World War II Intelligence Documents to Open at National Archives
Press Release · Monday, June 19, 2000

Washington, DC

Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group

WHAT: In a major release of declassified records, the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) will open at the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland, approximately 400,000 pages of declassified Office of Strategic Services (OSS) records. The OSS was the wartime forerunner to the CIA. The opening is the result of the work of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Archives under the guidance of the IWG. The IWG was established to oversee government-wide declassification efforts in accordance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998, which mandates the declassification of records relating to World War II war criminals and war crimes.

The main body of records consists of documents that remained classified when the first OSS records were released to the public in the mid-1980's. They include a wide range of materials dealing with all facets of wartime intelligence operations. Sixty-one hundred (6,100) of the pages would have continued to be withheld had they not been found by CIA reviewers to be responsive to the Act. These records consist primarily of prisoner of war interrogation reports, refugee and émigré debriefings, documentation of OSS clandestine missions into France and Norway, and reports on a U.S. Government program, known as Safehaven, to identify and block from flight German financial assets and other war spoils.

WHEN: 10:30 A.M. Monday, June 26, 2000

WHERE: National Archives at College Park, Maryland, 8601 Adelphi Road. Lecture Rooms A and B.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
All researchers must have a current National Archives research card, which can be obtained either at the downtown National Archives building (Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street) or at the National Archives at College Park. Clean research room rules will apply.

For additional PRESS information call Giuliana Bullard at 703-532-1477 or National Archives Public Affairs at 301-837-1700. Visit the IWG website at the National Archives homepage at http://www.archives.gov/iwg/.

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