THE CHALICE OF Nürnberg
In a nobly worded, nobly intentioned statement opening the Nürnberg trials, U.S. Prosecutor Robert Houghwout Jackson presented a warning and a goal: "We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well. We must summon such detachment and intellectual integrity to our task that this trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity's aspiration to do justice."
The...