[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.
____________________