The stories that were told on the lessons to be learned. I was struck by the humanness of the story, how it wraps a story of love with a story of ambition, within the context of one of the truly Landmark Events of the 20th century, an event that embodied justice over tyranny. I chose a i hope embodies these qualities. Nuremberg, germany, june 1, 946. Grace, my dearest, it is now but not 00 p. M. And i am here with you. I prefer to pass my time with you rather than reading or doing anything. You are so much on my mind at all times. I had a nice letter from judge wine thanking me for a picture i sent. He said he showed it to judge jennings, who showed interest but made no comment. Wind said this is the greatest trial in history and while it seems long now, in a few years i would look back with great satisfaction. By the way, be sure to read walter lipmans article in the ladies home journal for june. It is a good thing and give you some idea of how important this proceeding is. There is a great satisfaction of doing whats job, particularly a job like this. It is of great importance to everyone and as lit lippmann says, someday it will be recognized as a great landmark. It is the highest calling of the legal profession, and i am proud f my part in it. It continues to mean sacrifice and struggle, and i feel even better about it. You, dearest, share very much in this sacrifice and struggle. You have made also both for me to keep on over here. I will never do anything as worthwhile again. Nothing will be as important. Someday, the boys will point to it, i hope, and to be proud and inspired by it. Perhaps they will be at the bar themselves and invoke this precedent, and call upon the law we make here. That is reward enough for any lawyer. I feel we are doing something so important that it is awesome, it is almost purifying. It has deep religious meaning, of that i feel certain. Truly, it is gods wish that man not wage wars of aggression. The proof here is absolutely overwhelming. I never would have believed men could be so evil, so determined on a course of war, murder, slavery, dreadful tyranny. Never before has such a record been written, and men will read of it for 1,000 years in amazement and wonder how it ever happened. Well, dearest, i have been talking to you for more than an hour, and it seems like only a few minutes. A good game of rummy would just set off the evening, then some cola and smelly cheese. I suppose the children are growing and i will notice great hanges in them when i get home christopher will be quite a citizen. He was only an infant when i left. It tickles me to read of him raiding the refrigerator. A chip off the old block, i guess. How did caroline do in school this year . She is so bright and cute. I know she will do all right. Tom seems to have been quite a dancer. It will give him lots of poise and confidence. Your tales of jeremy and his turtles and pollywogs made me laugh, martha and her vaccination brightened my day. She is so sweet and it doesnt seem possible that ms. Potter will be a schoolgirl in the fall. Dearest, i am in my 40th year and you will be soon. Your baby days, i suppose, are now numbered, and i guess we can ang up our family clothes and ettle down to raising this grand crowd we have. The best years are ahead, years of happiness, enjoyment and comfort with each other and the children. Just a little while now, and i will be back to start that with you. This june 9, we are far apart as distance goes, yet ever closing our love and affection. Tom. [applause] violin solo] [applause] do we have any light, i wonder if we have any light here . All right. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this opportunity to speak with you. And thank you, chris. Chris asked that i expand my remarks today and include some of the events that transpired at nuremberg. Im trying to get a good light so that i can see this. Robert h jackson was the chief ounsel for the United States major war criminals at the end of world war ii at nuremberg. Thomas j. With his executive trial counsel. Thomas j dodd with his executive trial counsel and i was part of his staff and was the only one at the palace of justice when the defendants who had received the death sentence were executed. My assignment when i arrived in september 1945 london was, because i had been in oss, the defendant ernst kaltenbrunner, who was the head of the Reich Security Office and the gestapo and the sd thank you, that is nicer, i cant see very well either. [laughter] anyway, we prosecuted organizations as well as defendants at nuremberg. Ven before the case began, i had the opportunity to interview a man, a defendant named oldendorf. He had been captured by the british, i brought him to nuremberg and spent two or three days talking with him, during the course of which i asked what he had done during the war. E was the head of ops six of had beenand he said he except for sha, he was part of einstadt. And i asked, how many men, women, children did you kill that year . And he said 90,000. At that broke the case as far as he einstadt group concerned, and after that, and we established by evidence that 2 Million People, innocent men women and children, mainly jews, were murdered by the einstadt group in the open ields. Ater, i had the opportunity to interrogate rudolph herz, the commandant of auschwitz concentration camp. T happened this way. We acquired evidence auschwitz was a terrible center, a concentration camp, perhaps the worst of the whole regime. But we couldnt find it. After we rested our case, i received word from the british that they had picked up rudolph herz, where he had been hiding as a farmer. I asked the british to bring him to nuremberg, where i might interrogate him. Hey did so and i spent three days simply talking to this individual across the table. He described the atrocities in auschwitz. Asked how many men, women and children were murdered at auchwitz and he said 2. 