Nuremberg
Prosecutor Whitney R. Harris will present a major address entitled “The
Crime of Aggressive War” at noon, Friday, October l, in the Carl Cappa
Auditorium of the Robert H. Jackson Center. The event, including a luncheon
reception following the speaker, is free-of-charge and open to the public.
Those attending the appearance of Mr. Harris also will receive a copy of his
latest book, The Tragedy of War, on which his speech is based.
Born in Seattle, Washington, on August 12, 1912, Mr. Harris attended the University
of Washington, graduating with an AB degree, magna cum laude, in l953. He
attended the law school at the University of California, graduating with a
Jurist Doctor degree in 1936.
Mr. Harris practiced law in Los Angeles from 1936 until 1942, when he entered
the United States Navy as an Ensign shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941. He served as a line officer in the Navy throughout
World War II, and remained in inactive status until August 12, 1972, when
he retired with the rank of Captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
Toward the end of World War II, Harris, by now Lieutenant Harris, was assigned
by the Navy for special duty with the Office of Strategic Services. He was
placed in charge of the investigation of war crimes in the European Theatre.
In August, 1945, Lt. Harris joined the staff of Supreme Court Justice Robert
H. Jackson in the trial of the major German war criminals at Nuremberg, Germany.
He served as a prosecutor throughout the trial until October 1, 1946, and
was primarily responsible for the prosecution of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the
Gestapo and the SD. For his work at Nuremberg, he was awarded the Legion of
Merit.
A graduate of the University of Washington and the University of California
School of Law at Berkeley, Mr. Harris is the author of Tyranny on Trial: the
Trial of Major German War Criminals at the End of World War II at Nuremberg
Germany.
Mr. Harris joined the Southern Methodist University Law School faculty following
his military service. He was Director of the Hoover Commission’s Legal
Services Task Force; served as the first Executive Director of the American
Bar Association; and was Solicitor General of Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company in St. Louis where he practiced law until his retirement.
In l998, Mr. Harris was a delegate to the United Nations-sponsored Rome conference
that resulted in the treaty that will create the International Criminal Court.
In December, 2001, Washington University, St. Louis, renamed its Institute
for Global Legal Studies in his honor.
Robert H. Jackson was a Jamestown area attorney who tapped by President Franklin
D. Roosevelt as a United States Supreme Court Justice. President Harry S.
Truman subsequently selected Jackson as Chief Prosecutor of the Nuremberg
trial of major Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II.