National Archives puts Nazi papers on public view

[October 07, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The laws signed by Adolf Hitler taking away the citizenship of German Jews before the Holocaust are on rare public display in Washington.

The Nuremberg Laws were recently turned over to the National Archives by The Huntington museum complex near Los Angeles. They are on display Wednesday through Oct. 18.

Previously, they had only been displayed while on loan to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

The documents have a dubious history. U.S. soldiers first found them in a German bank vault and gave them to Gen. George Patton. At the end of World War II, Patton disobeyed orders by taking the papers out of Germany.

They should have been evidence in the Nazi war crimes trials. Instead, Patton deposited them at The Huntington.

[Associated Press; By BRETT ZONGKER]

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