Truman, Harry S, Typed Letter Signed as President, on The White House / Washington letterhead, one page, Sept. 18, 1945. One month before the Nuremberg trials begin, President Truman writes to Franklin D. Roosevelt's executors (his long-time law partner and personal friend Basil O'Connor, and Farber), requesting FDR's papers to prosecute the leaders of the Axis powers.
In part: "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 in the National Archives in the hopes of disclosing additional evidence for use in the prosecution of war criminals. Specifically…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-Departental 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 Leahy; and any commmunications to the late President from leaders of the Axis powers.
Justice Jackson has been informed that permsision to consult the papers of the late President…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…."
Robert H. Jackson, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, held in Nuremberg, Germany in 1945-46. Myron Taylor was FDR's representative to the Vatican (1940). In 1938 he was delelgate to the Evian Conference in France to help the increasing number of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution. Key ambassadorial posts were held by: William Dodd (Nazi Germany 1933-37); William Phillips (Fascisty Italy 1936-41); William Christian Bullitt, Jr. (Soviet Union 1933-36; France 1936-40); Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (Vichy France 1940-42). Leahy attended the Potsdam Conference with Truman in July, 1945. Sumner Welles, a close friend of Roosevelt's, was Under Secretary of State, 1937-43.
Estimated Value $11,000 - 15,000
U.S. Presidents