5 million. This startling evidence was reduced to an affidavit that i hadnt even signed, and it was the most striking piece of evidence we had in the whole case as far as the, what we now call the holocaust is concerned. There was one difficulty, which i discussed with tom, and that was, we had already rested our case. How were we going to get this piece of evidence into the record . The defendants were putting heir cases on. Well, it just happened the attorney for my other defendant, kaltenbrunner had called rudolph herz to the stand into friend of kaltenbrunner, and because of that, we were able to get this striking document into the record, the single most important document on the olocaust at nuremberg. Enough of that. I shared a house with tom dodd during part of the trial, and we became great friends, although we had other associates. In his letter of june 3, 1946, in this wonderful book, compilation, he writes, Whitney Harris has been away all weekend. He is a nice chap, but not much company. [laughter] he sings all the time. [laughter] i am positive i was quiet at least part of the time. He says in a later letter, whitney came in to see me when he got home, and we chatted for a while and went on trips to garnish in vienna and back ithout any complaints from tom that i remember about excessive verbal musicalizing. In any case, i am positive i never sang in court. [laughter] this wonderful book, this compilation of these marvelous letters, i knew that he wrote letters to his wife every night, as he summarized the events of the day. And this is a little dangerous hen you stop to think of it, because conditions change, the defendant of today may harm you, may upset you, tomorrow. But tom dodd never had any worry about that, he wrote the truth and he wrote it every night to his dear wife. One of the letters that he rote, let me see if i can find t here, im all mixed up, said let me speak now to the letter itself. He says, the defense finished ts final argument on tuesday afternoon and none of them ps them varied much from one another. They were all abstract and filled with misty metaphysics. They did not discuss the facts of the case as we know it in america. Of course there were hard put to make decent arguments for their clients. But i expected something more than we got. Justice jackson started his speech in the morning and delivered it very well. I assume it was carried fully in the press, particularly in the New York Times but if not, i will send you a complete copy, as i think it is worth reading. He has a great style and notable points of clarity and simplicity. Might say that tom dodd had a great style likewise, and he manifested that style in many arguments which were crushing to the defendants. In my judgment, tom wrote, his argument will take its place among the great documents that have been made in great cases. He finished at noon on friday, and the summary was begun for the british, a long and detailed argument, a very good one, but it did not have the brilliant literary value one finds in acksons speech. He concluded saturday little after 1 00. Monday, the french start their argument, then the russians will onclude. I expect that at about tuesday, the main, final arguments of the case will be over. He said that last thursday night, i attended a dinner given by the russians, and the judges, Justice Jackson and a small group of americans were there. I was one of them. Not the russians. I was one of the americans. [laughter] they entertained very nicely, with all kinds of vodka and plenty of it. It is a very strange thing that they insist on trying to get everybody intoxicated. [laughter] as an aside, they do this by your russian host on your right proposing a toast, quickly followed by a like toast from your russian host on the left, aking it two to one. I quickly learned to bring in the Second Russian for the first toast. That is leveling the field. [laughter] and by the way, i outdid the guy on my right. They hauled him away. [laughter] [applause] that was a great line. [laughter] so he goes on to say here, oh, my goodness now, that is no good. This one is better. [laughter] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The old man, blind eyed. As i listened to the arguments of Justice Jackson and cross, this is tom speaking, this is very significant, and it was ever in my mind that all of the crimes which the nazis have committed have been committed by the russians, and from what i hear, may still be committed by the russians. The russians participation in this prosecution is the achilles heel of the great trial. Someday we may have to explain t. Of course, time changes many things, and it may be that the russians themselves, by their very participation here, will more completely realize the course of their own conduct. You will understand that i had somber reflections on british conduct not so many years ago. When cross was