A dispute over access to an archive involving Vienna’s Jewish community has prompted a group of academics to withdraw support for an Austrian Holocaust studies center, saying independent research is no longer possible. The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies began provisional operations in January. Its purpose is to give researchers access to roughly 8,000 files of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and to parts of a vast archive belonging to Jewish Community Vienna. But former officials at the institute say Jewish Community Vienna is limiting access to the archive.

Georg Graf, professor at the University of Salzburg and the institute’s new executive committee chairman, said he “greatly regretted” the resignation of board members, adding he had the impression their decision was based on a lack of accurate information. “The board members have expressed concern that they see the institute’s research independence at risk,” Mr. Graf wrote in an e-mail message. “But these fears lack a realistic basis.”

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