Monaco has finally agreed to open up its state archives to historians who suspect the country has largely failed to own up to its part in the Holocaust. 

In 1997, campaign group the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) wrote to several countries, including Monaco, asking for access to official records on the deportation of Jews to death camps during the war.

While countries such as Russia accepted the request, the principality of Monaco was among those not to respond to the letter.

But in a surprise move, Monaco's State Minister Serge Telle has now given permission for the SWC's Dr Shimon Samuels to bring a historian into the archive in Monte Carlo on March 2 to begin exploring the official records. 

"When I had my first meeting with Mr Telle in Jerusalem, he said something that really shook me," Dr Samuels revealed.

"He confirmed to me that he was aware Monaco had not done the job of protecting Jewish people and hiding these people from the Nazis like they had promised they would do.

"He looked at me across the table and said: 'For this, I beg forgiveness'.

"That showed a certain amount of goodwill."

According to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, there is already some evidence, gained from historical records elsewhere, pointing to the persecution of Monaco’s Jewish community during the Holocaust, including the seizing of  money, the blocking of Jewish bank accounts and the looting of artwork.

Jews deported from Monaco to Nice during the war were also stripped of their assets. 

Until recent years, Monaco has been slow to acknowledge its role in the persecution and deaths of hundreds of Jews under the Nazi regime.

Invaded and taken over by Italy's fascists in 1943, the administration of Monaco was then handed to Germany, which deported the Jewish population to camps where they were murdered.

Under the current reign of Prince Albert II, Monaco has slowly moved towards a position of recognising its own role in the Holocaust.

In 2015 the Prince offered an official apology and unveiled a statue to commemorate the 92 Jews that the country accepts were deported to death camps from Monaco.

But Dr Samuels believes this figure is in fact far higher.

"We have documents secured from the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, and from Paris, which show the number is far greater than 92.

"Many were taken when the Italian fascist regime fell to the German Nazis and many fled to Nice and the areas surrounding Nice.

"We have found the names of many Jews who should have been saved but were not.

"I cannot give you an exact number of Jews in Monaco who lost their lives, but it almost certainly amounts to hundreds rather than 92."

Speaking at the 2015 ceremony to commemorate Jews who perished in the Holocaust, Prince Albert noted that French Jews fleeing the Nazis, “came specifically to take shelter with us, thinking they would find neutrality.” 

Instead, Monaco “committed the irreparable in handing over to the neighbouring authorities women, men and a child who had taken refuge with us to escape the persecutions they had suffered in France”.

Dr Samuels says the March 2 visit to the archive, which will be overseen by a representative of the Prince, will hopefully be the first of at least six such trips.

But much depends on the reaction to the first visit, with some in Monaco still less than keen for the micro-state's past record during dark times to be explored too deeply.

"Some people ask me why am I doing this," admits Dr Samuels. 

"My conditions are, that whatever we find, we are then allowed to place adverts in Jewish newspapers and websites asking anyone who feels they had family in Monte Carlo or who were deported from Monaco to come forward.

"We will be asking for some sort of indemnification. We are not talking about a large amount of money.

"But if we get it, at least there will then be some kind of closure."