talking, talking about nazis destroying educational facilities in poland, forbidding anything but the most elementary teaching into a serfdom of fathers and mothers and the destruction of cultural institutions, i thought of what happened in ireland not many years ago, of what happened in other british colonies, and what is probably still happening in india. This does not mean that they should not participate in this trial. I am glad that they have progressed far enough to denounce such measures, and i know that our own skirts are not completely clean. But thank god they are cleaner than those of any other great nation. He says, tonight there is a party being given by Justice Jackson for all hands. I expect it is in the nature of a farewell affair, as he intends to get away the day after omorrow. Now he concludes the letter as always, grace, i am so anxious to see you, my dearest, i simply count the days until i have you n my arms. Lets see what i did with hat. Xcuse me for a moment. Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the judgment of the International Military tribunal at nuremberg. The Whitney HarrisInstitute School of law recognizes this historic decision with a threeday conference in st. Louis. There were two speakers at the closing banquet, philippe kirsch, president of the International Criminal court at the hague, and Christopher Dodd, United States senator from connecticut. Senator dodd delivered a brilliant address stressing the vital importance of the nuremberg judgment and the principles it had declared for he future of humanity. The assembled guests were enthralled by his grasp of the issues that they applauded his statement. That for 60 years, a single word has best captured americas moral principles and commitment to justice. Nuremberg. At the conclusion of the conference, i wrote a personal letter to senator dodd, from which i would like to share the ollowing excerpts. Dear chris, this letter is first to thank you for your appearance at the whitney r Harris Institute dinner saturday, and for your brilliant address. America is lucky to have chris dodd in the senate, to speak plainly on the vital issue of maintaining the rule of law in the world, and americas inescapable responsibility for advancing the cause of peace. Your speech was truly brilliant and well received by an informed audience of legal scholars. He response to your remarks at the dinner and subsequent thereto convinces me of two things. One, we must continue to strive for a world of peace under the rule of law. And two, senator Christopher Dodd must continue to lead america to that goal. Ith warm personal regards, cordially yours, whitney. [applause] fmr. Senator dodd thank you, very much. Thank you. [applause] not bad for 95. [applause] [laughter] i like young guys with white hair, ill tell you. [laughter] Whitney Harris. Where is anna, Whitney Harriss lovely wife . Will you please stand up . Misses Whitney Harris. [applause] there he goes, he knows where to it down. Whitney, you are truly a gem, and what a great honor. Time after time, he has come up and spoken, wrote a wonderful book on nuremberg, chronicling he events there, and how blessed and fortunate we all are that you still have that vibrancy and that voice and that commitment. This man was totally responsible for the prosecution of kaltenbrunner, one of the worst defendants at nuremberg. It would not have happened without Whitney Harris. [applause] great individual. Let me begin by thanking john. John, thank you immensely. It is a great honor to be here at quinnipiac. I had the honor a few years ago to give the commencement address at the law school and enjoyed that immensely. The discussion that they was on the rule of law as well. I was honored to be invited. How about a round of applause for john leahy at quinnipiac college. [applause] and thanks to roxanne and julia as well, one of the great bookstores. Im an advocate of independent bookstores. We need more of them here. Thank you for being part of this. [applause] and we thank you for the beautiful music that you provided. Another round of applause. [applause] im not going to take a long time this evening. I want to thank justin dodd as well, justin and his cousins and others who recited passages from these letters earlier today. I am delighted justin is here this evening as well to participate. Thank you, justin. It is wonderful you are part of his. And let me tell you, i regret deeply jackie never had a chance to meet my parents. They have been gone almost 40 years. But the fact this book exists is doing no small measure to jackie, my wife, who did wonderful job putting this altogether and making it happen. Jackie, we thank you very much. [applause] larry bloom. Where is larry . This would not have happened without larry bloom as well, who i share this jacket cover with, who was invaluable in going through as a professional and editing letters to make sure we never lost the essence of this. This never would have appened. Never ever would have happened. I must say a quick story because i have known larry a long time and it might his work immensely. I called larry and said, i want to show you something, and i brought these letters from nurnberg to larry and i said look, you and i are friends, we know each other well enough, i am going to give you these letters to read. If you read them and conclude they are nothing more than a wonderful heirloom, not only you