Century. An event that embodied justice over tyranny. I chose a letter that i hope and bodies those qualities. Number, germany, june 1st, 1946. Grace, my dearest, it is now about 9 pm. 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 wide thanking me for betray sent to him. He said he showed it to judge jennings, who showed interest but made no comment. White said this is the greatest trial in history, and while it seems long to me now, in a few years, i would look back on it with great satisfaction. By the way, be sure to read Walter Lippmans article in the ladies home journal for june. It is really a good thing, i think, and it gives you some idea of how important this proceeding is. There is a great satisfaction of doing ones job, particularly a job like this. It really is of great importance everyone. And as he says, sunday will be recognized as a great landmark in the struggle of mankind for peace. It is the highest calling of the legal profession, and i am already proud of my part in it. And because it is meant, it continues to mean, sacrifice and struggle, i feel even better about it. Thank you, dearest, share very much of the sacrifice and struggle. Youve made it possible for me to keep on over here. I will never do anything is worthwhile again. Nothing will ever be as important. Some day the boys will point to it, i hope, and be proud and inspired by it. Perhaps, they will be at the bar themselves, and perhaps they will invoke this precedent, and call upon the law will make here. That is reward enough for any lawyer. I feel that we are doing something so important, that it is awesome. It is almost purifying. It has a deep religious meeting meaning, and of that i feel certain. Surely it is gods wish them and not wage wars of aggression, the proof here is absolutely overwhelming. I would never have believed that meant could be so evil, so determined on a course of war, of murder, of slavery. Of dreadful tyranny. Never before, such a record has been written, and men will read it for 1000 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 romney would just sit off the evening, and some cola and some smelly cheese. I suppose the children are growing, and i will notice great changes in them when i get home. Christopher boyle will be quite a citizen, he was only an infant when he left. It tickles me to read and have of hammering the refrigerator. A chip off the old block, i guess. How did caroline do in school is here . 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. The tails of jeremy and his turtles and bully walks made me laugh. Marthas vaccination made my day. She is so sweet and it doesnt seem possible that she will be a school girl in the fall. And dearest, im in my 40th here, and you will be soon. Your baby days, i suppose, are now really numbered. And i guess we can hang up our family clothes and settle down to raising this grand crowd we have. The best years are ahead. Years of happiness, enjoyment, and comfort, with each other in the children. Just a little while now, and i will be back to start with you. This june night we are far apart, as distance, goes but never closer in our love and affection. Tom. [applause] [applause] is there any light, here . Do you have any light . You know . Well, all right. Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to you. And thank you, chris, kiosk that i expand my remarks today to include some of the actual events that transpired at nuremburg. Im trying to get a good light here so i can see this. Just as Robert Jackson, United States chief council, of the war criminals at the end of a norm chalkboard to, nuremburg. He thomas dodd with his executive trial counsel. I was a prosecutor throughout the trial and the only member of our staff president at the palace of justice. The night the defendants who had received death sentences were executed. My assignment, one that i arrived in september of 1945 from london, was because i had been an oasis. The defendant, who was ahead of the racist Purity Office and the gestapo. Oh thank you, that is so much nicer. I cant see very well, either. Anyway, we prosecuted organizations as well as defendants, at nuremburg. Even before the case began, i had the opportunity to interview a defendant. He had been captured by the british. They brought him down to nuremburg and they spent a few days talking to him. At the course of which he asked what he had done during the, water he was the head of something, and i asked him what he had done in he said well he had been the head of the rsha except in when you are 1941. I asked him what he did in that year and he said he was ahead of something else. At that time i knew something about this. So my next question to him was this, well, how many men, women, and children did you kill that year . And he said 90,000. That broke the case. As far as we were concerned, and after that we were able to establish by evidence that 2 Million People, innocent men, women, and children, mainly jewish, were murdered by this group, in the open field. Later on, i had the opportunity to interrogate, one of the heads of auschwitz concentration camp. It happened this way. We knew we would require evidence that hush votes was a terrible center, a concentration camps worse than the whole regime, but we couldnt find him. After we had actually rested our case, i received word from the british that they had pick them up, this man, near flemish bergh where he had been hiding out as a farmer. I asked british to bring him to nuremburg, where i might