Revisiting The Horrors Of The Holocaust

Millions Of Nazi Documents Are Being Made Available To The Public

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Dec. 17, 2006. It was updated on June 21, 2007.

For the first time, secrets of the Nazi Holocaust that have been hidden away for more than 60 years are finally being made available to the public. We’re not talking about a missing filing cabinet - we’re talking about thousands of filing cabinets, holding 50 million pages. It's Hitler’s secret archive.

The Nazis were famous for record keeping but what 60 Minutes found ran from the bizarre to the horrifying. This Holocaust history was discovered by the Allies in dozens of concentration camps, as Germany fell in the spring of 1945.

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, the documents were taken to a town in the middle of Germany, called Bad Arolsen, where they were sorted, filed and locked way, never to be seen by the public until now.

---

The storerooms are immense: 16 miles of shelves holding the stories of 17 million victims – not only Jews, but slave laborers, political prisoners and homosexuals. To open the files is to see the Holocaust staring back like it was yesterday: strange pink Gestapo arrest warrants as lethal as a death sentence, jewelry lost as freedom ended at the gates of an extermination camp. Time stopped here in 1945.

Pelley walked through the evidence with chief archivist Udo Jost. He showed 60 Minutes a list of 1,000 prisoners saved by a factory owner who told the Nazis he needed the prisoners labor. This was the list of Oskar Schindler, made famous by the Steven Spielberg movie.

"Here are the 700 men and the 300 women whose names were on Schindler’s list," Jost explains.

The 60 Minutes team also found the file of "Frank, Annaliese Marie," better known as Anne Frank. It’s her paper trail from Amsterdam to Bergen-Belsen, where she died at the age of 15.

But most of the names here are of unknown people. While the Nazis did not write down the names of those executed in the gas chambers at places like Auschwitz, they did keep detailed records of millions of others who died in the camps. Their names are listed in notebooks labeled “Totenbuch,” which means “death book.” The names are written here, single-spaced, in meticulous handwriting.

"Here we see the cause of death: executed. And you can see, every two minutes they shot one prisoner," Jost explains.

"So they shot a prisoner every two minutes for a little over an hour and a half?" Pelley asks.

"Yes. Now look at the date: it’s the 20th of April. That was Adolf Hitler’s birthday. And this was a birthday present, a gift for the Führer. That’s the bureaucracy of the devil," Jost says.

The devil is in the details - the smallest details. Pelley and the 60 Minutes crew were amazed to see the Nazis kept records of head lice.

"You can see the names and numbers of each prisoner, and the amount of lice that were found," Jost says.

The Nazis couldn’t have disease spreading among slave laborers. "You can see he was a perfectionist. He even put down the size of the lice. Large, small or medium-sized lice," Jost comments about the Nazi lice inspector.

Paul Shapiro helped pry open the archive. He’s Director of Holocaust Studies of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

"I’m curious. Why did the Nazis keep all these records? If they were gonna murder these people anyway, why keep the paperwork?" Pelley asks.

"Because they wanted to show they were getting the job done. So, in terms of people whose destiny was to be murdered, recording how well that was being done was very important," Shapiro explains.

And those records make up the largest Holocaust archive anywhere. Run by the Red Cross, the International Tracing Service was set up after the war to trace lost family members. Survivors could write for information, but there was a backlog of 400,000 unanswered letters. And neither survivors nor scholars got past the lobby.

"What was the stated reason for keeping these documents out of the public eye for more than 60 years?" Pelley asks.

"A respect for privacy of individuals was the most-often cited reason," Shapiro says. "On the one hand, you had governments stating 'We’re protecting people’s privacy.' And on the other hand, you had those very people saying 'No, no, we want the material to be open.'”

