Dorothea Grater Minskoff Explained

Dorothea Grater Minskoff
Birth Date:20 February 1910
Birth Place:Pennsylvania, US
Death Place:Brevard County, Florida, US
Known For:Prosecutor at Nuremberg
Occupation:Lawyer
Alma Mater:Penn Law

Dorothea ("Dottie") Grater Minskoff (1910–1986) was a lawyer who participated in the Ministries Trial in Nuremberg, Germany.[1] She was born in Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School at a time when few women were in law school.[2]

Personal life

Minskoff attended law school in the 1930s at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She graduated from law school in 1934.[2] Minskoff met her husband, Emanuel E. Minskoff, in law school and both were in the graduating class of 1934.[3] [4] They lived in New York for eight years before moving to Washington, D.C.[5] She had two sister-in-laws and no children.[5] Minskoff lost her husband in 1965 after a long battle with illness.[5]

By 1978, she had moved to Florida where she died in 1986.[6]

Early career

Minskoff could not find a job as a lawyer after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Instead, she took a job as a secretary for the American Bankers Association.[7]

Law practice

Minskoff and her husband were recruited to join the prosecution team for the Ministries Trial by their friend, Josiah E. DuBois Jr., who served as the Chief Prosecutor.[8] The Ministries Trial was the largest, longest, and last of the Nuremberg trials where the U.S. Military prosecuted Hitler's government officials for crimes against humanity.[9] She was one of thirty-four prosecution attorneys.[10] She helped prosecute twenty-one Nazi officials.[11] Her job included reviewing trial documents, including secret memos.[11] The trials presented difficult legal questions when there was no precedent for an international criminal trial.[12]

It was not common for women to practice law in the 1940s, let alone practice law on the international stage with a high profile trial. As a result, it was unusual that there were multiple women on the prosecution trial team.[13]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dorothea Minskoff photographs - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021.
  2. Web site: EMANUEL E. AND DOROTHEA G. MINSKOFF PAPERS, 1944-1985 1997.A.0254 . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives . 1 December 2021. Biographical note.
  3. Web site: Law Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania . Law Alumni Journal . Fall 1965.
  4. Web site: Dorothea Minskoff photographs - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021.
  5. Web site: Emanuel E. and Dorothea G. Minskoff papers - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021 . (Series 3, File 2, Document 7).
  6. Web site: Emanuel E. and Dorothea G. Minskoff papers - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021 . (Series 5, Document 1).
  7. Web site: Dorothea Minskoff photographs - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021.
  8. Web site: EMANUEL E. AND DOROTHEA G. MINSKOFF PAPERS, 1944-1985 1997.A.0254 . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives . 1 December 2021.
  9. Web site: Sweeney . Bridget . 3/8: International Women's Day: Women in the International Military Tribunal by Sara Harvel Dodd Human Rights Impact . 31 March 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210417210826/https://dodd.uconn.edu/2021/03/31/3-8-international-womens-day-women-in-the-international-military-tribunal-by-sara-harvel/# . 2021-04-17 .
  10. Book: Taylor . Telford . Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on Nuernberg War Crimes Trials Under Control Council Law, Vol. 10 . 15 August 1945 . Washington, D.C..
  11. Web site: Emanuel E. and Dorothea G. Minskoff papers - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . collections.ushmm.org . 1 December 2021 . (Series 3, File 2, Document 20).
  12. Web site: Nuremberg Trials . history.com . A&E Networks . 7 June 2019 . 5 July 2023 . en.
  13. Web site: EMANUEL E. AND DOROTHEA G. MINSKOFF PAPERS, 1944-1985 1997.A.0254 . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives . 1 December 2021.

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