A soldier of the "Greatest Generation" - the only Jew in his unit - who served in Europe provides us with some important perspective on the current debate about trials, secret evidence, and the Geneva Conventions.
Today, in the midst of a national debate on how to treat captured terror suspects, my mind flashes back to Room 600 at Furtherstrasse 22. We gave Goering and the other war criminals a chance not only to defend themselves but in some cases, preach hate and violence.
In a ruined Germany, where so many corpses still lay buried in the rubble, and life seemed so very fragile, we found it in ourselves to give the worst of men due process.
If we can afford Herman Goering, arguably one of the worst creatures in human history, an open trial with legal representation and no secret evidence, how can we not offer the same to the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay?
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