interrogate him. They did so and i spent three days simply talking to this individual across the table. And he described the atrocities in auschwitz. I asked him how many men, women, and children were murdered at auschwitz . And he said two and a half million. This startling evidence, was of course, moved to an affidavit which i had him sign. And it was the most striking piece of evidence that we had, in the whole case, as far as what we now call the holocaust is concerned. There was one difficulty which i discussed with john, and that was, we had already rested or cave. How are we going to get this piece of evidence into the record . The defendants were putting their case on us. As it just happened, the attorney from my other defendant, had called dismantle the stand, in a subtle defense. And because of that we were able to get this striking document into the record, the most significant single document on the holocaust at nuremburg. Enough of that. I shared a house with tom dodd, during a part of the trial, and we became great friends. Although, of course, we had the other associates. In his letter, june three, 1946, in this wonderful book compilation highrise, Whitney Harris had been away all weekend. He is a nice chap but not much company. He sings all the time. I am positive i was quiet at least part of the time. For he says in a later letter, whitney came into see me when he got home and we chatted for a while. And we went together on trips to vienna and back, without any complaint from tom, that i remember about. Excessive musical verbalizing. In any case, i am positive that i never sign in court. [laughs] this wonderful book is a compilation of these letters. I knew of course that he wrote letters to his wife every night, and that he summarized the events of the day. And this is a little bit dangerous when you stop and think, because conditions change. The defendant of today may harm you are may upset you tomorrow. But tom never had any worry about that. He wrote the truth and he rode it every night to his dear wife. One of the letters on hero, let me see if i can find it, i have them all mixed up. Let me speak now to the letter itself. He says the defense finished its final arguments on thursday afternoon, none of them very too much from one another. They were all quite abstract and rather filled with misty metaphysics. They did not discuss the evidence or the facts of the case, as we know it in america. Of course, there were hard put to make any decent arguments, for their clients. But i had expected something more than we got. Justice jackson started his speech friday morning, and he delivered it very well. I assume it was carefully printed in the press, particularly in the new york times. But if not, i will send you a complete copy of it, as i think it is worth reading. He has a great style, notable for its clarity and simplicity, and i might say that tom dodd had a great style, likewise. He manifested that style and many arguments which were crashing to the defendants. In my judgment, tom wrote his arguments, and they will take the place among the great arguments that have been made in great cases. He finished at noon time on friday, and then began his summary for the british. He was a very long and detailed argument, a very good one. But it did not have the brilliant literary value that one finds in jacksons speech. Shaw claus concluded on saturday, a little bit after 1 00. On monday the french will start arrive, and the russians will conclude. I expect about tuesday, the main final arguments in the case will be over. He said that last thursday night, i attended a dinner, given by the russian judges, Justice Jackson and a small group of americans where there. I was one of them. Not the russians, i was one of the americans. [laughs] 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. As an aside, they do this by your russian post on your right, proposing a toast quickly followed, by a light toast from your russian host on the left. Making it two to one. Well i quickly learned to bring in the Second Russian for the first toast. Thus leveling the field, and by the way, i outdid that i am i right. I remember they held him well. [laughs] there is a great time, that is a great month. So he goes on to say, oh my goodness, now that snow gun. This is better. Thank you, thank you. Oh no man blind eye. As i listen to the arguments of jackson, i was thinking this is tom. This is tom speaking. It is a significant, and i think its very significant. It was never in my mind, that all of the crimes which the nazis had committed, had been committed by the russians. And from when im here, may still be committed by the russians. The russians participation in this prosecution is the achilles heel of the great trial. Some day we may have to explain. Of course, times changes many things, and it may be that the russians themselves, by the rare participation here, will be more keen to realize the content. You will understand to that i have some refreshments on british conductor, not a long ago. When he talked to the nazis about destroying educational facilities in poland and forbidding anything, but the most elementary teaching of the exiled in types of fathers and mothers, and the destruction of cultural institutions. Of course, i thought about what happened in ireland, not too many years ago. But what happened in other british colonies, and one 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, to, but our own skirts or not completely clean. But thank god they are cleaner than those of any other great nation. He said, tonight there is a party being given by Justice Jackson for all hands. I expect his nature of affair will go on, as he intends to get away for the day after tomorrow. 