My Father’s Legacy: Thomas Dodd and the Nuremberg Trials

By Christopher Dodd for CT Explored

This year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most important achievements in the history of the United States, and indeed the world: the triumph of justice and the rule of law over the desire for vengeance. I am talking, of course, about the Nuremberg War Tribunal that brought the atrocities of the Holocaust to light, and the men who brought those who committed those atrocities to justice following the end of World War II.

This was an incredible achievement for mankind. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson said at the outset of the trial, “That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgement of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.” As a son of Thomas J. Dodd, this moment in human history has particular significance to me and my family. As a young, 38-year-old lawyer, my father was asked to stand up and serve his country as a prosecutor with a solemn obligation to the victims and survivors of the Nazi atrocities to ensure that justice prevailed over inhumanity.

“as he would write to my mother, ‘sometimes a man knows his duty, his responsibility so clearly, so surely he cannot hesitate—he does not refuse it.’”

In the summer of 1945 my father left my mother, myself, and my four brothers and sisters to spend 15 months in Nuremberg, Germany working to bring some of the worst criminals in history to justice because, as he would write to my mother, “sometimes a man knows his duty, his responsibility so clearly, so surely he cannot hesitate—he does not refuse it. Even great pain and other sacrifices seem unimportant in such a situation. The pain is no less for this knowledge—but the pain has a purpose at least.”

He also believed that being a part of this trial was “the highest calling of the legal profession,” and that throughout the rest of his career “nothing will ever be really as important” as what he sought to accomplish at Nuremberg.

The Nuremberg Tribunal was a seminal moment in my father’s life, shaping the rest of his career in the U.S. House of Representatives and as a United States Senator. But, on a far more personal level, Nuremberg and my father’s role in it played an important role in my life as well—as a legislator and public servant.

Growing up in Connecticut, I knew far more about the tragic events of the Holocaust than most people of my generation. In those days, the Holocaust still wasn’t widely talked about. But my father wanted his six children to learn and to never forget. Night after night, gathered around our dining room table for dinner, my father would share stories about his 15 months at Nuremberg.

He would talk about the rule of law, constitutional and human rights, and about the responsibilities of every citizen to speak up and take action to ensure these types of crimes are never again wrought upon the world. Those discussions around our dining room table were an amazing education, filled with lessons that have guided me throughout my years in the U.S. Congress, working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to promote peace and human rights throughout the world while fighting to ensure the protection of the rule of law here at home.

Over the years my family and I have sought to continue my father’s legacy and the legacy of Nuremberg in various ways. With the help of President Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel we opened the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on the UConn campus in 1995 to study and promote human rights around the globe.

Christopher Dodd was U. S. Senator representing Connecticut (1981 – 2011) and is a member of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center Advisory Board. This article first appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of Connecticut Explored, the magazine and podcast of Connecticut history, and appears here with permission.