By Henry T. King, Jr.  Former Nuremberg Prosecutor

[Theodore Fenstermacher of Cortland, New York, died in November 2001 at the age of 83. Many will remember he served on the Wells Board of Trustees from 1986-95 and was vice chair from 1991-93.

Born in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, he was a graduate of Tamaqua High School and Blair Academy. In 1940, he earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton and in 1942 graduated from the law school at Yale University. 

Mr. Fenstermacher began practicing law at the firm of Debevoise, Stevenson, Plimpton and Page Esqs., in New York City. In 1946, he left for Germany to help prepare cases for the Nuremberg war crimes trials. In 1947, he was named chief prosecutor in the case of Field Marshals' List. He later worked for the law firm of Folmer, Ryan, Fenstermacher and Yesawich, Cortland, and currently was a general practice lawyer. 

His wife, the former Nancy K. Hughes, died in 1967. He is survived by two daughters, a son, and two grandchildren.]
 

My words here today are from the heart. Ted Fenstermacher needs no one to speak for him - his record speaks for itself. But I want to share with you some memories about an important mission that Ted and I undertook together.

The time was late 1945 and the war had just ended. Ted came to my apartment one Sunday night for dinner. Ted and I, who were Yale Law School classmates, were both working at giant New York law firms. I had invited Ted so I could crow about a new affiliation with a smaller law firm where I would be a big fish in a smaller pond. After I made my announcement I listened for Ted's applause. However, there was no applause because Ted said he had an announcement of his own. He said he didn't want to upstage me, but that he was joining the U.S. prosecution staff at the Nuremberg trials. I didn't sleep that night - my wife wouldn't let me - and the following day I was on the steps of the Pentagon seeking to join Ted in this new adventure. It wasn't long thereafter that Ted and I were sailing past the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor around 3:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon en route to Nuremberg.

We were sailing into an unknown world, a world which our New York lawyer colleagues said was fraught with uncertainty and insecurity. They felt that we were, in effect, losing our place in line on the avenue of success. But we stuck to our guns and mutually supported each other in our decision to go.

After a very rough two week trip on the stormy seas of the North Atlantic, Ted and I arrived at the Nuremberg Bahnhof (railroad station) in a blinding rainstorm at about 4:30 one morning in the early spring of 1946. I felt a certain symbolism about the changes, which had taken place as we moved across the square from the railroad station to our future residence, namely the Grand Hotel, where Hitler and his minions had stayed not many months before. We slept very little that Friday night and as dawn broke on the following morning we walked together through the rubble of what had been so very recently a great city, to the Nuremberg Court House, where the first trial of individuals for international war crimes was then in process. We knew at that time that we were moving ahead on untrod ground where no humans had ever moved before. But Ted and I felt a sense of mission to make the world a better place for future individuals to live and fulfill their destinies. 

The death and destruction exemplified by the Nuremberg rubble and the violence that precipitated it was, in our view, past history. We wanted to find a better way to develop and enforce a new set of principles, which would govern man's behavior toward his fellow man. We sought a rule of law to replace the rule of force and we wanted individuals, regardless of their high rank, for the first time in history to be held accountable for international crimes. We gave of ourselves with total commitment to see that this new order would become a reality.

Ted Fenstermacher carried the torch for a better world at Nuremberg and he did it from his heart. We are all better for his profound commitment to that objective.

He was "Mr. Integrity." He had ideals and he stuck with these ideals in foul weather, as well as fair. He made decisions wisely and people could put their trust in him. For Ted, human rights were for the many and not just the privileged few. He was the ultimate citizen of the world who worked for the benefit of all humankind.

For me Nuremberg became a reality because of Ted Fenstermacher. He was my friend. I shall miss him as a friend, but his spirit will always be with me as it will be in those who knew him well and were spiritually enriched by his friendship. 

Delivered December 8, 2001, in Cortland, New York.