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 in my arms. Lets see when i did with that. Excuse me for a moment. The last year, march, the 16th anniversary of the judgment of the International Military tribunal at number. The Whitney Harris institute of Washington School of law recognizes this historic judicial decision with a three Day Conference in st. Louis. There were two speakers at the closing banquet. I the president of the incident National Criminal court, today. And Christopher Dodd, the United States senator from connecticut. Senator dodd delivered a brilliant address, stressing the violent vital importance of the judgment, and the principles it had declared for the future of humanity. He assembled legal scholars and guests were enthralled by his grasp of the issues. And they applauded his statement that for 60 years a single word has best captured americas moral principles and commitment to justice, nuremburg. At the conclusion of the conference, i wrote a personal letter to senator dodd, from which i would like to share the following excerpts. They chris, this letter is first, to thank you for your appearance at the Whitney HarrisInstitute Dinner last saturday, and for your brilliant address. America is lucky to have chris dodd in the senate, to speak plainly up 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. The response to your remarks at the dinner, and subsequent if they are to, convinces me up two things. One, we must continue to strive for a world of peace under the rule of law. And to, senator Christopher Dodd must continue to lead america to that goal, with warm regards, cordially yours, whitney. [applause] good job. Except for the night. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] not bad for 95, honey . [applause] [laughs] i like young guys with white hair, ill tell you that. Whitney harris, where is anna, his lovely wife . And it, will you please stand up . [applause] there he goes, right over there. He knows where to sit down. Whitney, you are truly a gentleman, and what a great honor. Time after time he has come up and spoken. Wrote a wonderful book on your amber, years ago. Commenting on the events. Theyre and blessed and fortunate we all are that you still have that vibrancy and that voice in that commitment. This man was totally responsible for the prosecution of one of the worst offense that nuremburg. It would not have happened without this man. Great individual. Let me begin by thanking jonathan. Thank you and mentally its a truly great honor to be here, and when he asked me back, i had the wonderful honoring distinction years ago to give the commencement an address the lawsuit. And i enjoyed it immensely. In fact, i think the discussion was on the rule of law as well, and i was deeply honored to be invited. So how about a run of applause for giannulli, he is hosting us here this evening. Thank you immensely. [applause] let me also thank roxanne, our, jay juliet as well. Once again, one of the great book stores, advocate of independent bookstores in america. We need more of them. Thank you tonight for being a part of this. And we thank everyone very much, for the beautiful music. Very appropriate, as well. Im not gonna take a long time, and here, this evening. I want to think justin died, as well, and his cousins and others who are resigning some many passages earlier today. I am very honored that justin would be here this evening, as well, to participate, so thank you. For being here. Wonderful to be a part of this. And let me tell you, theres obviously a lot into this. I regret deeply that jackie never had a chance to meet my parents. They have been gone for almost 40 years. But the fact that this book exists, in no small measures, in do thanks to jackie for putting it all together and making it all happening. Mary bloom, where are you . This would not have happened without him as well. I share this jacket cover, he was invaluable and going through as a professional and editing letters, and making sure we never lost the essence of all this. This never wouldve happened. Never wouldve happened. I must tell you a quick story about this. I know we dont have a long time, and i always admired his work immensely. And i called larry and said i gotta sit down and talk to, you i have to show you something. I brought these letters from nuremburg to larry. And said, look, you and i are friends, we know each other well enough, here im gonna give you these letters to read. And if you read the menu conclude that they are nothing more than a wonderful airline, that not only you and your children or grandchildren will have the future years to read the letters from your father, grandfather, great grandfather, to their great grandmother. I wont be offended by that. If you think there is some value beyond that, have the courtesy to tell me so. But also the courtesy to tell me it may not have historical value. In larry said, i really cant do it right now, he said a very busy with another project. There is no rush. I said theres no rush, these letters have been around a long time. He took the letters in about 24 hours later i got a call. From larry bloom with a teasing voice as he said, soandso. I thought id read only a couple of these letters, and i have enough in 42 hours, i havent put them down. Its not only valuable in the sense of letters, but history needs to hear what this voice had to say. At this critical moment in history. So without larrys advice and counsel and urgency, this book would never have existed. So larry, in addition to everything he did in the process of, it i thank you for taking those two days out, and getting exhausted in the process, and reading the letters. Larry bloom, thank you. [applause] let me share a little bit about, this and then we will, stop i dont to ruin the book for you. I really dont know the slightest existed, thats when you are young child, the fifth of six children, you find things out late in the process. My older siblings everything forward of, this but i was. Not i sue my father spoke to my mother, but i had no idea he wrote to every single day, from nuremburg. 