How to Go
What: Salute to Veterans
Where: Faith Community United Methodist Church, 8230 Cox Road, West Chester
When: Nov. 8, 7 p.m.
Cost: Free
More info: (513) 777-9533.
As World War II came to a close and the atrocities of the Nazi regime became evident, a select group of men were assigned the task of questioning the captured leaders of Nazi Germany’s high command. Their objective? To gather evidence for the prosecution in advance of the Nuremberg Trials, to discover who facilitated the orders for Hitler’s “final solution,” who was in charge of the concentration camps, and who knew what and when.
John Dolibois, a Miami University alumnus, was one of those interrogators. In the years since, in addition to returning as an administrator for Miami and serving as Ronald Reagan’s Ambassador to Luxembourg (his native country), Dolibois has given many speeches about his Nuremberg experiences around the nation. Now, at 95 years of age, he will do so again at the Faith Community United Methodist Church’s Veterans Day-themed “Salute to Veterans” event Friday.
According to Dolibois, the Nazi defendants’ responses to their interrogations were a mixed bag of remorse and denial. In any case, he said that he and his team were so well prepared beforehand that there were few surprises.
“We were thoroughly trained on every aspect of their personalities,” he said. “Even their facial expressions and mannerisms. We listened to their recorded speeches and watched their own captured films. They were not all alike. They were tall, short, skinny, fat, had high IQs and low. They were not the ‘supermen’ they were supposed to be.”
The high-profile Nazis Dolibois interviewed included Hermann Goring, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Julius Streicher, Robert Ley and Joachim von Ribbentrop.
In his speeches, Dolibois has recounted how struck he was by his charges’ occasional flashes of humanity. For instance, Julius Streicher, who published a viciously anti-Semitic newspaper (and even a few children’s books where Jews were depicted as poisonous, deceptively attractive mushrooms), asked Dolibois to pass along loving messages to his wife, Adele, and ended one conversation by placing his hand on Doliboi’s shoulder, saying, “If my wife touches you in the same place, then I’ll be close to her.”
“He was like a (Fascist) policeman who could be a great husband and father yet hard-hearted and overbearing to the criminals under his command,” Dolibois said.
Another popular Dolibois anecdote involves Robert Ley, who was head of the German Labour Front, the major Nazi trade union under Hitler. Ley claimed to have a stutter, which Dolibois initially thought was feigned. Ley eventually revealed that alcohol relieved his stutter, which led Dolibois to wryly conclude that when Ley gave speeches to the German masses, he was almost always “soused.”
“Streicher and Ley were disliked by most of the other Nazis,” Dolibois said. “They were both close to Hitler. There was a lot of envy and jealousy among them. We capitalized on that.”
In retrospect, Dolibois’s views on the effectiveness of Nuremberg are mixed. On one hand, he feels that, for the most part, justice was served as far as the individual defendants were concerned.
“I think the three that were acquitted were handled correctly,” he said. “Their activities didn’t meet the general indictment. I think (Alfred) Jodl should’ve served some prison time instead of being hanged. I think Albert Speer was let off easily, considering the close role he held with Hitler and his functions. There were a few others I think should’ve gotten more, some less. Of course, my judgment is based on what I learned during our chats.”
However, Dolibois is less enthusiastic about Nuremberg’s historical legacy.
“Crimes against humanity happen around the world daily,” he said. “Nuremberg hasn’t had any effect on any of the wars since World War II. But you have to bear in mind that many of the Nazi leaders not tried at Nuremberg were tried in other countries, including Germany. And Nazi hunters are still tracing SS guards. Of course, they’re all in their 90s now. There’s isn’t much of a score left, but we still want revenge.”
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