The opening of one of the world's most extensive archives dealing with Nazi concentration camps and forced labour may reveal the names of many previously unknown Holocaust victims, according to the archives chief, Reto Meister.

The vast store of unique papers managed by the International Tracing Service (ITS) is kept in the German town of Bad Arolsen.

The ITS, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, helps survivors of the camps and the press-gangs to claim pensions and compensation and assists families who want to know where their loved ones suffered.

But the ITS has always withheld the papers from history researchers. Even the survivors have only seen ITS transcripts of their own data, not images of the yellowing original documents.