OPINION

unprecedented, but so were the
crimes. The trials did not go far
enough, and most Nazis and their col- --`
laborators were never held account-
able for the murders. Nonetheless,
the application of the rule of law to
those responsible for genocide was a
historical phenomenon that resonates
today when we speak of Kosovo,
Bosnia or Rwanda.
Despite their shortcomings, the
Nuremberg Trials and related proceed-
ings helped foster a sense of individual
legal and moral accountability in time
of war. They also constituted an extraor-
dinarily powerful public education

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Without an
attempt at
justice, any
moral reckoning
with history
will remain
incomplete.

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about the nature of our species and the
potential for even "civilized" nations to
go horribly awry. And they created a
historical record of the Nazi genocide.
During World War II, the Allies usee'\
the threat of war crimes prosecutions in
hopes of encouraging Germans to with-
draw support for their nation's military
campaign. It did not work. We can only
hope that today the threat of war crimes
trials occurs in a different context, and
rouses at least the attention of those
who would be bystanders.
The strength of that context
depends on the continued, immediaee
and highly visible submission of evi-
dence by the NATO countries to the
International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia.
As we end our murderous century,
it is not at all clear that a public stan-
dard of legal and moral accountability
or a personal understanding of histo-
ry's painful lessons can help us over /\
come our worst impulses. But the
alternative is so terrible, we cannot
afford not to try. 7

Sara J. Bloomfield is executive direc-
tor United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.