The Brasil: Nunca Mais Digit@l Project (BNM Digit@l) brings the database of the historic Brasil: Nunca Mais collection, developed in the 1980 by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Archdiocese of São Paulo, into the digital era. While these files were only on paper and microfilm archives, they were available to researchers in Campinas, Brasília, or Chicago. Now this valuable material is fully accessible throughout world. Moreover, it can be researched with the use of sophisticated programs for indexed searches (See Accessible Documents).
The production of BNM Digit@l was an effort that united, among project directors and supporters, fifty entities committed to promoting human rights, as well as dozens of collaborators. Conceived by Armazém Memória and the Federal Prosecution Service, it is an achievement of those two entities in partnership with the Public Archive of the State of São Paulo. Since the beginning of this initiative, the Institute of Relational Policies, the World Council of Churches, the Brazilian Lawyers’ Association — Rio de Janeiro Division, the National Archive, and the Center for Research Libraries/Latin American Microform Project, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA have joined. The association was broadening throughout the process with the support of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP), the Edgard Leuenroth Archive at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the Rubens Naves Santos Junior Law Firm, the National Truth Commission, the Methodist University of São Paulo. Brown University and the Latin-American Network for Genocide and Massive Atrocities Prevention managed to translate the website from Portuguese to English and Spanish. The Superior Military Court and the General Consulate of Brazil in Chicago contributed to the success of the agreement.
The project was coordinated by Marcelo Zelic (Armazém Memória), Marlon Alberto Weichert (Federal Prosecution Service), Daniela Greeb (Institute of Relational Policies), Lauro Ávila Pereira (Public Archive of the State of São Paulo) and Anivaldo Padilha (World Council of Churches). The first two serve as executive directors.
Its execution began on June 14, 2011, with the public act of repatriation of the microfilms that was kept since 1985 in the United States at the Center for Research Libraries for safety reasons. By means of a solicitation of the Federal Prosecution Service, the collection of documents was copied and returned to the country. On the same day, the Secretary-General of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, delivered copies of the organization’s archives related to the project to the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Dr. Roberto Monteiro Gurgel dos Santos. These WCC documents reinforce the historical importance of Brasil: Nunca Mais.
Finally, a first version of this site was launched on August 9, 2013. In 2016, we present a new modern and updated version with translation to English and Spanish. This does not signify the end of the project, which will still be subject to new upgrades and expansions.
The creation of the BNM Digit@l site involved various steps. Each of them was the responsibility of various project partners. The process included the following phases:
Through a solicitation of the Federal Prosecution Service the 543 rolls of microfilm were duplicated by the Center for Research Libraries in the United States and a copy was brought to Brazil with the support of the Consulate General of Brazil in Chicago.
The Public Archive of the State of São Paulo, using their own services, digitized the microfilms. In addition, the Archive completely digitized the original BNM system, with 29,000 pages on loan from the Superior Military Court through a request of the National Truth Commission. That entity also generated digital images of 8 proceedings that were not located in the microfilm, using as a source copies kept in the Edgard Leuenroth Archive at UNICAMP. In total, the Public Archive of the State of São Paulo produced 870,000 images.
After digitalization, the documents were revisited to identify sheets that were illegible, of poor-quality, missing, repetitive, or unusable. Armazém Memória and the Institute of Relational Policies did this work, with the support of the Center for Scientific Documentation and Information at PUC/SP and financial support made available by the Brazilian Lawyers’ Association of Rio de Janeiro (OAB/RJ). In the end, 35% of the digitized images showed some sort of damage that seriously impaired their legibility.
In this phase an analysis was done of the seriously damaged images in order to define which were important and should be sent out for replacement (if unfixable) or for digital treatment (if correction was minimal). This work was done by a team composed of interns and researchers of the Federal Prosecution Service, the Rubens Naves Santos Junior Law Firm, and the Law School at PUC/SP, with the occasional contribution of volunteer lawyers. The team analyzed nearly 270,000 images.
The Institute of Relational Policies and Armazém Memória, financed by UNICAMP, used computer programs to enhance the relevant and damaged images. The Public Archive of the State of São Paulo also worked on a portion of the image collection.
The archives of the WCC were copied by that entity in Geneva and handed over to the Federal Prosecution Service. These copies were digitized by the firm DOCPRO, with the use of Brazilian technology, at the expense of the Federal Prosecution Service.
All images underwent a process of indexation with the DOCPRO technology, contracted by the Federal Prosecution Service.
The new collection consisted of the Brasil: Nunca Mais reports and the archives of the Peace and Justice Commission of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, already digitized by Armázem Memória. This series of documents forms the entirety of documents available for research in BNM Digit@l.
Armazém Memória and the Institute of Relational Policies developed the site, which was financed by the OAB/RJ.
Managed by the Federal Prosecution Service.
The translation of the site into English and Spanish was carried out respectively by Brown University (the Brazil Initiative of the Watson Institute for International Studies) and the Latin-American Network for the Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. The updating of the site in 2016 was the work of a team from Information Technology and Communication of the Federal Prosecution Service.
In the course of the project, more than one hundred professionals and students were integrated into the team of collaborators. Registered below are the names of those who took part in the project directly. Many others contributed sporadically, but effectively, to the success of this initiative. To all, including anyone who may have been forgotten, many thanks!
Marcelo Richard Zelic, Alexandre Yugo Okamoto and Edilberto Rangel.
