St. John's University Law Faculty Blog

On November 20, 2015, the 70^th anniversary of the start of the 1945-1946 Nuremberg international

John Barrett

trial of Nazi war criminals following World War II, Professor John Q. Barrett participated in Nuremberg’s official commemoration event.

In historic Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice, Professor Barrett delivered an introductory lecture and then moderated a conversation with three men who worked in the trial process seventy years ago:  Yves Beigbeder, then an assistant to the French judge; Father Moritz Fuchs, then the bodyguard of U.S. Chief of Counsel Robert H. Jackson; and George Sakheim, then a U.S. interpreter and translator.

For streaming video of the event, click here—after welcoming remarks (in German) from

L-R, Lord Mayor Ulrich Maly, Dr. Yves Beigbeder, Dr. George Sakheim, Fr. Moritz Fuchs & Professor Barrett.

Nuremberg’s Lord Mayor and then a senior German judge, Professor Barrett’s speech (in English) begins at 16:45, followed by the roundtable (in English) beginning at 30:40.  Professor Barrett’s speech text also is downloadable here.

Professor Barrett is biographer of Justice Robert H. Jackson and writer of The Jackson List.

John Barrett

Professor John Q. Barrett has, in this 70^th anniversary year of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, given a number of recent lectures regarding the Nuremberg trials:

• On October 9^th, he spoke on “Justice Jackson, Communicating the Nuremberg Trial: Prosecuting the Nazis Before the Eyes of the World, 1945-1946,” at the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeals annual conference, held in East Rutherford, New Jersey;
• On October 16^th, he spoke on “The Rule of Law at Nuremberg, 1945-1946 (and Its Lessons for Today),” at Canada’s National Judicial Institute Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba Education Seminar, held in Winnipeg;
• On October 21^st, he delivered a keynote lecture, “The 70^th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials: What Happened Then and Why It Matters Now,” at Daemen College in Buffalo, New York; and
• On November 3^rd, he spoke, on the Nuremberg trials, at a Museum of Jewish Heritage professional development program for hundreds of New York City teachers.

Professor Barrett is biographer of U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) and writer of The Jackson List.