The Harvard Law School Library has unveiled the Nuremberg Trials Project: A Digital Document Collection, a comprehensive website dedicated to the analysis and digitization of primary sources related to the Nuremberg Trials. This initiative is focused on preserving and enhancing access to the Library’s extensive collection of approximately one million pages of documents concerning the prosecution of Nazi Germany’s military and political leadership.
The Imperative for Digital Access
The original documents, which encompass trial transcripts, legal briefs, document books, evidence files, and various other papers, have become increasingly fragile and susceptible to damage from handling. To safeguard these critical records, the Library has undertaken a large-scale digitization effort, with the material being released to the public in successive stages via the internet.
Initial Release: Key Case Documentation
The inaugural phase of the project makes available 6,755 pages of documentation pertinent to the Medical Case (USA v. Karl Brandt et al.), which was Case 1 before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT). This initial release also features analysis of numerous documents related to Case 2 (USA v. Erhard Milch) and Case 4 (USA v. Oswald Pohl et al.).
The Medical Case, adjudicated between 1946 and 1947, involved 23 defendants. They were accused of organizing and participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity through harmful or fatal medical experiments and other illicit medical procedures. The digitization of these records provides invaluable resources for legal scholars, historians, and the public to examine the foundational proceedings of international criminal law.
