Selected records of the Nazi Justice (NJ) collection

Source of acquisition is the Bundesarchive, Germany. The trial records, documented resistance against the Nazi, were collected by Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED). In 1959 the records were deposited as a part of collection of the Reichs Justice Ministry, Oberreichsanwalt am Volksgerichtshof. The files were separated from their original provenance and were brought together in the newly"NJ" collection, which was subsequently transferred to the Central Party Archive of the SED. In 1971, the"NJ" collection was classified as confidential and was no longer accessible: Its microfilming started soon afterwards. Special SED archivists for research on resistance during the Nazi era used the"NJ" collection. The Party thought of itself as being the heir of the “true” Nazi resistance, and this was the basis of the interest of the party into this collection. Some information from the files was used for propaganda purposes as well. In 1992, after Germany's reunification, the Central Party Archive was closed and the collection was transferredto the Bundesarchiv Berlin. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's International Archives Project purchased the microfilms from the Bundesarchiv and transferred collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in Oct. 2007.