WASHINGTON – Germany agreed yesterday to help clear the way for the opening of Nazi records on about 17 million Jews and enslaved laborers who were persecuted and slain by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust more than 60 years ago.

At a news conference at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Germany’s justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, said her country would work with America to assure the opening of the archives held in the German town of Bad Arolsen and allow historians and survivors access to 30 million to 50 million documents.

Until now, Germany resisted providing access to the archives, citing privacy concerns. “We always put it forward that way in meetings,” Ms. Zypries said.

But in a meeting yesterday with the director of the museum, Sara Bloomfield, Ms. Zypries said Germany had changed its position and would immediately seek revision of an 11-country accord governing the archives. She said it should take no more than six months.

The minister said, “We now agree to open the data in Bad Arolsen in Germany. We now assume the data will be safeguarded by those countries that copy the material and use it, and now that we have made this decision we want to move forward.”

Ms. Bloomfield called the decision “a great step, a really important step.” She said, “I will be completely thrilled when I get the material in the archives.”

For 60 years, the International Red Cross has used the archive to trace missing and dead Jews and forced laborers, who were persecuted by Nazis across Europe before and during World War II. But the archives have remained off-limits to historians and the public.