letters spelling i. Incur of jus. Russians out Quot will be an accomplished fact four yews after German unification expected at the end of the year but it hardly seems tic a Welcome Prospect for Many of the 300,000 soviet army soldiers and their 200,000 dependents most of whom have a far lower Standard of living Al Home and no guaranteed housing there. The conflict Between East germans impatient to be rid of the most remnant of 40 years of soviet imposed communism and soviet soldiers trying to hang onto a piece of the Western Good life As Long As they can is now increasingly open and getting worse in West Germany too civilians complain about noise from Low flying american and West German military planes and there Are conflicts Between gis and local residents. But in the much narrower confines of East German the cultural and economic Gap Between occupying soldiers and put upon civil Ansi a much wider and the irritation n i. R ii m r \ i m m Between soviet forces and. I Jop ution has also built up Over i i in other Eastern european t f in / and a in i soviet army 11 c a cd mops with their Rod and White Cut a a nk-nu\.1 Vij the roads and t it Khah f h ogling with. A not. A de is o. A a. A a. I a e c i Ato if Doe n Gino i i or Pic v re any t town uple Slob nod n Culi Ion r and a i. D i i la the flights. A Quot Cippo and of Berlin Ina t in South of the lore Tbs coup of soviet forces in has i a a quarters mayor Ganado sow t army n m local stores for a German Mark was fid Germany currency. And their dependents a Jolo in All at the a a . The sweeping the Bare leaving Little for its she Tew thousand East i. Vacationers at the a a Cap. Pm i so Dep a Wev Ritre i spree it r in its to r the a cd As h net is. A. Re n Wen n i. E Ives a i co the t 3 01 e is dents go a Ampi i out Quot he 1a year ago i would have been taken to secret police Headquarters in a Mizulo Quot said Linke a communist party member until Falo last year this time nothing happened and meanwhile the soviet commissaries seem to have recovered and Are Selling the Basic necessities on base again. In Neu Ruppin soviet officers who live with i hair dependents in badly maintained ochre stucco buildings built for the. Wehrmacht before world War ii have Pul their Best foot Forward and braved the ire of the local population in open House meetings at their officers club where the feature film attraction the Oltimer Day was a rabbi a m a i of egg u a. /1 a to v t o d a g a i i o r i n a t 133 a i germane fed month that tie i y. i Quot i , i he g vie in a Tu--., 1 his i. R i i11 w i t a a e e t Yah a. I. J of Ity i a Viiu ii to i .1 i car i i i 1 a i,1 a on y g in Quot v-1/ the Are to Ere to cupper t the lev iof i ii a i t know Why t?ic./ d stay much a his Friend another majr Volodya a d the flight exercises began at 4 or 5 a m. Monda a wednesdays and it Days and often com inn., d until 2 a m to can t Cut Back Una there a More Trust to your country and cons. Volodya t o i d a n am e r i Ca n v. A 1 or both men a d they enjoyed Hie e fas Germany oct Elia r Tuit hey we i be Tang 1,000 Marks about $035 a Moniti a. West German currency Ai Home the Chelos am pm i / Volodya said Quot Here to can buy Loo Pons All the food w e w and car is a v e to Start with at Siomo Quot Vasily who said he had Boon stationed in Neu Ruppin one year was not looking Forward to going Homo. Quot i have no apart men i anywhere Quot he said a live always been to the a. West Germany is paying about $775 million in its Marks this year to defray the costs of stationing soviet troops in East. Germany and Chancellor Helmut Kohl has said that Germany would help build tens of thousands of housing it nos in the soviet Union to ease Thev return Homo look Al the Way they live Quot said a retired East Gorman factory worker whose House is net far from the Small soviet military cemetery of Unm no the to of a my a a who Ltd a a i m the area in 1945 .v.r-. A the a t. It i i f i i i i e n he ii. I it j \ Levy in Quot i a. 1 a / 11 i cc1. 1 i1, a 1 i f \ pc i u. A fit 111 n. I a i c g .1 a a a cd a i ii a i i a Jim her. J 1. Quot ii a a a i i d a Riu e it 1 i r. O i d j. I a.1 ice i my a a n pc. N i Den 1 want the Urita by a i taxi Drivers a Fiji Ciao Tell pc Shari pass nagors vortical by the soldiers Are of course dearly beloved try Hie foe if population a the people had in swear professions of such love on t c do a for 40 years and i o w w us o 111 e 1 i n c s Cor in or i e r m i / Ith tie soviet sold Era Are so poor As to deserve pity but in wins Durf Hie Road , to the one local supermarket now full of Western goods also bears a Spray sign of the times Russ an v v gins Home in German a Iii h e last word repeated m Russ an or c just in ease an j body did not get Etc message a a Quot to find a special meeting no the town Council on the 14th of june and met the soviet commandant on the Hitti Quot Mayer a said Quot he said tie would Pas i on nun. Complain is to sent a telex to our government on the 25th. And got a receipt nothing More Shioo weeks later Quot. A so he said he look matters into tvs own hands a t forbade Sherri. To shop Here from june 26 to 29 it icy were apparently having difficulty with their own supplies before Hie currency Reform Here july i and Hud closed their commissaries no Hie base i Don t Lent / know what goes of in there i Jim Hie i iss Sii i House wives Wen. Curium j out to buy Etc Ruthn no in our , and cur lop Bis had to stand in lne Sot tie Ora just up Lle col4.iijill�?� 1 in i 1 Lioni ii a , f Jcj / i t so-1 it run in ,.3 ,i11, s 11. I i of i l i .1 i Arm n a a i i j i is. I1 /1 a. Jug is Anil 11 i s. J �,1 a. K i a i a. Cilc v. A i 1 i hat i a j c i., a a 11. Rvs v it ii of l is ii i tie h j 1 a i ice it Tor a -.-e-�?�. Leg i he i Jitu the i ice ref ill. Quod. bios skin Avirt soy Itie a Koine i pm Huss a. Many of hic i a e Fri Iron who lie in West be Rufi Quot a Iid Quot Itie a Art. By pro h at stuff out acre Villy ta.v.iu-,e he. Sorr Iron in s inside Don t Tia a Hie Hue. Corroney y t to juy. to ivies a Soi or base i Wir the soviet for in . Tar Bese tit trouble Jcj a Unsod. Tie mayor Sairaj Quot the Earr v. He Jinjr in in 1935. Aher the try putted eur tie lot he Seldom hours Bovie i a Jdie is Muyir i Auy Thirn Gotaj a jut i a Kif i i 3 a a Joi. If / Page 14 the stars and is ripes wednesday. Al gust 8, i j5u the1 stars and stripes Kir it Page 1 5
