Henri donnedieu de vabres biography of abraham

Each of the four Allied countries that had formed the International Military Tribunal -- the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union -- provided one judge and one alternate for the court that convened in the fall of 1945.

Great Britain's Judges

Ruddy-faced British judge Geoffrey Lawrence, the sixty-year-old former Lord Chief Justice of England, served as president of the court, presiding over the trial and breaking any ties.

British alternate judge Norman Birkett, one of the foremost criminal lawyers in England, was known for representing an American woman, Wallis Simpson, in the 1936 divorce that enabled her to marry King Edward VIII.

The American Judges

When he took office in April 1945, President Harry Truman had fired President Franklin Roosevelt's attorney general, Francis Biddle.

To dispel hard feelings, the new president appointed Biddle as the judge for the Nuremberg trial. Truman was also considering the appointment of Jo