[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3411-S3412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NUREMBERG WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, about a month ago, the survivors of the 
Nuremberg Tribunal met here in Washington for their 50th reunion. The 
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal holds a special significance for me 
because of the role my father, Senator Thomas Dodd, played as an 
executive trial counsel at the tribunal.
  Those who participated in the Nuremberg tribunal deserve a special 
place in our Nation's history. At the end of World War II, when the 
heinous atrocities of the Holocaust were revealed to the world, the 
inevitable impulse to lash out in retaliation against those responsible 
would have been understandable.
  But, in Nuremberg the hand of vengeance was steadied by the belief in 
the rule of law. Thus, our triumphs on the battlefield led to the 
ultimate triumph of our ideals in the Palais of Justice in Nuremberg. 
This is the legacy of Nuremberg and all those who participated in the 
tribunal. I ask to have printed in the Record a list of all those who 
were attended the recent reunion as well as my remarks at the 50th 
reunion celebration.
  The material follows:

Remarks of Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Third Nuremberg Reunion, March 
                                22, 1996

       Let me first say what a great pleasure it is to be here 
     this afternoon and surrounded by so many people who played 
     such an important role in my father's life.
       My father often said that his participation in the 
     Nuremberg trials was the seminal event of his public life. 
     The fifteen months he spent in Germany, prosecuting Nazi war 
     criminals, defined the type of lawmaker he would become and 
     dictated the issues that he so passionately fought for 
     throughout his career in the Senate.
       My father came away from Nuremberg with a greater 
     understanding and fervor for the need to uphold freedom and 
     human rights and to speak out against intolerance, tyranny 
     and violence wherever it may rear its head.
       It's why he campaigned so vigorously to establish genocide 
     and crimes against humanity as violations of international 
     law. It's why, he was such a fervent advocate for the civil 
     rights movement in this country. And it's why he fought so 
     hard as a United States Senator to eradicate the scourge of 
     gun violence and drug use from our nation's streets.
       While I take great pride in the role my father played at 
     Nuremberg, my appreciation for your efforts at Nuremberg is 
     just as great. When the gas chambers, death camps and wanton 
     destruction that Nazism had wrought on Europe was revealed, 
     you were burdened with a grave responsibility. To not only 
     punish the guilty but to reassure the world that future 
     generations would never forget the horrors and atrocities of 
     the Nazis.
       It was no easy task, particularly when the weight of the 
     living was compounded by the ghosts of history that stood 
     behind you.
       At Nuremberg, your voice spoke for the millions of 
     innocents who drew their final breaths at Auschwitz, 
     Treblinka, and Dachau. At Nuremberg, your vigor and energy 
     guaranteed that the millions, who suffered so egregiously--
     from London to Leningrad--would see justice prevail. And at 
     Nuremberg you affirmed that those who committed the worst 
     atrocities the world has ever witnessed would ultimately be 
     held accountable for their crimes.
       Reading through my father's letters the frustration and 
     challenges that all of you must have felt at one time or 
     another comes through clearly. But, what is even more 
     apparent are the deep character, humanity and integrity of 
     all those who toiled so emphatically in the name of justice 
     and the rule of law.
       I think my father sums it up best in one of his letters: 
     ``Sometimes a man knows his duty, his responsibility so 
     clearly, so surely he cannot hesitate--he does not refuse it. 
     Even great pain and other sacrifices seem unimportant in such 
     a situation. The pain is no less for this knowledge--but the 
     pain has a purpose at least.''
       But as these words remain relevant and enduring today, so 
     too are the legal doctrines and precedents that Nuremberg 
     established.
       Nuremberg enshrined into international law the principles 
     that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide would 
     not be tolerated. It declared that respect for human 
     rights was an international responsibility to be 
     maintained and venerated by all nations of the Earth. And, 
