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Gov. Kaine Opens Exhibit about Nuremberg Trials

On a day meant to remember Jewish Holocaust victims, Gov. Tim Kaine helped the Virginia Holocaust Museum honor their memory Thursday evening by dedicating an exhibit of the Nuremberg Trials courtroom.

Kaine cut the ribbon on the exhibit, billed as the only exact replica of the courtroom where Nazis were tried and prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The exhibit's opening was a fitting tribute for Yom HaShoah v'Hagvurah – Holocaust Remembrance Day .

Kaine was joined by the museum's executive director, Jay M. Ipson, in holding the ceremonial scissors. The ceremony was preceded by a service to remember the 6 million Jews who lost their lives in the genocide.

"We remember the opposite of law is brutality. The Holocaust was about brutality," Kaine said. "This courtroom reminds us that there is an antidote to that – there's a way to rescue it – and that's having principles."

Kaine said the trials were important for the whole world to see.

"Nuremberg was an exercise in not the rule of law, but international law," he said. "These legal principles crossed boundaries."

The museum's synagogue was full nearly on this night. Besides Kaine, speakers included Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella , the first Jewish woman to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court, and Eli M. Rosenbaum , a U.S. Justice Department investigator who has specialized in seeking justice for Holocaust victims. Rosenbaum was presented with the museum's Rule of Law Award for his efforts.

"One of the great privileges of my career has been getting to know and getting to learn from Nuremberg prosecution staff members who made that experiment that it is in national law," Rosenbaum said.

Rosenbaum was quick to share credit for the award.

"In truth," he said, "the award has also been earned by the courageous Holocaust survivors who have testified in our prosecutions."

Abella thanked Irving Blank, a member of the museum's board of trustees, for bringing her to Virginia and the ceremony.

"I'm honored to be part of this project … We've been to Holocaust museums; I don't think we've ever seen anything like the Richmond Holocaust Museum," said Abella, who was born to Holocaust survivors in a displaced persons camp after World War II.

"The Nuremberg courtroom is something that is a legacy for change -- for the people of Richmond, Virginia, for people who care about justice all over the world. And to be here at the inauguration is such an honor."