and your children or grandchildren want to have in future years, to read the letters from your father, grandfather, great father, to their greatgrandmother, i wont be offended by that. If you think there is value beyond that, have the courtesy to tell me so but also have the courtesy to tell me it may not have historical value. Larry said, im very busy on another project, but i will take them if there is no rush. I said there is no rush, these letters have been around a long time. About 24 hours later i got a call. From larry bloom, with the teasing voice, he said i thought would only read a couple of these letters and i have been up 48 hours. I cant put them down. History needs to hear what his voice has to say at this critical moment in history. Without larrys advice and counsel, and urging, this book would never have existed. Larry, thank you for taking those two days out and getting exhausted in the process. Larry bloom, thank you. [applause] let me share a little about this with you, and then we will stop. I dont want to ruin the book for you. I really didnt know these letters existed. When you are the fifth of six children, you find things out late in the process. [laughter] my older siblings, i think, were aware of this. I assumed my father had written to my mother, but had no idea he had written to her every single day from nuernberg, which was an event in and of itself. This book has three values to me. One is, for those of you who want to read the lost art of writing a letter, this book will be a great source of enjoyment. For those of you who have loving relationships with another human being, be careful. Do not show them this book. [laughter] because this sets a standard on letterwriting that none of us are ever going to meet when it comes to appreciating another human being. So on that level, this book is a joy just to read, to hear my fathers voice to my mother, that deep affection he had for her. And secondly, the book has value in an historical sense, in that it is contemporaneous history. Whitney harris has written a wonderful book and there have been several others about nuremberg and the events as they unfolded at the trial. The advantage whitney and others had as they wrote their books, after the fact knowing what happened at nuremberg. Areers are these letters the saga as it unfolds. This event was a presumptuous event if there was ever one. The war concluded in europe in april of Franklin Roosevelt 1945. Dies, Harry Trumans president , table, aa lot on the lot to be discussed and things to do to rebuild europe and do all the things on the agenda at home and abroad. The idea that they would come together with very different legal systems, the idea that you would meld these together, bring four nations together with four prosecution teams together to try almost a dozen defendants with lawyers in a city that almost did not exist, as you saw from the video. The destruction was overwhelming. 30,000 people were buried in that rubble in the summer of 1945. There were really no conditions by which you could possibly hold an event of this magnitude. My father reflects the difficulty associated with this, not to mention some of the difficulties with personnel and the like and how you pull this all together. The letters offer a wonderful point of view for those who love to read history to understand how difficult this was to bring this off, to engage in this event. And it was not without political opposition as well. Winston churchill wanted to summarily execute every one of the defendants at nuremberg. Why would you bother having a trial . The soviet union believed in having a show trial for about a week and then just execute everyone. And go through the motions. Robert jackson basically, four or five people really stood up for this idea of a trial. Probably the leading advocate of it ironically was the secretary of war in the roosevelt administration, the only republican in the roosevelt administration, who felt strongly about it. One of the major speechwriters for Franklin Roosevelt felt strongly about it. Robert jackson obviously did. My father and a few others. The Supreme Court overall members of the Supreme Court totally against the idea that they would argue ex post facto jurisprudence in a sense, that this was going to be an organized lynching, as one member of the Supreme Court argued at the time. There was a lot of opposition beyond the difficulty of this. Vent occurring among those and why would we possibly exhaust the resources, time, and effort to give these individuals the civility of a trial . 55 Million People died in that conflict. 6 million jews were incinerated at the hands of these individuals. 