- Person
- Benjamin Ferencz
- Lived
- 1920–2023
- Field
- International law
- From
- American
The story
Benjamin Ferencz knew the cost of genocide at first hand. As a young soldier in 1945 he entered newly liberated concentration camps to secure Nazi records, and at 27 he was chief prosecutor at Nuremberg in the trial of the Einsatzgruppen, the SS units that had murdered more than a million people. He spent the rest of his long life arguing that such crimes could be prevented if the world built laws and institutions strong enough to stop them.
In his later years he decided that his own money should serve the same cause. In 2016 the Associated Press revealed that he had donated $1 million to the genocide prevention work of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He had also earmarked a further $1 million for the museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, with the option of an annual gift renewable at up to $10 million a year.
The Simon-Skjodt Center, founded in 2013, grew out of the museum's Committee on Conscience. Among its projects is an early warning system designed to identify countries at risk of mass atrocities before killing begins, and its research has been cited by major news organizations. It was exactly the kind of work Ferencz believed in: practical, evidence-based efforts to stop violence before it starts.
In a 2017 interview with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, Ferencz said he had pledged to leave his life savings to genocide prevention initiatives. The gifts reflected the conviction that had guided him since Nuremberg. He said holocausts do not just happen like a pandemic: they are created by people and supported by governments, and if the public refuses to go along, they can be stopped.
Ferencz never expected to end war in one lifetime, and he urged others never to give up. In his last media interview, given to NBC News a few months before his death at 103 in April 2023, he said he hoped he had done some good during his lifetime. Through his gifts, his work for genocide prevention continues after his death.
Why it matters
Ferencz's gifts help fund research and early warning work aimed at stopping genocides before they start.
About Benjamin Ferencz
At 27, in his first case, chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg; he spent the rest of his 103 years campaigning for an International Criminal Court.
More about Benjamin Ferencz
- Ben Ferencz spoke at the ICC's first trialIn 2011, aged 91, Ben Ferencz delivered a closing statement in the International Criminal Court's trial of Thomas Lubanga, and hailed his 2012 conviction as a milestone.
- Ben Ferencz gave up his law practice to work for peaceAfter 13 years in private practice, and moved by the Vietnam War, Ben Ferencz quit to campaign full time for an international criminal court and laws against aggression.
- Ben Ferencz called his case a plea of humanity to lawOpening his Nuremberg case in 1947, Ben Ferencz said vengeance was not the goal: the case was a plea of humanity to law, a theme that guided the rest of his life.
- Ben Ferencz rushed into liberated camps to save evidenceIn 1945 Ben Ferencz joined the US Army's new war crimes branch and entered camps such as Buchenwald and Mauthausen, sometimes within hours of liberation, to secure Nazi records.
- Ben Ferencz taught international law at Pace UniversityFrom 1985 to 1996 Ben Ferencz was an adjunct professor of international law at Pace University in White Plains, New York, passing on the lessons of Nuremberg.
- Ben Ferencz, 27, won the "biggest murder trial in history"At 27, in his first case, Ben Ferencz was chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Einsatzgruppen trial, then spent decades campaigning for an International Criminal Court.
- Ben Ferencz stayed in Germany to win restitution for victimsAfter Nuremberg, Ben Ferencz spent a decade in Germany setting up programs to return looted property and compensate victims of Nazi persecution, and helped shape the 1953 restitution law.
Sources
- Benjamin B. Ferencz Wikipedia
- Ben Ferencz (1920–2023): In His Own Words USC Shoah Foundation
- Ben Ferencz, former Nuremberg trials prosecutor, dies at 103 NBC News
- Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.