Reporter To Speak About War Trials
Jackson Center Speaker Was In Nuremberg Gallery
By STEVEN M. SWEENEY
Through Norbert Ehrenfreund’s reporter’s notebook and pencil, the world witnessed the trials of Earth’s arch-villains at Nuremberg, Germany, first hand.
What the former Stars and Stripes correspondent remembers most of the trial years 1946 and 1947 is the tone of justice set by Jamestown’s impressive son, Robert H. Jackson.
Ehrenfreund first saw Jackson and the bizarre contrast he gave his surroundings.
‘‘The city lay in ruins, devastated by an Allied air raid just a few months before — bodies still buried beneath the rubble,’’ he said. ‘‘I looked at them and I saw them looking at Jackson.’’
The reporter, turned lawyer and California Superior Court judge, said Jackson appeared elegant in his pinstriped suit with gold watch-chain. The Nazis couldn’t know how effectively the Jamestowner would prosecute their fate.
‘‘All they knew was that he was someone who had signed the indictment — that was all they knew about him,’’ Ehrenfreund said, then turned to speak about Jackson’s real accomplishment. ‘‘He showed how low a highly civilized nation could sink under ruthless dictatorship. He showed how the rule of law could be applied to punish, if not prevent, the atrocities of war.’’
Ehrenfreund will talk more about his experiences in a free lecture slated for 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Robert H. Jackson Center on Fourth Street.
Greg Peterson, Jackson Center president said the judge’s presence will add a new chapter in the Jackson’s legacy and provide insights only a reporter could give.
‘‘Judge Ehrenfreund is convinced the trial’s added value lies in the widespread knowledge of the Holocaust produced by the trial,’’ Peterson said. ‘‘According to him, Germany has been able to develop as post-war culture dominated by awareness of the past.’’
Event sponsors include The Post-Journal; Allegheny Financial Assets; Evans- Alfies Restaurant, Inc.; Jamestown Business College; Lloyd and Company, CPA, PC; Shults Auto Group; Turner Brokers Real Estate; Young Title Agency; Jamestown Community College and the Robert A. Maytum Sr., Valley of Jamestown Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Jamestown Fund of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation.
The speaker is likely to place emphasis on the Nuremberg trial’s understated importance in world history and bring to the fore Jackson’s special spontaneity.
‘‘He had strong views, passionate views on the need to stop war and the atrocities of war. He saw this trial as an opportunity to put those view into action,’’ Ehrenfreund said. ‘‘ ‘Justice must be done,’ Jackson said, ‘A fair trial for every defendant.’ ’’