International legal experts are to decide shortly whether to open general access to a German archive documenting Nazi war crimes.

The experts from 11 countries which run the International Tracing Service (ITS) are meeting in Luxembourg.

The ITS has thousands of original Nazi documents, details of forced labourers, political prisoners and concentration camp victims.

The files at Bad Arolsen in Germany are managed by the International Red Cross.

For 60 years they helped survivors of the Holocaust trace missing relatives but were closed to the public.

There are 17 million names in the ITS. The files are a first-hand account of Hitler's Germany - the Nazis, writing their own history.

The Nazis recorded everything; from the number of lice on a prisoner's head to the exact moment of execution.

There is very personal information, too: names of collaborators, homosexuals and prostitutes.

The files remain closed because those named have a right to privacy but now, 60 years after the end of the war, many feel they should be opened.

So the 11 countries are expected to agree to open the files at last, but they will also have to find a way to protect privacy.