BY DAY they paced the courtroom, conducting verbal duels with the architects of the Third Reich and founders of the gas chamber. But by night they sipped champagne, dined on veal and danced until the small hours.
The Nuremberg trials, at which the German High Command were held to account for the Second World War and the Holocaust, have been cast in a sparkling new light by a cache of personal documents to be auctioned this weekend.
The invitations and pho
tographs of a secretary at the trials reveal how staff escaped after the horrific testimony of the day, with lavish suppers, dinner-dances and nights at the opera.
Kathleen Kentish, who typed more than a million words during her year at the international military tribunal, attended cocktail parties at the private residence of the Russian prosecutor and enjoyed a buffet supper followed by dancing with the American prosecution team.
While Germans struggled on meagre rations, the Allied legal teams had Champagne, with French prosecutors serving veal and snails at one dinner. The boss of Kathleen Kentish was Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, who was born in Edinburgh and became the youngest King's Counsel in 250 years when appointed, aged 34, in 1934.
Considered one of the finest legal minds of his generation, Sir David helped Sir Hartley Shawcross, the official British prosecutor, by conducting many of the cross-examinations, most notably against Hermann Göring, the second-in-command of the Third Reich and head of the Luftwaffe, the German air force.
Miss Kentish, from south London, also attended dinners at the Grand Hotel in Nuremberg and the city's tennis club. She was meant to be in Nuremberg for only three months, but ended up covering the entire trial.
As a reward for her hard work she was given a front-row seat for the sentencing of Göring, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and 21 other Nazi leaders.
Tickets for the seats were hugely sought-after. Hers, along with her party invitations, rarely seen photographs of the trial and its leading players, and a floorplan of the court will be sold at auction on Saturday.
Alan Aldridge, of auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Sons, of Devizes, Wiltshire, said: "This collection gives a fascinating snapshot of a side of life surrounding the Nuremberg trials hardly anybody knew about.
"It seems that members of the prosecution teams hosted regular high-society functions in private villas and top hotels and invited many people connected with the trials. During the working day there must have been some really grim and harrowing evidence that would have been discussed in great detail.
"I guess having a thriving social life was a way of escaping that for many people."
The Nuremberg trials began on 14 November, 1945, and ended on 1 October, 1946. The main trial involved 24 Nazis who were indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Andrew Roberts, the military historian, said: "The stress these men were under was enormous. They could not afford to fail.
"Göring became a rather formidable witness for the defence, but Sir David was operating at the top of his game.
"At the end of a hard day should we begrudge them a glass of Champagne and a dance or a nice meal? I don't think so. They managed to hang the most evil men in history."
Spoof memo plots Scottish domination of London AMONG Kathleen Kentish's collection is a spoof memo which describes how the Scots are about to take over London – and its newspapers.
The document, marked "top secret" is dated 1 June, 1946 and was apparently sent to Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the secretary of state for Scotland, and a joke list of people with the same names as whiskies, such as Johnny Walker.
The tongue-in-cheek missive starts off by stating the glorious Fuhrer, the MacAdam, has expressed his desire to annihilate the newspaper industry.
It goes on to say that upon receiving a special codeword, the "Scottish Underground" movement in London will blow up the scales of justice above the Old Bailey and replace them with a thistle.
It then states how the "use of the word 'little' is to be banned and replaced in all cases by the word 'wee'."
The memo lists the names of the national newspapers of the day which are to be renamed accordingly.
For example, the Daily Sketch is to become the Faded Tartan.
It is not clear who was behind the spoof memo but it may have been drafted by Kentish as it was in her possession.
The full article contains 767 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
