Loose Leaves

In the first heady days of post‐communist government, citizens in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania occupied archives belonging to the local security police, ransacking these in a search for their own political files. In adjacent rooms, former security staff were busy shredding and burning evidence which might incriminate them in subsequent legal proceedings. Order has now been restored and guards placed over the relevant buildings. Nevertheless, issues of confidentiality and ownership remain to be resolved.