[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 82 (Thursday, May 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S4524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       REMEMBERING WHITNEY HARRIS

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I speak in memory of a great 
American, a champion of human rights, and a personal hero of mine, 
Whitney Harris.
  Whitney Harris, who passed away last month at the age of 98, was the 
last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor. He served alongside my father 
during the trials of Nazi war criminals, and was the lead prosecutor in 
the very first of those trials, which resulted in the conviction of the 
man who led the Nazi Security Police, including the dreaded Gestapo. 
And he was part of the team that brought to justice the former 
commander of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Whitney's work earned 
him the Legion of Merit.
  I, of course, got to know Whitney through my father. Men like them 
who took part in that unique episode in world history carried with them 
both the honor that comes with such good work and the burden that comes 
with confronting evil at such close range. My father's resulting 
passion to continue doing good works was so strong that it inspired not 
just his public service, but also my own. And while so many have spent 
the decades since World War II attempting to come to terms with what 
they saw, Whitney Harris has done incredible work helping all of us to 
understand what it all meant.
  He believed that the United Nations should create a permanent 
international war crimes tribunal because he knew that the Holocaust 
was merely the most egregious manifestation of the evil that man is 
capable of inflicting.
  Whitney wrote a poem once that he read at a Holocaust Observance Day 
ceremony. It read, in part: ``A thousand years have passed. What was 
the number killed at Auschwitz? It matters not. Twas but a trifle in 
the history of massacre of man by man.''
  The work he did at Nuremberg is enough to cement Whitney Harris's 
place among the great legal giants and the great defenders of humanity 
of his generation. But his work since his speaking, his writing, his 
teaching represent an invaluable contribution to future generations.
  To his beloved wife Anna and his wonderful family, I join Whitney's 
many admirers in sharing your sense of loss at his passing and your 
pride in his many accomplishments.
  He lived a life in service to the world. And the world is better for 
it.

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