Long-forgotten diaries of former SMU law dean Robert G. Storey have found a new home at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. The 1945 and 1946 handwritten diaries describe Storey’s years in Nuremberg as executive trial counselor to Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson at the International Military Tribunal, which tried dozens of high-ranking Nazis for war crimes.
Storey’s family found the diaries in a suitcase at the bottom of a closet while cleaning out the family home.
Dean Storey’s work on the Tribunal is well documented – he helped gather and review the Third Reich’s own meticulous documentation to provide what Storey called “unimpeachable evidence” of crimes against the laws of war and humanity. The daily entries in the diaries, however, tell a more nuanced story of his time in Germany.
To 1983 Dedman Law graduate Harry Storey, Robert Storey was “Papaw,” a busy man who traveled the world on U.S. and legal business but still found time to host his extended family for Sunday afternoon swims and watermelon. Reading the diaries gave Harry Storey new insight about his grandfather’s life.
“He wrote often how about how much he missed his family,” Harry Storey says. “He never intended to have a military career; he was ready to return to Dallas to resume his legal career.”
A World War I veteran, Robert Storey returned to service in World War II where he served as colonel in the United States Army Air Corps, led the War Crimes Commission in Bulgaria and conducted intelligence work in the Mediterranean theater before staying in Europe after the war ended to gather evidence and support Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s prosecution of some of the most serious human rights crimes in history.
For his work preparing for and leading the trials, Storey received the U.S. Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor. He also developed a firm belief in “world peace through law,” a philosophy that motivated his work as dean of the SMU Law School and further international negotiations on behalf of the United States.
“After seeing the horrors of two world wars, he was hopeful we could find a better way to settle our differences,” Harry Storey says.
After returning to the United States, Robert Storey became dean of SMU’s law school in 1947, serving until 1959. He recruited three other Nuremberg prosecutors to join the law school faculty and focused on making the school an international legal center by hiring international law experts, promoting foreign exchange training programs and hosting international law conferences. He also created the Southwestern Legal Foundation, dedicated to providing continuing legal education to legal professionals. In 1947, he created one of the nation’s first community legal clinic programs at Dedman School of Law.
To read Robert Storey’s 1945 and 1946 digitized diaries, visit the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum website.