[Davidccccc]

If you apply for a disability claim from an insurance company or, especially, the government, you have to PROVE you have been injured, REPEATEDLY. The insurance companies and government do not just "take your word for it" and never question you again. When Israel began USING the Holocaust for Political Leverage and Monetary Reparations, THEY opened the Holocaust up to questioning. TRUTH needs no "laws" to protect it, TRUTH WILL OUT.
Speaking of death camps, have you ever wondered why there are SO MANY "survivors"? There are 250,000 "death" camp survivors just in Israel. Well someone with an actuarial chart should track back and see just HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH, in order to have 250,000 survivors 63+ YEARS LATER. to still have so many survivors running around COLLECTING REPARATIONS. And where do they get off with this "I survived 4-5-6 DEATH CAMPS" !? Seems to me those "notoriously efficient" Nazis were pretty sloppy, There must have been MILLIONS of "survivors" in 1945, to still have 250,000 alive, in just Israel, today.
It?s now official ? there?s no actual shortage of Holocaust survivors:
?The Israeli Prime Minister?s office recently put the number of ?living Holocaust survivors? at nearly a million? (extract from The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein of the City University of New York, published by Verso, London and New York, 2000, p.83).

Statement by Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus
University of Ulster, December 5, 2005:
?I?ve checked out Churchill?s Second World War and the statement is quite correct ? not a single mention of Nazi ?gas chambers,? a ?genocide? of the Jews, or of ?six million? Jewish victims of the war.
Eisenhower?s Crusade in Europe is a book of 559 pages; the six volumes of Churchill?s Second World War total 4,448 pages; and De Gaulle?s three-volume Mémoires de guerre is 2,054 pages.
In this mass of writing, which altogether totals 7,061 pages (not including the introductory parts), published from 1948 to 1959, one will find no mention either of Nazi ?gas chambers,? a ?genocide? of the Jews, or of ?six million? Jewish victims of the war.?

[tissot21]

One more thing.. The reason for anti-semitism is semitism... Think about that.

[tissot21]

Dear CBS,
I think that there were no extermination gas chambers- this has been discredited many times. Enough already. Seriously. As far as 6 million figure, I think we need to examine this number. There was mention of 6 million of jews after the war but at the time there were claims that only in Auschwitz about 4 million jews were killed, thus, 6 million... This figure has been revised , it's stands at 1 million now-but 6 million is still being claimed. But regardless... You constant obsession with things that only you believe is becoming ridiculous. For a news organization- not a good thing.

[dirt_farmer]

Sadly, it would seem to be that I am one of those people that you so vehemently detest. I doubt that it makes it through the censors but I'll try. I have no problem admitting that great atrocities took place during WWII. How many posters here will admit that they are responding to this article as a result of Megaphone?
I think one of the least investgated and most heinous crimes commited was by pro-zionist elements that used the information gathered by IBM to find out whether the "Jews" in question were like-minded. The pro-zionist movement was responsible for more Jewish deaths than Germany. How should we process the factual information that the core of the Bolshevik slaughters of Russia were carried out by pro-zionism's forefathers?
Judaism is a faith that rejects the atrocities carried out by their zionist brethern. Judaism and zionism have nothing in common yet zionism is the ideology that has created the current holocausts on Jews, Christians, and Muslims that have lived in the Holy Lands since the time of Christ.
If they are such experts on "holocausts" then why are they blind to the FACT that they are responsible for one being carried out right now? Just because you allow the wool to be pulled over your eyes please do not despised me because I have thoroughly researched history and found the TRUTH to be irreconcilable with the propaganda being repeated ad nauseum.
History and science are two of the most feared weapons of adherents of political zionism. And THOSE, by their truest definition, cannot be "anti-Semitic" if people could grasp the fact that it is decendants of Europeans that now consider themselves the "Semites" while the HISTORICAL Semites are slaughtered like sheep and denied the basic neccessities of life.
Yeah, run that 'chosen ones' idea by us one more time while they disobey every command given to them by the One they claim gives them the right to occupy another peoples' land.

[reptil21]

Now, do not get me wrong what happened in World War 2 was horrible all round but I've never understood why we must get so emotional over this genocide above all other genocides.

