On This Day in Politics: May 2, 1945
On May 2, 1945, President Harry Truman appointed Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson to lead the United States’ work preparing and prosecuting charges against major European Axis leaders. Executive Order 9547 gave him a central role in a project that would become the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Germany had not yet formally surrendered, and the international court had not yet been established. The appointment therefore marked a decision about how the United States would pursue accountability after the war, rather than the opening of a trial. Jackson’s task combined legal preparation, organization, and negotiations with the other Allied powers.
Jackson brought experience from several branches of American public service. He had served as attorney general before joining the Supreme Court in 1941, and he remained a justice while undertaking the temporary prosecution assignment. The problem facing him was larger than presenting an ordinary criminal case. Governments needed agreement on the tribunal’s authority, the crimes it could consider, and procedures for trying leaders whose actions crossed national borders. They also needed investigators, lawyers, records, and a workable courtroom. Naming a senior legal figure gave the American effort a recognizable representative, but it did not settle those questions or determine the defendants’ individual responsibility in advance.
The institutional framework developed during the following months. Jackson submitted a report to Truman in June, outlining an approach to the proposed proceedings. Negotiations in London then brought together representatives of the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Their August agreement and accompanying charter supplied the basis for the tribunal. Nuremberg was selected as the trial location because its Palace of Justice and adjacent prison could accommodate the proceedings, although substantial courtroom alterations were still required. These practical decisions belonged to the preparation that followed the May appointment. They should not be compressed into a claim that Truman created the complete Nuremberg court with a single order.
The trial opened on November 20, 1945, and Jackson delivered the American prosecution’s opening statement the next day. The prosecution relied heavily on captured German documents, alongside testimony and other evidence. Defendants had counsel and opportunities to challenge the case against them, even as the victorious powers controlled the tribunal. The proceedings helped establish individual accountability for crimes committed through government and military institutions and gave lasting force to the category of crimes against humanity. They did not prosecute every perpetrator or resolve every dispute about postwar justice. May 2 remains significant as the point when Truman entrusted the American contribution to that unprecedented international undertaking to Jackson.
Jackson’s assignment required both courtroom skills and diplomacy. Before presenting evidence, the Allies had to agree on the rules and authority of a joint tribunal.
His Supreme Court service began in 1941. The prosecution role was temporary, and he returned to the Court after the international trial.
The May executive order organized the American role. The four-power agreement establishing the tribunal’s framework came later, in August.
The appointment did not amount to a verdict. Individual charges and evidence still had to be presented in judicial proceedings.
Nuremberg’s surviving courthouse and nearby prison offered practical advantages in a badly damaged city. The courtroom was enlarged and equipped for multilingual proceedings.
The best-known international trial was followed by other prosecutions. It was one major component of a much wider and uneven effort to address Nazi crimes.
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