Voices From the Holocaust

Whitney Harris

WHITNEY HARRIS Whitney Harris was one of the principal members of the U.S. prosecution staff at the Nuremberg trials. During his interrogation of the head of the Interior Intelligence Service in the Third Reich, Otto Ohlendorf, a major breakthrough in the Allied case against the Nazi war criminals occurred. Ohlendorf confessed that he was responsible for the murders of 90,000 people, and the prosecution was able to build from there. Harris was also able to obtain a confession from Rudolf Hoess, the commanding officer of Auschwitz, who admitted responsibility for two and a half million deaths. Harris graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington and received his law degree from the University of California. Before his military service he was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. After his naval discharge in World War II, Harris taught at Southern Methodist University. He then filled several executive posts for Southwestern Bell in Dallas and later in St. Louis, where he was to make his home in 1963. He is the author of JYranny on Trial (1954), a book about the Nuremberg experience, as well as Family Law. He has earned numerous awards, including the Legion of Merit, the Officer's cross from the Federal Republic of Germany , and Poland's Medal of the War Crimes Commission. In 98 Voices from the Holocaust 1954 he became the executive director of the American Bar Association, later a member of the InternationalBarAssociation , and came to serve on many boards, including the JapanAmerica Society of St. Louis, Phi Beta Kappa, and the St. Louis Holocaust Commission. HJC "The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations flush with victory and stung with injury stay their hands of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has everpaidto reason." With these words Justice Robert Jackson opened the Nuremberg trials. Would you elaborate on what Justice Jackson meant by these words? WH Undoubtedly, World War II was the greatest manmade catastrophe ever to occur. The leaders of the Allied Powers-the United States, Russia, and Great Britainreached a decision during the course of the war that punishment would have to be imposed upon the perpetrators of the crimes of World War II. The initial decision was made at the Moscow Declaration on October30, 1943. At that time it was agreed by Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt, and Premier Stalin that those individuals who had committed crimes during the course of the war would be sent back to the countries in which their crimes were committed to be punished, and those whose crimes had no particular location would be punished by joint decision of the Allies. But no agreement was reached at that time whether this punishment would be in the form of executive action or whether the judicial process would be involved. Indeed, at this period the British were of the mind that executive action should be used. This was definitely the view of Prime Minister Churchill. 40.207] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 14:09 GMT) WHITNEY HARRIS 99 In the United States, however, the thought developed that a better record could be made of the crimes of the Nazi regime if the individuals who were responsible for the war and the crimes committed in the course of the war were brought to trial before an international tribunal. A memorandum was prepared as an aide memoir to President Roosevelt at the Yalta conference in January 1945. The judicial process was proposed as a means of determining guilt and arriving at punishment. Thus, the decision was reached in the United States that alleged war criminals should be brought to trial, and Justice Jackson, who had been appointed United States chief of counsel on May 8, 1945, firmly adhered to this view. He was able to persuade the British that this was the proper method of dealing with the Nazi war criminals. Consequently , at the conference which took place in the summer of 1945leading to the organization of the international military tribunal, the position of the United States was that there should be a trial, and this position was accepted...