The chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, Benjamin Ferencz, has died. He died Friday at a Florida healthcare facility, as reported by US media on Saturday (local time), citing his son Don Ferencz. The last surviving prosecutor from the trials was 103 years old. “The world has lost a leader in the fight for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes,” the US Holocaust Museum wrote on Twitter.
Ferencz was born in 1920 in what was then Hungarian Transylvania as the son of Orthodox Jews and emigrated to the US with his parents as a child. He grew up in humble circumstances in New York and later studied at the elite Harvard University thanks to a scholarship. The lawyer was not yet 30 years old when he tried Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg.
Trial ended with twelve death sentences of high-ranking Nazis
From November 20, 1945, leading National Socialists, and thus for the first time in history representatives of an unjust regime, had to answer to the court in Nuremberg. The victorious Allied powers try 21 high-ranking war criminals such as Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring before an international court. The trial ended with twelve death sentences after nearly a year.
As an American soldier he was involved in the liberation of several concentration camps
Ferencz was chief prosecutor in one of the twelve so-called follow-up trials that followed the trial of the major war criminals from 1946 to 1949. He charged 24 prominent SS men with crimes against humanity and war crimes, among other things. Before the trials, he served as an American soldier in the liberation of several concentration camps. The atonement for German war crimes became the main theme of his life.
However, the lawyer’s historical role goes beyond the significance of the war crimes trials of the time. Because Ferencz not only introduced the term ‘genocide’ into legal practice, he is also regarded as one of the midwives of the International Criminal Court. In 2009, at the age of almost 90, he symbolically opened the first pleas of the Public Prosecution Service in The Hague.
“He made history in Nuremberg”
“Ben’s ongoing quest for a more peaceful and just world spanned nearly eight decades and forever shaped the way we respond to humanity’s worst crimes,” said the director of the US Holocaust Museum. “He made history at Nuremberg and continued to do so throughout his extraordinary life.”
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
