Auction Date:2010 Apr 14 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Important TLS as president, one page, 8 x 10.5, White House letterhead, September 18, 1945. Truman writes to the Executors of the Estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt, requesting permission to obtain and view Roosevelt’s papers stored at the National Archives for use in the indictment and prosecution of Nazi war criminals.
In full: “Justice Robert H. Jackson, United States Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, wishes permission to examine certain papers of the late President Roosevelt now on deposit at the National Archives in the hopes of disclosing additional evidence for use in the prosecution of war criminals. Specifically, the Justice hopes that he, or members of his staff, may receive permission to examine the report submitted to President Roosevelt by Mr. Sumner Welles upon his return from Europe in 1940; the reports submitted to the President by Mr. Myron Taylor while he served on the Inter-Departmental Committee on Political Refugees and those later submitted by him while he was the President’s personal representative at the Vatican; personal letters to President Roosevelt from Ambassadors Dodd, Phillips, Bullitt, and Leshy; and any communications to the late President from leaders of the Axis powers.
“Justice Jackson has been informed that permission to consult the papers of the late President now at the National Archives must be granted by the Executors of the Estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. On his behalf, I should like to request that effort be made to locate the documents described above; that, upon location, they be sent to the White House; and that Justice Jackson, or officials properly designated by him, be given permission to examine and make such extracts from the papers as are deemed necessary by the Justice in executing his official tasks as Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality.
“I hope that the Executors of the Estate will find it possible in the near future to grant the permission I have requested. I shall ensure that any documents made available to Justice Jackson, or members of his staff, at the White House will be returned to the National Archives as soon as they are examined.”
World War II had only recently ended when the Allied powers set out to prosecute Axis leaders who had terrorized Europe. Relying on judicial process, Truman asked Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson to serve as chief US prosecutor in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. To that end, Jackson asked Truman to supply the referenced papers from FDR, who had died in April, for use in the prosecution of war criminals. The goal was to prove that while German authorities claimed to be working toward peace, their end goal was quite different. FDR had dispatched Welles, Undersecretary of State, to Europe to determine the war aims of the belligerent powers and to determine the possibility of negotiating a peace plan, submitting a report in March 1940. Two years earlier, Taylor served on a delegation to the Evian Conference in France to discuss the issue of increasing the number of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution—with the failure of the conference to develop a plan strengthening Adolf Hitler’s goal of domination. Taylor also served as FDR’s representative to the Vatican, with the intent of preventing Italy from forming an alliance with Germany. To bolster their case, Jackson requested the correspondence, as noted here, from the ambassadors assigned to such locations as Germany, Italy, and France. In reviewing these papers, the war crimes judges planned to show a pattern of German deception in the early days of the war leading to the German invasion of France. The first and best known war trial was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, which tried 22 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany. It began November 21, 1945, with the prosecution—assisted by documents from the FDR archive—laying out the case for participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace; war crimes; and crimes against humanity. Significant communication planning for Nuremberg! Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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