Go On! International prosecutors' chautauqua

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia of interest.) The meaty topic to be addressed at an August 29 discussion at New York's Chatauqua Institution is "The Laws of War: Past, Present, and Future". Featured is a stellar panel of men who've served as prosecutors in international criminal tribunals; in order of tribunal seniority, they are:
►International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg: Whitney Harris, Henry King
►International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: David Tolbert
►International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Hassan Jallow
►International Criminal Court: Luis Moreno-Ocampo
►Special Court for Sierra Leone: David M. Crane, Desmond DeSilva, Stephen Rapp
►Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Robert Petit
Moderating the event, whose cosponsors include the American Society of International Law, will be a number of international criminal law experts. Among them is our colleague Leila Nadya Sadat. She's the only woman on the program, though women've worked on the prosecution in all these jurisdictions. One is Cecilia Goetz (above), among a number of women prosecutors at Nuremberg. Learning more about them is, thanks to our own Beatrice, an ongoing IntLawGrrls quest. (More on Goetz' colleagues -- IntLawGrrls Women at Nuremberg series --begins tomorrow.)
Understood that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, once Chief Prosecutor at the ad hoc tribunals, and her successor, Carla del Ponte, might be tad busy these days. But perhaps future sessions -- with luck, this "International Humanitarian Law Dialog" will become an annual event -- will feature them or others who might add insights to what promises to be a powerful dialogue.

"Beatrice" = "Ceil Goetz"?

In an exchange prompted by the New York Times’ reference to Nuremberg lawyer Phillis Heller (see my most recent post), Nuremberg Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz provided a crucial lead concerning my identity. Recalling his conversation with the person who helped (re)discover me, Mr. Ferencz says: “My guess is that we talked about Cecilia Goetz, who was one of the attorneys assigned to work on the case against Alfried Krupp.” (She is pictured at left addressing the tribunal during Krupp, 1 of the "industrialists" cases tried at Nuremberg.)
“During the trial by the International Military Tribunal conducted by the US, UK, USSR and France,” he continued, “I do not recall having seen a female in the courtroom as either prosecutor, defense counsel or judge. In the 12 ‘Subsequent Proceedings’ run by the US at Nuremberg, there was no female on the bench nor as defense counsel selected by the accused.” But, Mr. Ferencz added, he recalled 3 women who served on the prosecution team in the “Subsequent Proceedings” at Nuremberg—Mary Kaufman, Belle Mayer Zeck, and Ms. Goetz, known as “Ceil.”
A profile of in the alumni magazine of New York University Law School, where Cecelia Goetz was editor-in-chief of the law review, describes her journey from the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of Justice to Nuremberg:

At the Department of Justice, Goetz became the first woman ever to be offered a supervisory role. She declined this in favor of joining the prosecution team at the Nuremberg Trials. She had been following the reports of human rights abuses during World War II and very much wanted the opportunity to take part in bringing the perpetrators of the abuses to justice. To achieve this took persistence on her part. The War Department did not want women appointed to senior level positions. It was Brigadier General Telford Taylor who recognized her credentials and pushed for her appointment. Goetz spent two years in Nuremberg with the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, as an associate counsel in the prosecution of the Flick and Krupp cases. Decades later upon reflecting on all of her achievements she still considered the time spent there as the most important work in which she had ever been involved. In retrospect, it was quite an impressive accomplishment considering the barriers that existed. At that time many law schools did not even admit women.

I believe Mr. Ferencz has identified my real name. But I will continue to post under the name Beatrice, now used as a short-hand for of all of the path-breaking women lawyers at Nuremberg—whose real names and contributions deserve to be known, remembered, and honored.