     it held that evil would not be faceless. Those responsible 
     for crimes against humanity would be exposed to the world.
       I think the words of the chief prosecutor in Nuremberg, 
     Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, are eloquent reminders 
     of the goals of Nuremberg: 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.
       However, while my father left Nuremberg with invaluable 
     lessons that compelled him to fight for freedom and human 
     dignity around the world, the international community largely 
     ignored the lessons of Nuremberg.
       My father, like many of you in this room, left Nuremberg 
     envisioning a world in which the rule of law would deter 
     future tyrants, and where international tribunals would mete 
     out fair, yet swift punishment to those who would commit 
     crimes against humanity. Sadly, that vision for the future 
     remains unfulfilled.
       If we had taken the lessons of Nuremberg to heart, the 
     ghastly killing fields of Cambodia might have been averted. 
     If the international community had forcefully enshrined the 
     legal precedents of Nuremberg, the perpetrators of atrocious 
     violence in the past half-century, from Idi Amin and Pol Pot 
     to Saddam Hussein and Chairman Mao would have been forced to 
     explain their behavior under the harsh spotlight of 
     international jurisprudence.
       Regrettably in 1996, the legacy of intolerance and hatred 
     that was prosecuted at Nuremberg lives on in the smoldering 
     suburbs of Sarajevo and in the mass graves of Kigali.
       But, commemorating your accomplishments of the past gives 
     us reason to redouble our efforts for the future. Now, just 
     as at the end of World War II, we stand on the cusp of a new 
     international era. We have the opportunity to make good on 
     the lessons of Nuremberg and enshrine into international law 
     the notion that those who violate the norms of basic human 
     rights will not escape from the long arm of the law.
       Today we can see those efforts take flight, as the 
     international community is working to bring suspected war 
     criminals to trial in Bosnia and Rwanda. These tribunals seek 
     to punish those responsible for genocide, war crimes and 
     crimes against humanity while at the same time begin the 
     process of reconciliation for countries torn apart by 
     violence.
       Without justice in Bosnia and Rwanda the cycle of violence 
     may only continue. Effective and fair tribunals will silence 
     the calls for retribution and remove the heavy burden of 
     collective guilt from entire communities.
       Let us remember that not all Serbs or Hutus are murderers. 
     Most seek only to enjoy the ``quiet miracle of life.'' They 
     strive for simple normalcy. They want only to raise their 
     children in peace, and make an honest living among neighbors 
     in which they have only trust, and not fear.
       These tribunals will punish those Serbs and those Hutus who 
     are guilty. But, at the same time it will allow the vast 
     majority of people, who have committed no crime, to work with 
     their neighbors in beginning the national healing process.
       Yet, these tribunals serve another effective role: 
     Demonstrate to future criminals that ultimately they will be 
     held accountable.
       Some scoff at the notion that international tribunals can 
     prevent future genocides. But, the Hutu murderers in Rwanda 
     took inspiration from the failure of the international 
     community to act after similar ethnic massacres in Burundi. 
     Much in the same way that Hitler took inspiration from the 
     world's failure to react to the Armenian genocide in 1915.
       In 1993, 50,000 ethnic Hutu and Tutsi were savagely 
     murdered while the international community did nothing to 
     stop the violence. In addition, they failed to establish any 
     system whereby the perpetrators would be brought to justice. 
     The result was an emboldened Hutu majority, who had little 
     fear of punishment from the international community.
       There is no better way to make this lesson clear to all the 
     world's would-be tyrants and murderers than through the 
     establishment of an permanent international tribunal to 
     prosecute those responsible for war crimes, crimes against 
     humanity or genocide.
       At the dedication ceremony for the Thomas Dodd Research 
     Center at the University of Connecticut, President Clinton 
     called for the creation of a permanent international 
     tribunal. I commend him for his foresight. And I call on all 
     of us, who understand so well the

[[Page S3412]]

