IN PRODUCTION!
"JUST A KID: FROM THE FRONT LINES TO NUREMBERG."
My father, (L) standing just feet away from Hermann Goering,
Rudolph Hess, Karl Doenitz, and Joachim von Ribbentrop
guarding during the Nuremberg Trials.
He was 19 years old.
About the Book
Staff Sergeant Emilio J. DiPalma was just nineteen years old when he found himself standing guard over some of the most notorious figures in modern history.
Before arriving in Nuremberg, he had already experienced the realities of war as a front-line infantry soldier with the 79th Infantry Division in Europe. Like many young Americans of his generation, he was asked to grow up quickly as he moved from training camps to the battlefields of World War II.
Following the war, DiPalma was assigned to duty at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. There, he stood only feet away from leading Nazi defendants including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Karl Dönitz, and others as they faced judgment before the world.
Drawing upon recorded interviews, handwritten notes, photographs, personal papers, and restored audio recordings, Just A Kid: From the Front Lines to Nürnberg follows DiPalma’s journey from combat in Europe to one of the most significant legal proceedings in modern history.
The book also recounts a return journey to Germany in 2000, when I accompanied my father in search of a mysterious wartime figure known only as the Gooseman. What began as a search for the past became a rediscovery of my father’s role in history and a deeply personal exploration of family, memory, and historical preservation.
Part World War II memoir, part Nuremberg history, and part father-daughter journey, Just A Kid offers a rare perspective on both the battlefields of Europe and the trials that helped define justice for generations to come.