Two more days are gone.  I cross-examined Alfred Rosenberg this morning and think I did an adequate job–everyone seemed highly pleased with it…I did it in about two hours and thereby set a new record here–and I trust a new pattern for the rest of the case…I tell you, Grace, if I had command of each defense case I could cut this trial in half.  [p. 287, 4/17/1946]

Having made some slight progress in moving the trials forward, Dodd and Jackson took advantage of a brief break to travel. Driving through the Alps, they first stopped in Garmisch. “It is a beautiful place in the Alps” in stark contrast with the midday stop at Dachau. “We saw the Dauchau camp–the gas chambers and crematory where thousands were executed and disposed of by the Nazis.” [p. 289, 4/19/1946] The men spent East Sunday in Oberammergau, “a lovely Bavarian community.” Riding in a open jeep, the men drove to Innsbruck, traveled the Brenner Pass and crossed the Austrian-Italian border. “I could look down the precipices as we rode along. Really Grace, we must do all of this with the children someday.” [p. 290, 4/21/1946].

Looking forward to a future reunited with his family, Dodd and Jackson returned, slightly refreshed, to resume their work in Nurnberg.

–Owen Doremus and Betsy Pittman

[Owen Doremus, a junior at Edwin O. Smith High School, is supporting this blog series with research and writing as part of an independent study.]

The majority of the letters from Tom Dodd to his wife Grace have been published and can be found in Letters from Nuremberg, My father’s narrative of a quest for justice. Senator Christopher J. Dodd with Lary Bloom. New York: Crown Publishing, 2007.

Images available in Thomas J. Dodd Papers.