1945.08.01 “The Wheels of Justice”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
22 x 14 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
On May 2, 1945, President Truman appointed Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson as chief prosecutor for the United States in the proposed trials of Nazi war criminals. President Truman gave Justice Jackson free rein to choose his own staff and to design and implement the trials.
For over a month, during the summer of 1945, representatives of the Soviet, French, US and UK governments attempted to reconcile their conflicting legal concepts and devise a workable procedure for the trial. At the core of these intense negotiations was Robert H. Jackson. Jackson refused to back down on certain legal principles, most importantly, the position that aggressive warfare was an international crime.
Through July 1945, there was significant debate and discussion on how to prosecute Nazi war criminals. They were grappling with the immense task of holding Nazi leaders accountable for their crimes. The negotiations were finally successful when an agreement, The London Charter, was signed on August 8th.
The London Charter established the basis for the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg. This tribunal would try the 22 major Nazi leaders, including Hermann Goering, Reinhard Heydrich, and others. The Nuremberg Trials began on November 20, 1945.
