800.414/5–1945: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 20—10:20 a.m.]
2813. From Murphy. Our present plan for the disposition of German Foreign Office archives is to assemble them so far as possible at Marburg. (See my 2694, May 7 [17], 8 a.m. and my 2770, May 18, 10 p.m.) This plan is based on the idea that (1) all Foreign Office archives should be assembled for greater convenience of examination, (2) they should be assembled in the SHAEF area for security reasons, (3) they should be kept in Germany for convenience of access to all interested governments.
The Dept may wish to consider, however, and discuss with the British Foreign Office whether considerations of the security of these highly important archives and their continued availability in the unpredictable future may warrant their complete transfer to the USA or Great Britain. In such event they could be studied at leisure with complete freedom from possible German interference and with no regard for the possible termination of Allied occupation.
In any case it is apparent that expert and reliable supervision of these archives is urgently needed. I, therefore, urge that the Dept [Page 1107] in agreement with the Brit seek to secure an archivist who could be placed in permanent charge of the records at Marburg. For this purpose there has been suggested to us a man named Posner who was formerly employed by National Archives and now believed to be on Archives Mission in Italy. I understand information about him could be obtained from Director Fred W. Shipman of Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park.
I would appreciate expression of Dept’s intentions in this important problem. [Murphy.]