After Fifteen Years

Book excerpt: A Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Story Of Nazi War Crimes Trials Disclosed Here For The First Time Leon Jaworski was a prodigal lawyer, the youngest person ever to be admitted to the Texas Bar and was involved in some of the important cases in legal history. His enduring fame came from leading the prosecution of the Watergate case, United States v Nixon, and heading the large Texas based law firm Fulbright and Jaworski. Jaworski wrote a number of autobiographical books, in this, his first volume of memoirs, he reflects on his wartime career during which he served in the United States Army judge advocate general’s department . He was made chief of the trial section of the war crimes branch in the late stages of the war in Europe. In this office he directed investigations of several hundred cases concerning German crimes against persons living and fighting in the American zone of occupation. He also personally tried two cases—the first having to do with the murder of American aviators shot down over Germany in 1944 and the second involving the doctors and staff of a German sanatorium where Polish and Russian prisoners were put to death. Jaworski had risen to the rank of colonel by the time he returned to civilian life in October 1945.