Ben Ferencz, Last Prosecutor of Nazi Nuremberg Trials, Dies at 103

Benjamin Ferencz, or Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany, died on Friday at the age of 103.

Ferencz fought in Europe during World War II and helped liberate several concentration camps before appearing on trial.

At the age of 27, he was appointed chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trial of the Einsatzgruppen – in which 22 Nazis were tried for crimes against humanity.

The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies after Germany was defeated in 1945, with the aim of bringing the Nazis to justice for crimes committed during World War II.

The Einsatzgruppen trial was his first court case, but the evidence that Ferencz discovered perfectly recorded and documented at Nazi headquarters allowed him to successfully close the case in just two days.

The men on trial commanded roving SS extermination squads, between them killing about a million victims.

In his opening statement, he said: “Revenge is not our goal. Nor do we seek just retribution. We ask this court to affirm, through international criminal action, the right of man to live in peace and dignity, regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is an appeal to humanity.”

All defendants were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is often considered the largest murder trial in history.

Ferencz was the first prosecutor to use the term “genocide” in a court of law, introducing the term in his opening statement: “So here, the killing of defenseless civilians during a war may be a war crime, but the same killings are part of of another, more serious crime, say, genocide or a crime against humanity. This is the distinction we make in our defense. It is real and very meaningful.”

For Ferencz “law not war” was more than a motto, it was his life’s mission.

For decades he has advocated for the establishment of an International Criminal Court and is considered one of the founding fathers of the ICC.

In 2011, he made the final statement to the prosecution in the first ICC trial, saying: “What makes this Court so distinctive is its primary aim of deterring crimes before they occur, informing offenders in advance that they will be called upon to pay accounts by an impartial International Criminal Court”.

In January, Ferencz was awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to his declining health.

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN Last year, Ferencz said he was “heartbroken” by the war in Ukraine.

“To see it happen again, very similarly, children being shot, houses being blown up, it pains me to see that we have learned so little from the Holocaust and the trials,” he said.

Ferencz fought for justice all his life, saying “let the world continue to use [a guerra] as an instrument of persuasion is so stupid and so awesome that I just can’t stop doing it at age 103.” He added that he was “not discouraged” and “never give up, never give up, never give up”.

At the end of the interview, he asked for help to create a more humane world.