Courtroom reconciliation
Last week. Jan. 27. International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
History. In 2005 Touro Law School professor, former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler organized a Nuremberg, Germany, seminar. I was there. It was inside the actual Courtroom 600 — wood-lined, marble floors, crystal chandeliers — where judges, lawyers, the Third Reich’s entire legal profession had sworn allegiance to the Führer.
It’s where, in 1945, Von Ribbentrop, Hess, Goering — penned in an underground cell — stood trial before a supreme tribunal. Five elevators blocked for the prisoners. Windows bricked up so nobody could shoot in. Judges sat backs to the wall. Four doors. On one, a frieze of the scales of justice. Oddly, on another, the Ten Commandments. This supreme courthouse was dedicated in 1916 by King Ludwig III.
And why was this trial in Nuremberg? Russia preferred Berlin. The USA demanded Nuremberg. Why? Because that had been Hitler country. Cauldron of Naziism. Where it all began.
We visitors had headphones and translations when the information was in German. Yellow lights signified “Slow up for translations,” red lights meant “Stop.”
Himmler and Goebbels committed suicide before the trial, but Goering did so on the eve of his execution. Hitler’s body? Never found. Von Ribbentrop was hanged. Each was removed “in a simple wooden coffin with just a name attached by a card.”
During the Third Reich that courtroom condemned over 12 people to death each day.
The seminar also extended to opulent Wannsee Villa. I saw where, in 1942, Adolf Eichmann and others met over cognac to plan “The Final Solution.” Participants included lawyers — a majority percent of the judiciary were Nazi party members. None objected to exterminating 11 million innocents.
Said was that a country stands on its legal system. And when that legal system goes, the country goes.
An invited American jurist was quoted to me saying: “I like to think I would not have been a part of it. But … if I were a judge during then …. if my career and future depended on my complicity … I wonder … ”
On the acting grind
Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster’s “The Music Man” officially opens — again — Feb. 10. Preview audiences now give them standing ovations … J.K. Simmons, in every movie made last year, is in “National Champions” with Kristin Chenoweth, who says: “I like to be on set for every scene whether I’m in it or not. I don’t understand people saying ‘Oh I’m not in this shot.’ In the theater when you step on that stage it doesn’t matter if you’re in the background or playing a tree, you’re seen.”
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We need to know
NOW. Today. The immediate question this world must ask itself is: Do Britain’s Boris Johnson and Washington’s Jen Psaki have the same hair colorist?
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Gather ’round
Jan. 26’s International Sous Vide Day — which who knew existed — Cuisine Solutions — which who knew existed — sent chef-curated food to honor Dr. Bruno Goussault, their Master of Modern Sous Vide and Chief Cuisine Solutioner — which I didn’t know existed … Thank beautiful Keiko Aoki, widow of Benihana’s creator Rocky Aoki, for sending homebound friends cooked Japanese dinners … and Stanley Tucci, vacationing at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, did a screening of his “Julie & Julia” in the outdoor Cinema Paradiso, and then cooked an Italian banquet.
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There’s no business like snow business. Friday and Saturday put a chill on everyone’s sex life. So let’s don’t any gent complain East Coast ladies were frigid this weekend. Not. One Superman even froze his “S” off.
And that was only in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, kids — only in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.
