 Robert H. Jackson of Jamestown, N.Y., above, was lead proxecutor for the U.S. in the historic Nuremberg Trials. |
A first edition of “The Case Against the Nazi War Criminals,” written more than a half-century ago by Robert H. Jackson, lead prosecutor in the historic Nuremberg Trials and also containing an inscription by the author, was recently donated by SUNY Fredonia to the Robert H. JacksonCenter.
James C. Johnson, CEO and president of the Jackson Center, accepted the book from SUNYFredonia President Virginia Horvath at a brief ceremony held Thursday, Oct. 25, at Reed Library’s Archives and Special Collections. Johnson also presented a first edition of the last book Jackson wrote, “That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt,” which wasn’t published until 2003, to Horvath.
While “The Case Against the Nazi War Criminals” itself is not rare – there’s a copy in
circulation at Reed Library – the Jackson inscription makes this copy, given to Jackson’s secretary, Ruth Sternberg, a treasure. Jackson’s FDR memoir was published in 2003.
Randy Gadikian, director of Reed Library, said he was thrilled when Barbara Kittle, archives reference librarian, discovered the book while processing some of the backlog of materials in the Archives Collection. There is no record of the book, which Gadikian reports as being in wonderful condition and having its original dust jacket, being purchased by the library. He suggests it may have been donated by someone who purchased it from a rare book dealer.
“The librarian in me wanted to keep the book, but from the perspective of an archivist you want to put things where they belong,” Gadikian said. And the Jackson Center, located in nearby
Jamestown, where Jackson lived and practiced law for 22 years, was the obvious choice for the
book’s new home.
Sternberg was Jackson’s personal secretary from 1938 to 1945, the years Jackson served in
Washington, D.C. as U.S. Solicitor General, U.S. Attorney General and associate justice of the
Supreme Court. She also accompanied him to London to prepare the London Agreement, which
established the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg Trials. Jackson gave the book to her as a
birthday gift.
