Yad Vashem gains access to Holocaust-era documents in Polish archives

Yad Vashem gets access to Polish archives

WARSAW, Poland — Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem says it has reached an agreement with Poland that gives it access to World War II-era documents in 34 provincial archives across the eastern European country.

Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said the agreement was signed Monday at the Polish State Archives in Warsaw.

Shalev said the archives include documentation produced by the Nazi German authorities who occupied Poland during the war, by Polish authorities and by Jews imprisoned in ghettos.

He called it “a real step forward” that will allow researchers in Israel to easily view documents that are scattered across Poland and which were often difficult to access, particularly during the communist era.