     importance of international tribunals, to work with the 
     President and other world leaders to permanently enshrine the 
     legacy of Nuremberg into international law.
       A permanent international tribunal would send a clear 
     signal to those intent on committing terrible atrocities that 
     they will be held culpable for their behavior.
       Will an international tribunal stop all future atrocities? 
     Regrettably, no. There will be more Yugoslavias, more 
     Rwandas, and more Burundis.
       But, a permanent international tribunal will create a 
     lasting framework for the prosecution of war criminals. It 
     will prevent justice from being contingent on ad hoc measures 
     such as those we've seen in Bosnia. And it will quicken and 
     normalize the implementation of humanitarian laws.
       As I don t have to remind you, establishing an 
     international tribunal and prosecuting war criminals can be a 
     messy, patchwork operation.
       In Nuremberg, there were few legal precedents by which to 
     model the trial. In particular, new doctrines and concepts in 
     international law had to be created. ``War crimes, may be 
     familiar to us today,'' but in 1945 they were not defined in 
     any international or even national legal sense.
       The same can be said of crimes against humanity, which was 
     a concept that remained untested in international law. In 
     Nuremberg, you not only had to prosecute Nazi war criminals, 
     but you had to establish the international laws under which 
     they would be tried.
       As Justice Jackson noted in his opening statement at 
     Nuremberg: ``Never before in legal history has an effort been 
     made to bring within the scope of a single litigation the 
     developments of a decade, covering a whole Continent, and 
     involving a score of nations, countless individuals, and 
     innumerable events.''
       But, the creation of a permanent tribunal would revamp the 
     currently ad hoc nature of international tribunals. It would 
     streamline the process of prosecuting those who commit crimes 
     against humanity. But most important, it would serve as an 
     enduring tribute to your tireless labors at Nuremberg on 
     behalf of the international rule of law.
       In many ways the question of international jurisprudence 
     and the rule of law, while maybe mundane to some is the 
     embodiment of the spirit of Nuremberg.
       After the surrender of Germany and once the ghastly 
     atrocities of the Holocaust had been revealed to the world 
     the impulse to lash out in vengeance at those responsible for 
     these crimes would have been understandable. Some leaders 
     echoed these thoughts. Winston Churchill, in fact, called for 
     the execution of Nazi leaders, without trial.
       But, the United States and its Allies ended this war the 
     same way they had fought it, by embodying, as Abraham Lincoln 
     once said, ``the better angels of our nature.''
       The struggle of World War II is as close as any 
     civilization will find to a pure struggle between good and 
     evil. And not only did the forces of good triumph on the 
     battlefield, but they triumphed in the courtroom at Nuremberg 
     as well.
       When millions of innocent Jews stood on the railroad 
     sidings at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Dachau to be chosen for 
     the gas chambers they were unjustly stripped of their rights 
     and their liberties.
       They weren't granted the right of due process. They weren't 
     given the right to defend themselves or speak on their own 
     behalf. In the concentration camps, the only form of justice 
     was down the barrel of a gun.
       But at Nuremberg, the Allies recognized that the only 
     antidote to savagery and inhumanity is justice. That s why 
     defendants were given the right to defend themselves, that's 
     why they were given the right to choose their own legal 
     representation and that's why three of them were acquitted of 
     all charges.
       Whatever the legacy of Nuremberg on international law, my 
     father and every person in this room can look back to 
     Nuremberg and remember that when the deafening calls for 
     vengeance were heard you silenced them with the sounds of 
     justice.
       Once again, I hark back to the words of Justice Jackson in 
     describing these actions: ``That four great nations, 
     flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand 
     of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies 
     to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant 
     tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.''
       Looking through my father's letters, I came across a 
     wonderful anecdote from his time in Nuremberg. After only a 
     few weeks in the country he had the opportunity to go to a 
     baseball game at the same Nuremberg stadium where ``Hitler 
     corrupted and misled the youth of Germany.''
       But on that day the voices of evil that had once found 
     shelter in Nuremberg were replaced by 40,000 Americans doing 
     the ``most American of things''; watching a baseball game and 
     calling the umpires names and the players ``bums.''
       In many ways, something as wholesome and American as 
     baseball is a wonderful metaphor for the triumph of American 
     optimism, American ideals and American democracy over the 
     forces of intolerance and depravity, represented by Nazism.
       In Nuremberg, America's commitment to democracy and the 
     ideals enshrined in our Constitution remained intact even in 
     the face of unspeakable horror. In many ways this is the 
     ultimate legacy of Nuremberg; that our triumph in arms led to 
     the triumph of our ideals.
       When historians look back at the events that unfolded in 
     the Palais of Justice in Nuremberg 50 years ago, it is that 
     proud legacy they will remember. And today it is our 
     responsibility to make sure that heritage lives on for the 
     next generation.
       For the past 50 years, through wonderful books such as 
     Telford Taylor's ``The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials'' and 
     now the research facilities at the Dodd Center in 
     Connecticut, you've kept the events of a half-century ago 
     burning bright in the world's eyes. Tirelessly, you've worked 
     to illuminate the lessons of those bygone days to a world 
     that so quickly forgets the lessons of history.
       Our duty today is to build on that proud tradition with the 
     creation of a permanent international tribunal to prosecute 
     war crimes. I can think of now better way to give your labors 
     at Nuremberg a truly lasting, enduring, and tangible imprint 
     on human history and all of mankind.


