John Amen

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John Harlan Amen (born September 15, 1898 in Exeter , NH ; † March 10, 1960 in New York City ) was an American prosecutor who conducted the interrogation of the defendants and witnesses at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial.

life and work

On July 25, 1926, John Amen married the widowed Marion Cleveland (1895–1977), the youngest daughter of President Grover Cleveland . She brought a daughter from her first marriage to William Stanley Dell. In 1928 he was appointed Special Assistant to the US Attorney in New York State, where he was responsible for the fight against organized crime until 1942 . He was the first to implement antitrust laws to combat the Mafia and other gangs. He was known in this office by the nickname Racket-Buster (gang destroyer).

During the Second World War he was appointed Head of the Interrogation Division of the United Nations War Crimes Commission , and carried the rank of US Colonel . His immediate supervisor was Robert H. Jackson . Amen led the interrogation of the defendants and witnesses in the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals , and appeared as an interrogator of the prosecution in the case of important witnesses. B. Otto Ohlendorf's testimony on January 3, 1946. One of Amen's employees was the chief interpreter Richard Sonnenfeldt , who accompanied him during his own interrogations of Germans whose language he did not speak. During the interrogation of Hermann Göring , Amen used an interrogation tactic that was typical of him: he almost exclusively asked Göring questions about acts for which the prosecution already had evidence. Goering denied everything under oath . Only then did Amen confront him with the orders he had signed himself, the existence of which Goering had previously denied. When presenting the evidence in the court case, Amen then quoted the minutes of the interrogations with Goring's lies in addition to the documents. Although Göring, as a defendant, could not be prosecuted for false testimony, his credibility in the trial was severely damaged.

Together with his former assistant in the public prosecutor's office, Herman L. Weisman (1904-1999), and a third partner, he founded the law firm Amen Weisman & Butler in New York after the war , and after Amen's death it became Finley Kumble, one of the largest American firms Law Firms 1980s. John Harlan Amen died in Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. He is buried with his wife in Princeton Cemetery , New Jersey. A 1951 oral history interview with Amen is on file with Columbia University.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sandra L. Quinn-Musgrove, Sanford Kanter: America's royalty: all the presidents' children . Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, ISBN 0313295352 , pp. 134-135.
  2. ↑ a b John Harlan Amen Dies at 61 - Won Fame as a Racket-Buster and Led Inquiry Into Brooklyn Corruption, was a Counsel at Nuremberg . In: New York Times, March 11, 1960, p. 25. (obituary)
  3. ^ Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal , Vol. IV, pp. 311-355 . (Volume 4 of the Blue Series )
  4. ^ Richard Sonnenfeldt: Witness to Nuremberg . New York 2006, p. 11.
  5. ^ Richard Sonnenfeldt: Witness to Nuremberg . New York 2006, pp. 18-22.
  6. ↑ Eric Pace: Herman Weisman, 95, Leader in Zionist Groups . In: New York Times, March 13, 1999.
  7. ↑ Kim Isaac Eisler: Shark Tank: Greed, Politics, and the Collapse of Finley Kumble, One of America's Largest Law Firms . Beard Books, 2004, ISBN 1587982382 , p. 20.
  8. ↑ John Amen in the Find a Grave database . Accessed September 2, 2017.
  9. ↑ John Harlan Amen: Reminiscences of John Harlan Amen: oral history, 1951 . In: "Oral History Research Office Collection", Columbia University, catalog no. NXCP86-A115.
personal data
SURNAME Amen, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Amen, John Harlan; Amen, John H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American prosecutor
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Exeter , New Hampshire
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1960
Place of death New York City