Uncovering Her Father’s Truth: The Journey Behind Courtroom 600

Laurie Pasler, Executive/Project Director

Laurie Pasler is a creative director by day, the person you call when ten messy decks need to become a three-minute story. She’s built a career turning complexity into clarity. Maybe that’s why, when her father died, she was the child (out of five) who inherited a quiet trove he’d never talked about: original materials from the Nuremberg Trials—documents, photos, transcripts, artifacts from the post-WWII war crimes proceedings.

He left no memoir. No lectures. Just evidence.

Laurie did what great communicators do: she built meaning from fragments. Nights and weekends, along with education partners, she turned her knowledge into Courtroom 600— a standards-aligned World War II curriculum that uses Nuremberg trial evidence in a completely new light.

"We flip the script—from survivors’ stories to perpetrators’ crimes and their deadly consequences. We complement Holocaust education by revealing how ordinary people came to see genocide as moral duty.”

Why this lands

Courtroom 600 follows the trial’s four indictments, so students see cause → action → consequence:

1. Conspiracy (the umbrella charge, establishing the common plan from which the other three indictments flowed)

   
   

2. Crimes Against Peace

   
   

3. War Crimes

   
   

4.    And for the first time in legal history, Crimes Against Humanity 

“Students see how repeated lies and scapegoating wore down guardrails in Nazi Germany—conditioning youth to do extraordinary evil things. They trace the progression from propaganda to mass violence, then see that same playbook in their online world today. This is where Courtroom 600 fills a gap in classrooms: not just empathy, but evidence, and critical tools for students most at risk of embracing extremist content.” 

Classes open with a 10-minute narrative podcast and are followed by primary source analysis and small-group discussions. After seeing the lethal consequences of following Hitler, students are asked to consider the choices they make every day.

The framing is blunt and necessary: Nuremberg proved that Nazi racial ideology fueled war and genocide. Students watch how norms bend, then break under dictatorship.

Proof

Laurie and curriculum advisor Dave Fript piloted Courtroom 600 with Chicago Public Schools’ Civil Rights Scholars. In one two-hour workshop, a room of diverse teenagers absorbed the lens and used it:

• After viewing an Aryan propaganda poster, a Black female student asked, “So this is what the ‘master race’ was supposed to look like… and here I am?” The class mapped that moment to marginalization and dehumanization they’ve seen and felt.

  
  

• Another group named eugenics—the attempt to shape a population by promoting “desirable” traits—and, without prompting, tied it to current rhetoric about who “belongs.”

“It was transformational,” Laurie said. “Surveys and class discussion the kids weren’t just reciting facts; they were digesting what happened in the 1930s and applying it to their own lived experiences today.”

The urgency

Here’s the gut punch: 20 U.S. states still don’t require Holocaust education. Waiting until college is too late, algorithms already have a multi-year head start—and getting to youth in their formative years is key.

This interactive map is what Laurie references for the latest on Holocaust mandates – from Echoes and Reflections: https://echoesandreflections.org/interactive-map/.

In 2025, I’d amend the old line: those who don’t know history don’t just repeat it—they repeat it faster. Courtroom 600 meets students early with sources that stand up to denial and a lens they can carry everywhere.

What scaling takes

The model works. Teachers want it. The plan: finish the series and scale region by region, prioritizing those 20 states.

• Funding need: $5M for curriculum completion, teacher training, and national implementation support.

  
  

• Timing: November 20, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of Nuremberg’s opening. Next October, Laurie will lead a Newberry Library program (timed to the verdicts) drawing on her personal inquiry into her father’s hidden archive, and on the broader lessons of accountability and justice. The goal is for Courtroom 600 to be reaching far more classrooms by then.

  
  

Laurie commented, “Survivors gave us memory. Perpetrators left us irrefutable evidence. Nuremberg has been overlooked in classrooms and underused in the fight against contemporary antisemitism. Until now.”

Three quick checks for educators & funders

Courtroom 600 deserves a serious look. Many programs miss the mark on:

1. Gaps: Holocaust education is vital, but it doesn’t reach every student. Are we addressing the ones most at risk of extremism?

   
   

2. Evidence: Are students working with primary sources strong enough to withstand denial, distortion, and rising antisemitism?

   
   

3. Resilience: Are students leaving with media literacy skills to question propaganda and lies, so those tactics cannot be used to erode democracy again?

The takeaway

More people than ever believe falsehoods and conspiracy theories with full confidence. The antidote isn’t louder slogans. It’s thinking tools taught early. Laurie’s father left her an archive; she turned it into public good!

Courtroom 600 starts with the record, trains the eye, and connects it forward so fewer kids fall for lies.

If you can help the team reach more classrooms—especially in those 20 states—now’s the moment:

• Fund a module, district rollout, or teacher-training cohort.

  
  

• Introduce Courtroom 600 to your superintendent, principal, or state ed leader.

  
  

• Connect them with a funder focused on media literacy, civic education, or Holocaust/WWII instruction.

  
  

DM me and I’ll make the introduction.

Help prevent today’s youth from becoming tomorrow’s perpetrators.

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I help nonprofits raise more money through education, coaching, and strategic planning. I also lead high-impact professional development, coaching programs, and retreats for companies of all sizes. If you’re ready to strengthen your fundraising strategy, turn board members into advocates, or build a comprehensive legacy giving program, let’s talk.