John H. E. Fried (1905-1990), lawyer, professor and human rights activist, came to the United States in 1938 from Vienna, Austria shortly after its annexation by Hitler. Before immigrating to the United States, Fried, who received his Doctor of Law and Political Science from the University of Vienna in 1930, was a member of the Vienna Bar and also served a five-year term as panel member of the Vienna Labor Relations Court.

Upon his arrival in New York in the summer of 1938, Fried joined the Institute for Social Research at Columbia University. During the next few years, he wrote three highly acclaimed books. These include The Guilt of the German Army, 1942; The Significance of Democracy: Constitutional Developments and Labor Relations in Austria, 1944; and The Exploitation of Foreign Labor by Germany, 1945. He obtained a Ph.D. in Public Law and Government from Columbia University, held posts as research associate at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research, taught at City College and the Extension Department of Columbia, and became a senior official of the international secretariat of the International Labor Organization (I.L.O.), located in Montreal, Canada.

In January of 1947, the U.S. War Department requested Fried's services for a three-month survey of certain aspects of the law of war, and to serve as consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War, assigned to the U.S. War Crimes Tribunals in Nuremberg, Germany. In March 1947, Fried was asked to remain in Nuremberg as special legal consultant to the U.S. judges at the trials. He stayed to advise on questions relating to all aspects of the law of war and war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace, and many other international law questions. After the trials ended in spring 1949, Fried, by a decision of all presiding judges, was made their representative for the preparation of the official U.S. government publication of these trials. He was transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Office, Department of the Army, The Pentagon, where he worked until the end of 1950. The proceedings of the 12 trials were published in 14 volumes. Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950-1953), with the introduction to each of the 12 cases stating: "John H. E. Fried, Special Legal Consultant to the Tribunals, reviewed and approved the selection and arrangement of the material as the designated representative of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals."

Over the next three decades, Fried held academic positions at the City College of New York, Columbia University, Pittsburgh University, the New School for Social Research (N.Y.), and from 1968 until his retirement as professor of Political Science at the Lehman College, Graduate Faculty of the City University of New York. He continued to serve the international community, working for the United Nations in various capacities. He worked as legal officer and program officer of the Technical Assistance Administration of the U.N., as legal advisor (on international law) to the Government of Nepal, and lastly as U.N. Non-Governmental Organization Representative of the Foundation for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.

In addition to his book publications, Fried presented numerous lectures and papers at universities, national and international conferences. Seven articles were selected from the John H.E. Fried Papers and published in 1994 as Toward a Right to Peace. Selected Papers of John H. E. Fried. With a foreword by Roger S. Clark (Northampton, MA: Aletheia Press, c. 1994). Other collections of materials about John H. E. Fried are located at the Leo Baeck Institute (N.Y.) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center of the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles.

He died on 18 December 1990.