Chaffee native, former Nuremberg guard to be included in Va. Holocaust exhibit

A St. Louis man, formerly of Chaffee, Mo., has been asked to be included in an exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Va., for the role he played as a guard at the Nuremberg trials.

Bob Horn served as a U.S. Army prison guard for some of the 22 people tried in 1945 and 1946 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice courtroom in Nuremberg, Germany, for their actions during World War II.

Horn said he was assigned to guard one defendant at a time and was not to take his eyes off that person during the trial.

He was responsible for transporting that person to and from the courtroom and keeping an eye out for any signs the person may be attempting suicide, Horn said.

Sometimes defendants would pass envelopes or slips of paper to and from the attorney's tables, he said, and the guards had to check for cyanide pills.

"I walked the perimeter of the prison wall to ensure there were no escape attempts," he said.

Horn said he remembered Hermann Goering, commander of the German Air Force, well. He said Goering kept to himself and didn't like to talk to anyone.

The exhibit, which opened last May, features the only existing replica of the famous courtroom, according to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Footage from the original trial, photos and memorabilia are included in the exhibit, which attempts to mirror the courtroom as it appeared in 1945, right down to the images of people who would have been seated there.

Horn said he was raised in Chaffee, where his family lived until he was about 14 or 15. His father, a railroad worker, moved them to St. Louis when he retired.

Horn, 82, lives in St. Louis and owns a barbershop.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

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