People! We said never again and we've seen at least three Genocides since then! (Rwanda, Armenian, Slav, Darfur etc.)

This is the United States this whole country is based on the Genocide and destruction of almost an entire race of people!!!

So why? why do we have to almost worship this particular genocide? It was almost 70 years ago, they are dead - almost everyone who fought is dead...

There are young people NOW dying in genocides in the present here and now!

[retiredgrandma]

The reason people deny the Holocaust is the same reason the International Red Cross will not allow the Isreali Mogen David Adom (Isreal's version of the Red Cross) to become a member of the international body and enjoy the benefits of such membership: anti-semitism. This international body has historically allowed members from muslim, Christian, communist and other countries, but has refused membership to Isreal for decades. There can be no other underlying reason. Why is there no expose on this subject?

The posting by Toddlezz may make some good references, but the last comment about what Israel did to Palestine is totally out of place and inaccurate. He should read some history books before a reference is made. Israel has done nothing to Palestine as there was never an official country of Palestine. It is not the Israelis who cannot live with the "Palestinians" but it is the Arab world who cannot live with the Israelis.

[deendin]

Toodlezz,

What we really don't learn is to do our homework before writing nonsense. I am not arguing for any of the sides you were mentioning, but hey, it seems you have no idea what Holocaust was about. How can you compare ideological genocide - and don't forget the measures- with any one of the items you wrote? Holocaust was unique, since the Nazis saw their goal as murdering all the Jews, regardless of their age, gender, beliefs etc. And that's only one characteristic out of a few.

If you are interested to fill in the gap according to the official souces, check this site: http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/index_before_change_table.asp?gate=5-0

The only thing I agree with you about is the argument itself- we really don't learn. Wait a few more years until Iran will be the reason of the world catastrophy.

[Toodlezz]

Yes, the holocause did happen;
Look what happened in South America when the Spanish took over; and the British in India;
Not to mention the Spanish Inquisition;
So did the tragedy of the Irish Potato Famine;
So did the tragedy of what happened to the people of South Africa by the Dutch;
And what happened to the American Indians; and the Australian Aboriginal peoples
Don't forget what Israel did to Palestine recently. Seems we never learn.

[leahmclellan]

I wonder if CBS would be willing to do a special report on the pre-holocaust holocaust of the physically and mentally ill in Nazi Germany?

So many people do not know about these events.

[neznative]

libdude55 You should get hold of your local Jehovah's Witnesses and ask for information.

[neznative]

My grandfather was one of those soldiers that saw the death camps and gas chambers and cyclon-B gas and the ovens with human remains still smoldering and we let people get away with denighing all that today. The basis for our moral standing today is no better than the Nazis. Anyone that denighs these things happened should be chained together and marched into a retraining facility, forced to watch all the film documentation that the Allies accumulated of the horrors they saw then march these A***SES to Auschwitts and the other camps and chain them to the ground till they can smell the remains of charred flesh still there in the soil.

Our family has never found out what happened to my G.G.Uncle who went back to Poland to see how his mother was in 1929. The only thing the family ever recieved was his passport with the swasticka stamped on it that he had arrived.

[leadingforea]

The Jews have truly suffered. It makes me afraid each time I read about the holocaust and the extent of man's cruelty against others. But do you know what I fear most? God and His word. Read the Bible and you will find everything that happened to the Jews and that will still happen in future.
The Bible is the most current news of all. Knowing what it contains will help to avoid entering into another holocaust blindfolded.

[kurtglas]

Why did the Red Cross withhold this information for 60 years? The International R.C. is headquartered in Switzerland.
Had the Swiss told them to withhold like the Swiss withhold Jewish accounts?
The archives are housed in Germany. Did the Germans tell them to seal the archives, to avoid exposing their atrocities?
Did the R.C. wait until most of us are dead? Well, I am not! I am a survivor and 92 years old.
I am very angry about this delay!!!

