Interviews with some of the Nuremberg prosecutors are available on the Robert Jackson archives website: http://www.roberthjackson.org/Center/videolist/. A member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Jackson was given a leave of absence by President Truman so that he could negotiate the agreement that formed the legal basis for the trial of the major war criminals at Nuremberg. Jackson went on to be the American Prosecutor in the case.
Thanks to Joe Powderly.
Thanks, Bill -- these videos are important and interesting.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Justice Jackson's service as U.S. chief of counsel for prosecution of German war criminals (April 1945-October 1946), he was indeed appointed by the new president, Harry Truman. But no one granted Jackson a "leave" from the Supreme Court --he just took on this collateral responsibility, thinking and hoping that the work would be done before the Court's fall 1945, and then sticking with the prosecuting job to completion even as it took much longer. In his absence, Jackson's eight Supreme Court colleagues handled the work without him and had varying reactions to his absence. Jackson did, as his Nuremberg work stretched onward, offer to President Truman to resign from the Court so that he could appoint someone else and restore it to full strength, but Truman refused these offers.