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The Duty to Remember v the Right to be Forgotten: Holocaust Archiving and Research, and European Data Protection Law
Author(s): Schreiber, Arye
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, European Union, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Libraries and Archives
Abstract: European data privacy laws arose largely in reaction to the horrors of authoritarian rule generally, and the Holocaust specifically. Privacy and data protection have consistently been a barrier to Holocaust justice. The Data Theory of the Dutch Holocaust, widely cited as a justification for EU data protection law, has long served as a smokescreen for extensive collaboration with the Nazis. The largest Holocaust archive was inaccessible to victims and researchers for decades, principally on account of privacy considerations. Privacy prevented publication of indictments of Auschwitz SS, and served as principle grounds for non-cooperation of banks and insurance companies in restitution of property of Holocaust victims and survivors. The EU’s new data protection regulation (GDPR) and its new Right to be Forgotten threaten to pose further challenges to Holocaust research, and bold legal positions may need to be taken in order to avoid Holocaust research being stifled, as several approaches are analysed. Holocaust justice has been central in informing legal responses to other atrocities. For all its importance, data protection law must not be allowed to prevent justice in human-rights abuses, nor to prevent proper research and victims’ healing.