Roberto Monteiro Gurgel dos Santos, Marlon Alberto Weichert, Suzana Vereta Nahoum Pastore, Camila Ferreira de Sousa, Marcia Godoi de Mattos da Silva Thiago, Eugênia Augusta Gonzaga, Luiz Carlos dos Santos Gonçalves, Lauro Pinto Cardoso Neto, Francisco Barciella Junior, José Antonio Di Domenico, Benefrancis do Nascimento, Maria Izaflor Pinheiro Torquato, Thiago Nobre Floriano, Rodrigo Rodrigues Pereira, Fernando Latorraca, Nathália Silva, Nathan Roberto Palhares Peres, Quézia Amaral da Silva and Cleverson Nolácio Martins.
Lauro Ávila Pereira, Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar, Marcelo Lopes, João Araujo da Silva, Victor Souza Santos, Paloma Mattos Campana, Denis Paulino, Eduardo Luiz Turco, Márcio Tirelli Barbosa, Dimas Luis Martins, Eduardo Marchetti da Costa, Mauricio Vilauva Junior, Paulo Rogerio de Carvalho, Patricia Aparecida Teixeira, Luiz Felipe Feitoza Correia, Mariana Teixeira Lima, Raphael Freitas Bezerra, Thomaz Frias Rocha, Roseli da Silva Ometto, Adriana Araújo Neitazel, Edilmar José Barbosa, Daniela Yumi Shinzatto, Altieris de Melo Araujo, Renato Torgi Alves, Norma Cianflone Cassares, Carlos Eduardo Sampietri, Lilian de Souza Pagano, Marcos Vilela da Costa, Renata de Oliveira Simões, Valdir Renato da Silva Júnior and Andréia Bernardo da Silva.
Daniela Greeb, Vanessa Labigalini, Silvana Cupaiolo, Ana Paula Malandrin, Ruth Negrine, Pedro Guilherme Brandão Baio Gomes, Bruno Cesar Rodrigues, Gabriel Cavalheiro Gonçalves, Iza Costa, Ederson Duda da Silva and Josivaldo José Nascimento Filho.
Olav Tveit, Walter Altmann, Anivaldo Pereira Padilha, Hans von Rüette and Marcelo Schneider.
James Simon and Judy Eckoff Alspach.
Wadih Damous and Marcelo Chalréo.
Dirceu de Mello, Anna Maria Marques Cintra, Heloisa de Faria Cruz, André Ramos Tavares, Viviane Tessitore, Ana Célia Navarro de Andrade, Dariane Ferreira de Lima, Mariana Alcântara Ferreira, Ana Beatriz Guimarães Passos, Ana Carolina San Martin, Cátia Kim, Fernanda Murbach Couto, Victória Bortman, Douglas Godinho Dias and Ana Carolina Lopes Molinaro.
Alvaro Bianchi, Lucilene Reginaldo, Elaine Marques Zanatta, Castorina Augusta Madureira de Camargo, Humberto Celeste Innarelli, Marlucia Martins, Emerson Luís Marques da Costa and Miriam Cristina Alves.
Marcio de Moraes, Paulo Ayres Mattos, Paulo Roberto Salles Garcia, Davi Nelson Betts, Bárbara Caruso Zelinski Gritti, Paulo Rogério Tarsitano, Marcio Antonio Kowalski, Simone Denise Gardinali Navacinsk, José Luiz Olmos de Araújo, Isadora Kowalski, Luã de Alencar Lopes, André Paulo de Oliveira, Anderson Santana Domingues, Fernando César Cavalcanti Côrrea, Murilo Delgado Santana Rodrigues, Rafael Ribeiro Mori, Edson Harada, Lighia Cristina de Souza, Felipe Santos Filgueiras, Marcello Vinícius de Freitas Ferreira, Guilherme Bravo Alves, Marcos Valnes Abadi, Marcelo Moreira, Kleber Nogueira Carrilho, Georjes Jean Bruel, Bruno Fiorin Urbinatti, Angélica Ciarleglio, André Benetti, André Yassui, Luara Rogante and Luciene Bella.
Belisário dos Santos Junior, Thiago Lopes Ferraz Donnini, Giulia Simokomaki and Fernanda Murbach Couto.
Cláudio Fonteles, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Rosa Cardoso, Wagner Gonçalves and Raquel Aparecida Pereira.
Jaime Antunes, Mauro Domingues and Maria Esperança de Resende.
Raymundo Nonato de Cerqueira Filho, Alvaro Luiz Pinto, Luciano Teofilo de Melo Neto, Juarez Conceição Bermudez, Paulo de Tasso Melo Aires, Moises Francisco de Sousa, Maria das Graças Carvalho Marques, Wilza Rosa da Silva Lima, Rafael Luiz Melo de Almeida, Paulo dos Santos Costa Junior, Alexandre Guimarães, Airton Guimarães Xavier, Alessandra Ferrari, João Bernardes Neto, Helder Pereira Silva, Goncalo Marcelino de Lira Neto and Weber Silverio de Toledo.
James N. Green, Emma Storbeck and Emma Wohl.
Maria Eugenia Carbone (Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation); Gabriela Quinteros, Eduardo Cavallero and Agustina Luque (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina); Juan Alberto Guzman and Karolina Vera (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay); and Alejandra Costa and Susan Ostria (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay).
João André Lima.
Daniela Leão Siqueira.