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

The official presentation 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, Minister of Justice and His Excellency Judge Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade, International Court of The Hague. A historic moment that allows the Memorial to become a "place of universal memory", in the words of Bruno Cathala, President of the social chamber of the Court of Cassation of Paris. Today, nearly 1,000 hours of audio recordings of the hearings and 250,000 documents and photos are now available at the Shoah Memorial in The Hague and Washington.

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

In July 2017, an agreement was signed between the International Court of Justice, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), and the Shoah Memorial in Paris, enabling an exceptional operation to be set up: 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 documents on paper,
  • 1942 gramophone records corresponding to 775 hours of audience ratings,
  • 37 film reels used as evidence during the trial

The paper documents were deacidified and digitized by the ICJ in 2012, which kindly gave us a copy.

Thanks to the partnership between USHMM and the Shoah Memorial, all the gramophones and films have been digitized.

The digitization of gramophone records, carried out by the company Gecko located in Montreuil, France, is a real technical achievement: 1942 records, almost all double-sided, containing recordings lasting on average 15 to 17 minutes per side. These discs constitute a complete and original recording, without any montage 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 of this documentation will be available for consultation 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 end of the digitization process in the presence 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 website of the Memorial soon.

© Michel Isaac

© Michel Isaac

Address 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 et Karen Taieb © Michel Isaac