The archives of Nuremberg digitized and accessible at the Memorial on Thursday, October 10, 2019 at the Shoah Memorial

The official handover of the digitized archives of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg took place on October 10, 2019 at the Shoah Memorial, in the presence notably of Nicole Belloubet, Keeper of the Seals and His Excellency Judge Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade, International Court of The Hague. A historic moment that allows the Memorial to become a "universal place of memory", in the words of Bruno Cathala, President of the Social Chamber of the Court of Cassation of Paris. Today, there are nearly 1,000 hours of sound recordings of the hearings and 250,000 documents and photos now available at the Shoah Memorial, in The Hague and in Washington.

The conservation of archives of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg was entrusted to the International Court of Justice in 1950.

In the month of July 2017, an agreement signed between the International Court of Justice, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the Shoah Memorial in Paris allowed the implementation of an exceptional operation: the digitization of sound recordings of hearings held by the Tribunal and films used as evidence.

From now on, the entire archives of the Nuremberg Tribunal exist in digital form.

The archives of the Nuremberg Tribunal are:

  • 250,000 pages of paper documents,
  • 1942 gramophone records corresponding to 775 hours of audience attendance,
  • 37 film reels used as evidence during the trial

The paper documents were subject to a deacidification and digitization operation by the ICJ in 2012, which kindly provided us with a copy.

Thanks to the USHMM/Mémorial de la Shoah partnership, all the gramophones and films have been digitized.

The digitization of gramophone records, carried out by the company Gecko located in Montreuil in France, is a true technical prowess: 1942 records, almost all double-sided, containing recordings lasting on average 15 to 17 minutes per face. These discs constitute an integral and original recording, without editing of the words spoken during the trial. The operation lasted 18 months.

The digitization of films was carried out by the company Picturae, whose laboratories are located in the Netherlands.

All this documentation will be available in our respective reading rooms: in The Hague, Paris and Washington.

A ceremony was held at the Peace Palace on Thursday, February 1, 2018 to celebrate this cooperation of our institutions in the digitization of audiovisual material from the archives of the Nuremberg trial.

Another ceremony took place on October 10, 2019 at the Shoah Memorial in Paris to celebrate the completion of the digitization in the presence notably of Nicole Belloubet, Minister of Justice and His Excellency Judge Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade, International Court of The Hague.

The speeches given during this evening will be available on the Memorial website soon.

© Michel Isaac

© Michel Isaac

Speech by Serge Klarsfeld © Michel Isaac

Address by Jacques Fredj, director of the Memorial © Michel Isaac

Eric de Rothschild, Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade, Nicole Belloubet, Bruno Cathala and Serge Klarsfeld © Michel Isaac

Eric de Rothschild and Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade © Michel Isaac

Peggy Frankston, representative in France of the USHMM, Jacques Fredj, Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade and Karen Taieb © Michel Isaac