The AAJLJ notes with profound sorrow the passing of Benjamin B. Ferencz, at age 103, and sends condolences to his son Don and the rest of the Ferencz family. Mr. Ferencz was the last living prosecutor to serve at the Nuremberg trials of those responsible for Nazi crimes during the Holocaust and World War II and a titan of international human rights law. May his memory be for a blessing.
Benjamin B. Ferencz was born into a Jewish family in what is now Romania in 1920. His family fled from anti-Semitism to the United States when he was less than a year old.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz served in the U.S. Army as a soldier in Europe and a war-crimes investigator at Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Dachau. He saw first-hand the crematoria and the other horrors of the Nazis' genocide of European Jewry.
Mr. Ferencz then served as a prosecutor at Nuremberg. Among his other work, he led the case in which the leaders of the 'Einsatzgruppen' were convicted for organizing the murder of a million people, which has been described as the largest murder trial in history.
Mr. Ferencz campaigned after World War II for restitution of property seized by the Nazis. Later, he dedicated his energy to encouraging the establishment of an international criminal court, and laws to end wars of aggression. He regularly spoke at conferences on human rights law, calling on younger generations to continue the legacy of protecting human rights and repeating that "law is better than war."
His indefatigable energy stemmed from his concern that something like the Holocaust could happen again. “Nuremberg taught me that creating a world of tolerance and compassion would be a long and arduous task,” he recalled on his website. “And I also learned that if we did not devote ourselves to developing effective world law, the same cruel mentality that made the Holocaust possible might one day destroy the entire human race.”
The AAJLJ was honored to bestow Mr. Ferencz with our 2021 Pursuit of Justice Award. His life exemplified the biblical mandate, “Justice, Justice, Shall You Pursue.”
With sympathy,
American Association of Jewish Lawyers & Jurists
