THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Craig Terkow itz
40 Friday, June 8, 1984
TRUTH
AND THE
JUSTICE
BY SHERWOOD D. KOHN
Special to The Jewish News
rthur Joseph Goldberg,
former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Asso-
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court,
permanent U.S. Representative to
the United Nations and Ambassador
at Large and chairman of the U.S.
Delegation to the Conference on Se-
curity and Cooperation in Europe,
sat on the couch in his Washington
apartment and listened to the ques-
tion.
Why had he undertaken the
chairmanship of the American
Jewish Commission on the
Holocaust? •
Goldberg answered almost im-
' mediately. I•was a question to which
he had obviously given some
thought.
"Because I believe in truth," he
said. Just like that. A flat statement
of fact. Nothing ponderous about it.
'Through the open windows a
lawn mower 11 floors below filled the
spring air with angry buzzing and
the smell of newly cut grass. The
Goldbergs' apartment, lined with an
eclectic collection of modern art,
much of it Dorothy Goldberg's choice
and some of it her own, was an oasis
of tasteful calm.
Justice Goldberg's dark
pinstripe suit stood out against the
neutral tones of the furniture and his
dark glasses rims contrasted sharply
lieve that we must seek the truth
with his luxuriant white hair. A busy
about the Holocaust. In '43, I was in
international lawyer at 76, and al-
London with the OSS (the predeces-
most 20 years away from the Sup-___ sor to the CIA, headed by General
reme Court, Goldberg speaks judici-
"Wild Bill" Donovan). I was a major,
ously, in carefully composed sen=
special assistant to General Dono-
tences, as if he was delivering opin-
van.
ions from the bench. He leaned back
"I had a letter of introduction
against the couch pillows.
from the Jewish Labor Committee to
"I know that the truth some-
a fellow by the name of Shmuel Zeig-
times hurts," he said. "But as
lebaum. He was the representative of
Shakespeare said, `The truth will
the Polish socialist party in exile in
out,' How else are we to prevent a
Finland. The Polish government had
repetition, if we do not learn the les-
many intelligence reports coming
sons of the past?
from Poland, via the underground,
"But there is another reason, a
and Zeiglebaum would share them
personal incident that led me to be-
with• me, And I. would .share them