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 will be a great source of enjoyment. And for those of you who have very loving relationships with another human being, be careful, do not show them this book. Because this sets a standard none of us is ever going to meet, when it comes to appreciating another human being. So on that level, this book is a joy just read. Here my fathers voice to my mother, deep affection that he had for him. And secondly, the book has value i suppose in a very important historical sense. And that is that its contemporaneous history. As i mentioned, Whitney Harris has written a wonderful book, and there have been several others about nuremburg and the events, as the unfolded at the trial. The advantage, of course, that whipping and others had is that they wrote their books after the fact, knowing what happened at nuremburg. These letters are the saga, as it unfolds. And truly, this event was a presumptuous event. If there ever was. When you think of it. The war had concluded in europe, of april 1945. Franklin roosevelt dies, harry truman is the new president. There is an awful lot on the table, a lot to be discussed and things to do. To rebuild europe, and all the things that were certainly on the agenda, at home and abroad. And the idea that four nations, the allied powers, with the site to hold a trial in germany to bring together the soviet union, the british, the french, and the United States, all with very different legal systems. Whatever the soviet system was, English Common law, the napoleon a code, and our constitutional law. The idea that you would mill these together, they would bring four nations together, with for prosecution teams, to try almost two dozen defendant with lawyers, in a city that almost didnt 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 was really no conditions by which you could possibly hold an event of this magnitude. So, my father reflects, i think the difficulty associated with this. Not to mention, some of the difficulties of personnel and the like. And how your police altogether. And so, the letters i think offer wonderful, for those of you who are historians, or 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 its political opposition, as well. It was just a question of physically letting this happen, or having this happen. Winston churchill wanted to some early execute every wanted of the defendants in november. Guaido other having a trial . The soviet union believed and having a show trial, for about a week, and then just executing everyone. And go through the motion center. But Robert Jackson, there are basically four or five people that really stood up for this idea of the trial. Probably the leading advocate of, it ironically, was henry stimson, the secretary of war in the roosevelt administration. A republic, and the only republican in the roosevelt administration. He felt strongly about it. I think, sam rosalynn as, well would be a strong advocate, one of the major speak writers for roosevelt, he felt strongly about. It Robert Jackson, obviously, did. My father and a few others. The Supreme Court overall was totally members of the, supreme totally against this idea. What they would argue would have been so expo factor jurisprudence in a sense, here. This was going to be some sort of an organized lynching, as one of the members of the Supreme Court argued, at the time. So there was a lot of opposition beyond the difficulty of this event occurring, among those first thought this was a waste of time. And why would you possibly, when you are thinking, why would we possibly exhaust the resource, the time and the effort, to give these individuals the civility of a trial . 55 Million People died in that country, 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 no we are different, we are going to prove the world that despite how these people treated their victims, we are going to give them that which they never provided to their victims. Were going to give them the civility of justice. There is a great opening line, which i memorized years ago, that Robert Jackson used in his presentation to the court. You heard a little bit of it, and this video. But not the complete sense. One of the most remarkable sense, i think, is the existence and a con ducked and context of law. Hes talking about the four nations gathered, he said the following, he said that four great nations, flush with victory, and stung with injury, stayed hand a vengeance by voluntarily submitting their enemies to the judgment of the rule of law. It was the most significant tribute that power ever paid to reason. A remarkable sentence, in many ways, if you think of it, here. But they were