Nuremberg

On May 2, 1945, President Harry S. Truman appointed Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson as chief prosecutor for the United States in the proposed trials of Nazi war criminals. President Truman gave Justice Jackson free rein to choose his own staff and to design and implement the trials. It was to be a truly international trial, the first one of its kind.

During the summer of 1945, Jackson worked at achieving a consensus among the Allies and was finally successful when an agreement between the American, British, French, and Soviet governments was signed on August 8th. This agreement, called the London Charter, became the basis for the trial before the International Military Tribunal. Beginning on November 20, 1945, the first Nuremberg trial lasted for almost ten months. Jackson himself cross-examined three of the 22 defendants, Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, and Hjalmar Schacht. Jackson gave the opening and closing statements, two of the most eloquent and important addresses in international law.