A true titan has died. The last living prosecutor in the Nuremberg trial, Benjamin Ferencz, has passed away at the ripe, old age of 103.
He was just 27 years old when he was called upon to prosecute his first ever case, and it just so happened to be one of the most famous and consequential trials on the 20th century.
Ferencz grew up in New York City and was officially an attorney before he signed up for service in World War II. The horrors he saw there left a lasting impression. With his experience, he was asked to do some of the earliest investigations of war crimes at the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.
Ferencz was then tapped to put the Nazis on trial. Along with his team, he helped prosecute 24 Nazi war criminals, including Hitler’s direct successor. While there were many separate incidents to prosecute, Forencz handled the largest of them all. The Einsatzgruppen case was known as the largest murder trial in history.
One of the key efforts Ferencz made was to put direct blame on the defendants. There might have been a general feeling that they made decisions hundreds of miles away. That in turn might have resulted in a lighter sentence. But Ferencz put that notion to rest saying, “In this case, the defendants are not charged with sitting in an office hundreds of miles away from the slaughter. These men were in the field actively superintending, controlling, directing and taking an active part in the bloody harvest.”
Afterwards, Ferencz stayed in West Germany to help with reparation payments for holocaust victims. A handful of years later, he moved back to New York City where he continued to practice law. He married his wife in 1946, only death made them part, as she died in 2019, still married to Ferencz. A fun 60 Minutes interview had Ferencz, at 98, doing twenty daily pushups a day, surrounded by family. Maybe exercise, good family and good will is the secret towards a long, rich life?
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