Leon W. Powers

Who was Leon W. Powers?

Judge Leon W. Powers from Iowa was one of three judges adjudicating the Ministries trial, the eleventh of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. In his dissenting summary on April 14, 1949 he wrote: "In my judgement, it is incorrect to say that all the German people, except a few, partifipated [sic?] in the persecution of the Jews, and it is incorrect to say the the [sic?] Foreign Office knew of extermination of the Jewish people, especially if by 'Foreign Office', it is intended to imply that the Foreign Office defendants here had such knowledge. The evidence, in my opinion, falls far short of supporting any such conclusion."

From 1934 to 1936 he served on the Iowa Supreme Court