National Archives Releases New Report Requested By Rep. Steve Israel Analyzing Declassified WWII Documents

Press Release

he report draws upon thousands of pages from hundreds of Army Intelligence Command files which have been recently declassified and made available at the National Archives and Records Administration

On Friday, the National Archives and Records Administration released a new report called "Hitler's Shadow," which draws upon recently declassified documents to offer new and revealing information about several aspects of WWII and Nazi Germany. In the FY2009 financial services appropriations bill, Rep. Steve Israel (D -- New York) requested the National Archives complete a review a large cache of recently declassified documents from the CIA and Army Intelligence Command files.

"Since 1999, federal agencies have declassified millions of pages of documents detailing the United States involvement with Nazi and Japanese war criminals. This information has shed light on a dark part of our history. It's imperative that we continue to learn about our past in order to inform our decisions about the future. I'm grateful to the National Archives for their illuminating report," said Rep. Israel.

Rep. Israel worked with former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman on the initiative.

The report is available online on Rep. Israel's website and covers the following topics:

* New revelations from the documents that discuss the first questioning of Hitler's personal secretary (p. 5-8);
* New evidence about the background to German aggression against Poland (p. 8-9);
* New materials about the search for Adolf Eichmann (p. 9-14);
* New records supplementing our knowledge of Nazi aims in the Middle East, including the German intent to murder the Jewish population of Palestine with a special task force, and the relationship between Gamal Abdel Nasser and Germans during the war (p. 17-30).
* More information on how certain U.S. intelligence officers often overlooked the significant role Gestapo officers played in the Holocaust (p. 35-49)
* Discussion of approximately 1,200 newly released files relating to the penetration of German Communist activities and specifically to "Project Happiness," the CIC's codename for counterintelligence operations against the German Communist Party (p. 40-43).

Source