    Participants in the Nuremberg Trial and Third Nuremberg Reunion

       Joan McCarter Adrian, John M. Anspacher, Esq., Beatrice 
     Johnson Arntson, Marvin F. Atlas, Carrie Burge Baker, Ruth 
     Holden Bateman, Henry Birnbaum, Esq., Dr. John Boll, 
     Madelaine Bush, Helen Treidell Carey, Edith Simon Coliver, 
     James S. Conway, Esq., Donald H. Cooper, Esq., Raymond 
     D'Addario, Esq., Mr. & Mrs. Vernon W. Dale, Christiane 
     Deroche, Mary Turley Lemon Devine, Nicholas R. Doman, Esq., 
     Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Donovan, Esq., Allan Dreyfuss, Esq., Mr. & 
     Mrs. Demetrius Dvoichenko-Markov, Mary Crane Elliott, Hedy 
     Wachenheimer Epstein, Margo Salgo Fendrich, Theodore F. 
     Fenstermacher, Esq., Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Ferencz, Dr. Paul G. 
     Fried.
       Miroslav Galuska, Anne Royce Garcia, William H. Glenny, 
     Judge Cecilia Goetz, Greta Kanova Goldberg, Elisabeth Stewart 
     Hardy, Professor Whitney R. Harris, Richard Heller, Esq., 
     Mary Madelaine Trumper Husic, William E. Jackson, Esq., Peter 
     & Annette Jacobsen, Arnold Joseph, Esq., Arthur A. Kimball, 
     Henry T. King, Jr., Esq., Florence B. Kramer, Richard H. 
     Lansdale, Esq., Prof. John K. Lattimer, MD, ScD, Jennie 
     Lazowski, Jane Lester, Margot Lipton, Andy Logan Lyon, 
     Herbert Markow, Esq., Maxine Martin.
       Ralph S. Mavrogordato, Esq., Alice Blum Mavrogordato, Mary 
     May, Alma Soller McLay, Pat Gray Pigott Mowry, Lady Marjorie 
     Culverwell Murray, Gwen Heron Niebergall, Jeanette Stengel 
     Noble, Betty Richardson Nute, Arthur L. Peterson, Esq., Mlle. 
     Marta Pantleon, Joan Wakefield Ragland, Siegfried Ramler, 
     Esq., William Raugust, Esq., Dorothy Owens Reilly, Jack W. 
     Robbins, Esq., Walter J. Rockler, Esq., Robert Rosenthal, 
     Esq., Phillis Heller Rosenthal, Howard H. Russell, Jr., Esq., 
     Gunther Sadel, Esq., Mildred Clark Sargent, Walter T. 
     Schonfeld, Julian R. Schwab, Victor Singer, Esq.
       Vivien R. Spitz, Drexel A. Sprecher, Esq., Prof. Alfred G. 
     Steer, Ruth M. Stolte, Joseph M. Stone, Esq., Annabel Grover 
     Stover, Prof. Telford Taylor, Claire Bubley Tepper, Fred 
     Treidell, Esq., Jean Tuck Tull, Lt. Col.(ret.) Peter 
     Uiberall, Dr. Herbert Ungar, Patricia Jordan Vander Elst, 
     Inge Weinberger, Lorraine White, Rose Korb Williams, M. Jan 
     Witlox, David J. Smith, John M. Woolsey, Esq., Hon. & Mrs. 
     Wiliam Zeck, Werner Von Rosenstiel, and Lawrence L. Rhee. 
     

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