The Nuremberg Trial as a turning point in the history of interpreting: Notes on historical transitions

Francesca Gaiba’s 1998 book continues to be the primary work on the application of simultaneous interpreting (SI) at the Nuremberg Trial (see my 1999 review). The pioneering and inspirational value of that comprehensive volume makes any attempt to reopen the topic a daunting challenge. After having done some research myself on the Trial’s interpreters, some of whom I met in person and even in the booths when I was a staff interpreter at the United Nations, my intention in this paper is to add the perspective of transition in the history of interpreting, underpinned with a few primary and secondary sources that in most cases I had not used before now, because they either were not published or were inaccessible to me. Besides, I intend to expand on my reflections on the impact the Nuremberg Trial had on the profession of conference interpreting (Baigorri-Jalón 2017). I will approach interpreting at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (IMT) as part of a transition process symbolizing historical change, and as a testing ground for a variety of linguistic, ethical, sociological and technical challenges. Finally, I will venture a few remarks on the past and the present and on how unpredictability and uncertainty about the future may trigger historical change