The gift will enable digital preservation and public access to the most complete corpora of audio files, transcripts, documents and images from the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.
Stanford, CA--In pursuit of the common goal of dissemination and long-term preservation of the archives of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, Stanford Libraries has been authorized by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to manage long-term digital preservation and online hosting with significant scholarly functions for records of the war crimes trial conducted at Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946. The archives were entrusted to the ICJ by a decision of the Tribunal in 1946. In partnership with the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford Libraries will develop this collection to provide a unique multimedia research and educational resource for scholars, students, the public, and posterity. Support from Taube Philanthropies to Stanford will provide funds for the hosting program and establish an endowment to ensure the archive is maintained and remains secure in the Stanford Digital Archive, where it will be known as the Taube Archive of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg.
The convictions and other decisions arising from the International Military Tribunal (IMT) conducted at Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946 represent the first application of the principle that individuals, including heads of state, can be held criminally accountable for international crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. This development signaled a significant shift in international law and provides the foundation on which all the current international tribunals have been created. The Nuremberg principles gave rise to a new era of human rights and international justice that continues until today.
