Final Preparations Being Made For Week-Long Event
By STEVEN M. SWEENEY
In 1945, Robert H. Jackson, a United States Supreme Court Justice and Jamestown native became the architect and chief prosecutor for the war-crimes trials which brought to justice Nazi Germany’s most vile leaders after World War II’s close.
In commemoration of the trials which began 60 years ago, Jamestown’s Robert H. Jackson Center, SUNY Fredonia and Chautauqua Institution have teamed to present a symposium at the Athenaeum Hotel, beginning Tuesday and wrapping up on Thursday.
They’ve worked to pull together the brightest legal minds and practitioners in international criminal law. Now only days and hours away, it’s surprising to see the movers and shakers are handling the pressure.
‘‘We’re doing as well as can be expected,’’ said Maggie Bryan-Peterson, SUNY Fredonia’s grants administration and research service director. ‘‘It’s sort of like planning a big wedding. There’s occasionally a bump in the road. It’s gone a lot smoother than a wedding though.’’
For one, there are no hostile families, no overarching decisions about caterers and table settings. But there is the business of arranging airline flights and accommodations for forty guest speakers from such disparate locales as Delhi, India, and Wellington, New Zealand and scheduling their appearances.
‘‘When we started more than 18 months ago it was a concept. Eighteen months ago sounded like a long time. All of a sudden — oh my word. The last couple of weeks it has been quite compressed,’’ Ms. Bryan- Peterson said. ‘‘It’s a lot of little things right now, you’re starting to fill in the blanks.’’
As flight schedules change or are diverted and personal and professional lives dictate one timing over another, Fredonia’s staff responds. Within the past week, they’ve changed the main program nine times.
‘‘We simply roll with the punches,’’ she said.
Right along side her have been the staffs of the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown and Chautauqua Institution. According to representatives of each, they have mutually supported one another and operated as a single unit.
‘‘It’s not surprising,’’ said Michael Sullivan, Chautauqua’s communications coordinator. ‘‘We have worked with the Jackson Center on many projects and the Fredonia staff have been efficient.
‘‘All of the pieces are in place.’’
Greg Peterson, Jackson Center’s president, agrees.
‘‘I think everything is going according to plan. The speakers have been confirming as we hoped,’’ Peterson said. ‘‘I think there is a great deal of energy behind this.’’
Throughout his tenure as president of the Jackson Center, Peterson has shown a fascination for history and thought processes of guest lectures and how each will contribute to a greater whole. It remains in the forefront of his mind as the symposium comes together.
‘‘We’re waiting for an exciting week, the likes of which we’ll not have again,’’ he said. ‘‘There are going to be three classes of people here — a history class of people who were there at Nuremberg, folks who are in the trenches today and then you’ve got some extraordinarily talented scholars analyzing Justice Jackson and the legacy of the trial.’’
Peterson and Ms. Bryan- Peterson emphasized the symposium is not just for academics and attorneys, but for the community as well. Tickets for individual speakers and lecture panels are available at the door on the day of each event.
They expect broad interest in a variety of the speakers including, a sort of last gathering for the living prosecutors who tried Nazis and imperialist Japanese at the close of World War II; for David Crane, only the second American to be named chief prosecutor of an international criminal trial when appointed to that role for Sierra Leone and Abby Mann, Academy Award winning producer of the movie Trials at Nuremburg.
‘‘It is an exciting thing for us, for Chautauqua County,’’ Ms. Bryan-Peterson said. ‘‘Normally you’d hear about something like this in Buffalo, Rochester or New York. But it’s here.’’
Programs open to the public begin this evening and continue throughout each day of the conference until Thursday. For more information, visit the Jackson Center web site at www.roberthjackson.org or call SUNY Fredonia at 673-3528.