Copyright and the Holocaust

Abstract

This article explores the interface between copyright law and the Holocaust. The Holocaust's duration and scope, its occurrence in the midst of the twentieth century with photography and film technologies already available, and its setting at the heart of Europe, yielded countless documents, diaries, notes, memoirs, musical works, photographs, films, letters, and additional artifacts. On the victims' part, many of those items-including secret archives comprised at various ghettos, music composed in concentration camps, and personal diaries-manifest an explicit act of real-time historical documentation for future generations. On the perpetrators' side, some materials were produced as a result of organized documentation and others-such as Joseph Goebbels' diaries or Hitler's Mein Kampf--comprise records of prominent figures in the Nazi regime. Numerous Holocaust-related materials are still subject to copyright protection. Yet, the impact of copyright law on the memory of the Holocaust remains largely unexplored.