[godseyesore-2009]

Why is it that right-wingers are so empty headed? If they so stupid as to deny history, they WILL repeat it. It's happening every day.

[rafterman1]

===My uncle was an American GI that helped liberate some of those concentration camps. Oh Yeah!...It did happen all right.===

A historian recently noted that, for the holocaust deniers, there is one thing they cannot shake. And that is that there were a thousand war criminals put on trial after WWII, ranging from the class A top guys to 10th level secretaries with minor roles. And of all those people and all the excuses they gave during their trials - that they were following orders, they weren't there when it happened, it was someone else who did it, etc, not one of them - not one - said that it didn't happen. That says it all I think. Eisenhower knew that there would be people who would deny it, that's why he had German citizens from the nearby towns clean up the death camps themselves. How sad that Eisenhower was right about the denial.

[pands93]

Come now, CBS. If ever a nation was collectively culpable, it's Germany. Yet in "revisiting" the horrors of the Holocaust, we heard only "the Nazis"--never "the Germans." Why the camouflaging historical label for Germany?

All Germans were not Nazi party members, notwithstanding the soldiers' sworn allegiance to Hitler. But you have only to revisit footage of the Hitler-adoring populace for the full scope of the locomotive and synchronized forces behind the German killing machine. Moreover, we don%u2019t say %u201Cthe Imperialists%u201D killed some 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians in Nanking, and raped over 20,000 women; we say, %u201CJapan%u201D or %u201Cthe Japanese%u201D committed this 1937 atrocity. Why not the same articulation when %u201Crevisiting%u201D the Germany of WWII?

On the other hand, in a retrospective on Joseph Stalin, we should not hold an entire populace accountable for mass-murder as part of the national outlook. So it would be inapt to say %u201CRussians murdered,%u201D when we should say, for example, %u201CDuring his dictatorship, Joseph Stalin had tens of millions of ordinary individuals executed or imprisoned in labor-death camps. Often driven by a political paranoia, his murderous purges consumed an estimated 40 million people!%u201D

You are planning to similarly %u201Crevisit%u201D the Stalin era, aren%u2019t you? Complete with paper documentation and survivors?

[libdude55]

Why not interview someone who was not a Jew? Who
speaks for the millions of non-Jewish victims who
suffered the same horrors as millions of Jews? I'm not minimizing or deflecting attention away
from the enormous suffering of Jews at the hands
of the Nazis. But they were not alone in their
suffering, and it's hard to tell that when virtually every book, tv show and movie dealing
with the Holocaust focuses almost exclusively on
Jewish victims. Maybe I'm just not aware of info
on non-Jewish victims, so I'd be happy to check
out any sources that can be pointed to me. I just
wonder how so many victims of this insanity could
just be invisible. Who speaks for the 5 million
without voices?

[cfin5]

My uncle was an American GI that helped liberate some of those concentration camps. Oh Yeah!...It did happen all right. My cousin showed me his personal picture collection of the medical and hygene assistance setup to keep the survivors alive. They would walk around like zombies, often with no cloths as they were completely demoralized at the time. The first one that they liberated, he said that one of the prisoners was showing them around the camp as to what had happened there. My uncles' captain called him and his men over to the jeep for something and as soon as they got there, about 40 or 50 of the survivors attacked the one prisoner and beat him to death. At that time the GI's were told that the one "survivor" was really one of the camps gaurds so they did'nt intervene. Several of the attackers died from their weakened condition. It took them almost a half hour for them to kill the man. My uncle said that mans head looked as big as a basketball when they finished.

[dyoungkeit]

About 25 years ago, I knew a holocaust death camp survivor working at Ferro Corporation in Culver City California. He was about 14 at the time and earned the right to live by doing favors for the guards. I did not request any specifics of what that meant, bur now realize that it meant *** favors. Other survivors will most probably tell similar stories.I don't remember whether his name was Swartz or something similar