Friday 20 March 2009

Nuremberg Prosecutor Letters Made Public

Letters from Nuremberg prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe, thought to be lost, have been made public at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7953246.stm. Maxwell Fyfe describes defendant Hermann Goering as ‘the fat boy’ and claims he ‘knocked him off his perch’ in cross-examination. Many observers, including Telford Taylor, have written that Goering actually got the better of the American prosecutor, Robert Jackson. According to Maxwell Fyfe’s letter to his wife: ‘I think that my cross examination of Goering went off all right. Everyone here was very pleased. Jackson had not only made no impression but actually built up the fat boy [Goering] further. I think I knocked him reasonably off his perch.’ (see photo)
Another recent personal account of Nuremberg comes from the letters of Thomas Dodd, which were recently edited and published by his son, a US Senator: Letters from Nuremberg, My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. I read recently that Senator Christopher Dodd has a house in Connemara, somewhere near Roundstone, and visits it regularly.
Thanks to Christopher Ryan.

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