onists is vouched for by eyewitnesses, every event provable, every
quoted word was actually spoken.

To achieve this accuracy and documentary fidelity, the authors,
besides studying the material of the Trial and the relevant litera-
ture, made many journeys in Germany and beyond to the far-
scattered sources and archives; they have sought out those who
took part in the Trial--officials, witnesses, court and prison staff--
to find out details; they have played over old recordings of voices
from the Trial; and they have disinterred many hitherto unpub-
lished accounts of examinations for their work. One of the authors,
Mr. Heydecker, also drew on his personal experiences and knowl-
edge of the milieu, since he was present for the whole ten months
of the Trial in the courtroom as a newspaper and radio reporter.

The Trial of the International Military Tribunal now belongs
to history. And yet it affects the present and the future. A passage
from the opening speech by Mr. Jackson, the Chief Prosecutor,
is characteristic of the ideas that inspired the proceedings:

"Modern civilization puts limitless weapons of destruction into
the hands of mankind. . . . Every recourse to war, to any kind of
war, is recourse to measures which by their very nature are crim-
inal. War is inevitably a web of killing, invasion, loss of freedom,
and destruction of property. . . . Human reason demands that the
law should not be considered adequate if it punishes only petty
crimes of which lesser people are guilty. The law must also reach
the men who seize great power and deliberately combine to make
use of it to commit an evil which affects every home in the world.
The last step in preventing the periodic outbreak of war, which is
unavoidable with international lawlessness, is to make statesmen
responsible before the law."

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