Germany lists Holocaust victims

The list of names will be passed on to museums and institutions

The federal archive in Berlin has for the first time compiled a list of some 600,000 Jews who lived in Germany up to 1945 and were persecuted by the Nazis.

The names and addresses, which took four years to compile, will be made available to Holocaust groups to help people uncover the fate of relatives.

By the time of the Nazis' defeat, only some 20,000 Jews remained in Germany, most in displaced persons camps.

Six million Jews across Europe were murdered under Adolf Hitler's regime.

Archive officials from the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation said the list was not yet definitive and would require further work.

It will not be released to the public because of Germany's privacy laws, but will be passed on to museums and institutions, including Israel's national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.

"In handing over this list, we want to make a substantial contribution to documenting the loss that German Jewry suffered through persecution, expulsion and destruction," said Guenter Saathof, the head of foundation.

The Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation was set up in 2005 under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to compensate victims of Nazi persecution.