A total of 144 crates of documents from the Nuremberg Tribunals on Nazi war criminals, which had been gathering dust since the late 1940’s in the basement of the State Cultural Education Center here, was recently rediscovered.
Preliminary investigations have established that the documents are one of some 20 mimeographed sets now housed in libraries, documentation centers and universities in the United States and Europe, according to Martin Sullivan, the State Education Department’s Assistant Commissioner for State Museum Science and Historical Services.
The documents here consist of 12 trial manuscripts of major war criminals. Included are minutes books, official court files, order and judgement books, clemency petitions, prosecution and defense exhibits, and prosecution and defense document books.
According to John Mendelsohn, one of the Nuremberg experts at the National Archives, only a thorough examination can determine whether there is anything unique in the set of documents. Such an examination has been requested by the State Education Department and State Senate Democratic Leader Manfred Ohrenstein.
The future of the documents was discussed here earlier this month at the first meeting of the advisory board of the State Holocaust Memorial Resource Center/Exhibit whose chairman’s Ohrenstein and whose honorary chairman is Elie Wiesel. Some 50 Holocaust survivors, professors, teachers, and other concerned citizens from throughout the state met to discuss the disposition of the Nuremberg documents, progress to date, and proposed plans for the exhibit and resource center.
The presence of the material in the basement of the Cultural Education Center for the past 40 years remains somewhat of a mystery. One theory is that one of the Nuremberg trial jurists was from Albany and had the crates shipped to the education center for safe-keeping and future reference. Recently, in an effort to clear up the clutter of stored material in the basement, the crates were discovered and opened by a custodial worker who reported their contents.
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