- Person
- Benjamin Ferencz
- Lived
- 1920–2023
- Field
- International law
- From
- American
The story
In the spring of 1946 researchers working for Benjamin Ferencz found secret reports in a Foreign Office building in Berlin. Written day by day, they recorded the mass shootings carried out by the Einsatzgruppen, SS mobile killing units that operated behind the German lines in Eastern Europe. Tallying the figures on a small adding machine, Ferencz counted more than a million men, women and children killed because they were Jews, Roma or other perceived enemies of the Reich. He persuaded his chief, Telford Taylor, to hold a new trial, and at 27 he was named its chief prosecutor.
The trial opened at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg in late September 1947. Twenty-two defendants sat in the dock, accused of the murder of more than a million people. Ferencz rose to give the prosecution's opening statement. He began by saying it was with sorrow and with hope that the prosecution would disclose the deliberate murder of more than a million people. The sorrow, he later explained, was for the victims; the hope was that such crimes could be prevented in future.
He told the court that vengeance was not the goal, nor merely a just retribution. The victims had been killed solely because they did not share the race or ideology of their killers. He asked the judges to affirm the legal right of all human beings to live in peace and dignity regardless of race or creed. The case, he said, was a plea of humanity to law. He ended his statement by warning that if these men were immune, law would lose its meaning and people would have to live in fear.
Ferencz relied on the killers' own reports rather than calling witnesses, and he rested the prosecution's case in two days. All of the defendants were convicted. The trial also marked the first use of the term genocide in a legal context, by both the prosecution and the judges.
Ferencz wrote that the theme of his opening, using international law to protect the most fundamental rights of people everywhere, guided him throughout his life. He believed the trial could never balance the scales for a million victims, but it could establish a principle: that no one can treat human beings that way and get away with it. His phrase about humanity and law is still quoted by those working for international justice.
Why it matters
Ferencz's words became a touchstone for international justice, framing war crimes trials as protection for humanity rather than revenge.
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 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 gave his savings to prevent genocideBen Ferencz donated $1 million to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's genocide prevention work and pledged to leave his life savings to genocide prevention initiatives.
- 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
- The Biggest Murder Trial in History benferencz.org
- Ben Ferencz (1920–2023): In His Own Words USC Shoah Foundation
- Einsatzgruppen trial 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.