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3. As the Army overran German occupied
territory and then Germany itself, certain specialized personnel
seized enemy documents, records and archives. Such documents were
assembled in temporary centers. Later fixed document centers were
established in Germany and Austria where these documents were
assembled and the slow process of indexing and cataloging was begun.
Certain of these document centers have since been closed and the
documents assembled there sent to other document centers.
4. In preparing for the trial before the International Military
Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as 'IMT') a great number of original
documents, photostats, and microfilms were collected at Nuernberg,
Germany. Major Coogan's affidavit of 19 November 1945 describes the
procedures followed. Upon my appointment as Chief of the Document
Control Branch, Evidence Division, OCC, I received custody, in the
course of official business, of all these documents except the ones
which were introduced into evidence in the IMT trial and are now in
the IMT Document Room in Nuernberg. Same have been screened,
processed, and registered in accordance with Major Coogan's affidavit.
The unregistered documents remaining have been screened, processed,
and registered for use in trials before Military Tribunals
substantially in the same way as described below.
5. In preparing for trials subsequent to the IMT trial personnel
thoroughly conversant with the German language were given the task of
searching for and selecting captured enemy documents which disclosed
information relating to the prosecution of Axis war criminals. Lawyers
and research analysts were placed on duty at various document centers
and also dispatched on individual missions to obtain original
documents or certified photostats thereof. The documents were screened
by German speaking analysts to determine whether or not they might be
valuable as evidence. Photostatic copies were then made of the
original documents and the original documents returned to the files in
the document centers. These photostatic copies were certified by the
analysts to be true and correct copies of the original documents.
German -speaking analysts either at the document center or in
Nuernberg, then prepared a summary of the document with appropriate
references to personalities involved, index headings, information as
to the source of the document, and the importance of the documents to
a particular division of OCC.
6. Next, the original document or certified photostatic copy was
forwarded to the Document Control Branch, Evidence Division, OCC. Upon
receipt of these documents, they were duly recorded and indexed and
given identification numbers in one of six series designated by the
letters 'NO,' 'NI,' 'NM,' 'NOKW,' 'NG,' and
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