Interagency Working Group (IWG)

Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act Guidance for June 30, 1999, Agency Reports to the Interagency Working Group

Guidance for June 30, 1999, Agency Reports to the Interagency Working Group

May 11, 1999

By June 30, 1999, each agency must provide information to the Chair of the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group in accordance with the February 22, 1999, memorandum from the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the associated initial agency guidance, as follows:

Identifying relevant records--report and implementation plan due June 30. After the preliminary survey identifies files likely to contain classified records subject to the act, agencies will identify for review specific classified records subject to the act. For many agencies it will be advisable to begin implementation by identifying records related to individual war criminals found in files accessible to searches by name. In order to aid agencies in identifying files related to individual war criminals, the Working Group will provide agencies with a list, or a series of lists, compiled by the Office of Special Investigations of the Justice Department that contains the names and birth dates of suspected Nazi war criminals. Information about these named individuals must also be sought in other files, those not accessible by name, through other search strategies such as page-by-page review. In addition, agencies must identify records related to holocaust-era misappropriated assets and records relating to war crimes that are not necessarily related to specific individual war criminals. The approaches to searching for these records will vary with the types of records being searched.

This initial location and identification phase should be completed by June 30, 1999. By that date, agencies should submit a status report and an implementation plan to the Working Group. The report and plan should describe and quantify the results of the agency's effort thus far and set forth a program for complying with the law. Both the status report and the plan should specifically identify the records searched and those identified as relevant.

Reports on the survey should be addressed to Michael J. Kurtz, Chair, Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group, c/o:

Steven L. Hamilton
Room 6350
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Phone: 301 713-6620 x364
Fax: 301 713-7480
Call first to send secure fax
E-mail: steve.hamilton@nara.gov

Each Agency's report should consist of the following elements:

  1. A status report on the progress of the agency in identifying records covered by the act, including an accounting of agency resources expended as of the date of the report in FTEs and dollars and an assessment of whether further effort is necessary to identify files that must be reviewed under the act.
  2. Data collection forms completed on each body of records identified as requiring review under the act. Instructions for completing these forms accompany the copies of the sample data collection sheet distributed at the interagency meeting held at the National Archives at College Park on May 11, 1999. Agencies should submit this information in electronic form as a file in Microsoft Access 97 in accordance with issued instructions as an email attachment or on diskette to Steven Hamilton.
  3. An implementation plan. This plan should include an estimate of the FTE and dollars necessary to complete compliance with the act, including identification, review, and declassification of relevant records, and a realistic schedule for completion.
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