5 million others faced a similar fate because of their ethnicity or politics or sexual orientation. Why would anyone possibly give these people a trial . And yet, because there were people like jackson and simpson and others who argued that we are different. We are going to prove to the world that despite how they treated their victims, we are going to give them that which they never provided their victims, the civility of justice. Theres a great opening line i memorized years ago that Robert Jackson used in his presentation to the court. You heard a little bit of it in the video this evening, but not the complete sentence. One of the most remarkable sentences i think that existed in the context of law, and he is talking about the nations gathered at nuremberg. He said the following. He said that four great nations stayed the hand of vengeance by voluntarily submitting their enemies to the judgment of the rule of law with the most was the most significant tribute that power ever paid to reason. A remarkable sentence in many ways. It was as a result of that event and the success of it that many of the following events that occurred in postwar europe really were a result of what happened at nuremberg in many ways. Many historians would tell you the Marshall Plan would never have happened if not for what happened at nuremberg. The International Criminal court. In fact, nato, spring from that. These letters provide an Historical Context not only for an event that was truly the greatest trial of the 20th century but also provided the context from which the structure and architecture of these institutions were provided, with obvious exceptions, a period of more than half a century of global peace. It was also a great advantage carry as a nation to forward these principles of human nature, human rights, the rule of law. Nuremberg became the word by which in many ways we represent our moral authority for so many years. This book provides a wonderful context for understanding that history, but the true value of this book, and i would not have published this, my parents letters, my fathers letters to my mother in fact, ive been asked what my father would have thought if he had known you were going to publish his letters. He would have been angry. The idea i would publish letters he wrote to my mother except for , the point i want to share with you now. And that is the value i hope they provide to younger people, to those who are interested in what is going on in the world today, because beyond these being great letters love letters, if you will beyond being interesting history at a critical moment in the 20th century, these letters are also an epistle to all of us in a way because the rule of law is transcendent in a way. And while facts are different and circumstances are different , and i recognize that, the principles embodied at nuremberg, the effort to have a civil jurisprudence, a Justice System at work, is something we need to be mindful at this very hour and day is that those who would retreat from those principles today, abandoning habeas corpus, restoring torture, secret prisons warrantless wiretapping. Beese are issues we need to mindful of. Rights and basic rights. The idea that you and i cannot be safe unless we are willing to give up some of our rights is a dangerous notion. And we need to understand [applause] so, this book is really about that more than anything else, that each generation of us have a responsibility to defend these principles and these rights. They are never won forever. The temptations to step back from them are obviously strong, and there are serious threats we face at this very hour. And yet, we need to understand as a people, as a nation, that we become stronger when we advance those rights, that we advance our strength in the world when we build those relationships. The dangers we face today are very different than they were during the cold war, but nonetheless, International Institutions and architecture like that which was created at the end of nuremberg, the end of world war ii, are going to be critical for our safety and security in the coming years, so more than anything else, i thought the value of this book was on this last point. The first two are interesting. But theres been history, there have been great letters written by others. But the lessons of nuremberg that there were a handful of people at a critical moment when they could have followed the path of vengeance chose a different course, and we all benefited from it. The world benefited from it, because there were a handful of people, one of them happen to be my father, who stood up and defended the principles of the rule of law. Justin read a wonderful letter, my favorite letter. The letter of june 1, 1946, in which he talks about the most important thing he would ever do in his life. Understand6yearold it would be most important thing he ever did . His career was shaped at nuremberg. Because what he learned there, what he understood there, but he left because what he fought for and defended there, became the center for him and Everything Else he did in his life as a member of congress, a lawyer, a member of the United States senate. These letters became not only instructive to him but to his six children. Growing up around the dining room table, hearing my father talk to us about the lessons of nuremberg, the lessons of the holocaust, and how they should never be repeated again and had there been in the 1920s institutions that would have stood up and denounced the activities of the nazis, maybe, just maybe, the holocaust might have been avoided. And that should never happen again. And that the individuals and men who defined these principles as being universal should stand up for them. And they are being challenged again today. We bear no less responsibility to the coming generation than my father did. I hope you love and enjoy this book as much as i have enjoyed putting it together. Thank you all very much. [applause] this is American History tv. Nations past every weekend on cspan3. Week, reel america brings you archival films that bring you Historical Context for Public Policy issues of the 21st century