doing that event here. And it was the result of that event, in the success of it, that many of the following events that occurred, in europe postwar europe, that really was the result of what happened in many, many ways. Military historians, never wouldve happened, had not been for nuremburg. Others will tell you that the National Criminal court, in fact nato sprang from that, the human system would start already, but we were leaning voice and fourth. The United States was for the rule of law. And so, these letters provide a 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 the architecture of these institutions would provide with obvious exceptions, a period of more than half a century of global peace. It was also a great advantage for us, as a nation, to provide the kind of leadership to building institutions. Carrying forward the principles which are universal in nature. Human rights, the rule of law. And so, nuremburg, became, as was stated earlier, the word by which in many ways we represented our moral authority, for so many years. In a sense, this book, provides a wonderful context for understanding that history. But the true value of this book, and i would not have published this if my parents, my fathers letter to my mother. In fact i have been asked when you think your father wouldve thought of had, you know you would publish letters . He wouldve been angry, i can tell you that. Did i was gonna publish letters he wrote to my mom. Except for the point i want to now share with you. That is a value, i hope, to provide the young people to those who are interested in whats going on in the, world today. Because beyond these being great letters, love letters if you will, beyond being interesting history in a critical moment, in the 20th century, these letters are also on a personal to all of us, in a way. Because there were law is transcendent, in a way. And while facts are different, and circumstances are different, and i recognize, that the principles embodied at nuremburg, the effort to in fact have a civil jurisprudence, a Justice System at work, its something we need to be mindful in this very hour and they. There are those in the sense who would retreat from those where principles, occurring today. Abandoning heaviest corpus, restoring torture until mean. Secret prisons, guantanamo. These are issues between austin need to be mindful of. Rights and basic rights, the idea that you and i cannot be safe unless we are getting to give up some of our rights is a dangerous, dangerous notion. We need to understand that we can be stronger by protecting them. So this book is really about that, more than anything else. Each generation of us has a responsibility to defend these principles, and these rights. With a our number one forever. And of detection to step back are obviously strong. I hear 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 advanced owes clauses and rights. We enhance our strength in the world when we build those relationships. This architecture that was created in world war ii needs to be fundamentally reformed. 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 nuremburg, at 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, 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, theres been great letters written by others. But the adolescents of nuremburg, thought they were a handful of people, at a critical moment in history, when they couldve followed the path of vengeance, chose a different course. And we all benefited from it. The world benefited from it. Because there was a handful of people, one of whom happened to be my father, who stood up and defended the very principles and ideas of the rule of law. Justin reiter wanted for a lead, oh its my favorite, little of all the letters were in from nuremburg. The letter of june 1st, 1946. In which he talks about the most important thing he will ever do in his life, how could a 38yearold individual, be so prophetic to understand that something he was in waged and then, would be the most important thing he ever did . And while he held other jobs in his life, his career was in effect shaved at nuremburg, because what he learned there, when he understood there, when he fought for and defended their, became the center for him and Everything Else couldnt his life. As a member of congress, as a lawyer, as a member of the United States senate. And so, in a sense, these letters became not only instructive to him, but to his six children. And growing up around that dining room table, that kitchen table, from connecticut, over and over again, here in my father talk to us about the lessons of nuremburg, the lessons of the holocaust. And how this should never be repeated again. And had there been in the 1920s, institutions that wouldve stood up and announced the activities of the nazis, maybe just maybe, maybe the holocaust might have been avoided. And that should never, ever, ever happen again. And that individuals and man in society understand his principles, as being universal, they should stand up and defend them. And thats what we are being called out to do, today. They are under threat again, and they are being challenged again. And we bear no less responsibility to come in the generations, but my father did to, us to sit with these principles and ideals, to be the centerpiece of who we are as a people. I hope 11 enjoy this book, as much as ive enjoyed putting it together. Thank you all. [applause] learn how the American Public and government officials reacted to nazi germanys