- Person
- Benjamin Ferencz
- Lived
- 1920–2023
- Field
- International law
- From
- American
The story
Benjamin Ferencz's life had been shaped by Nuremberg, where as a 27-year-old prosecutor he had asked judges to affirm the right of all human beings to live in peace and dignity regardless of race or creed. That theme, using international law to protect the fundamental rights of people everywhere, stayed with him for the rest of his life. After leaving private practice he devoted himself to the cause of an international criminal court and laws against aggression, and he looked for ways to pass his experience on.
From 1985 to 1996 he taught as an adjunct professor of international law at Pace University in White Plains, New York, the home of the university's law school, founded in 1976. For students who had grown up long after the war, he offered a direct link to the trials that founded modern international criminal law.
Alongside teaching he wrote widely. His books included An International Criminal Court: A Step Toward World Peace (1980), Enforcing International Law: A Way to World Peace (1983), A Common Sense Guide to World Peace (1985) and New Legal Foundations for Global Survival (1994). Altogether he produced nine books and dozens of articles, and he gave countless speeches. He also recorded lectures for the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, including one titled The Evolution of International Criminal Law, A Personal Account.
Ferencz said the main lesson of Nuremberg was that war can turn otherwise decent people into murderers. He told interviewers he never expected to end war in one lifetime, because war had been glorified for centuries, but he believed the public had the power to refuse to take part. His advice to young people was simple: never give up.
His teaching years came during the period when his ideas began to bear fruit. The UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were set up in the 1990s, and in 1998, two years after he left Pace, the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court was adopted. Ferencz had spent his teaching years explaining why such institutions were needed.
Why it matters
Through teaching and writing, Ferencz turned his firsthand experience of Nuremberg into lessons for students and lawyers working for international justice.
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, 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
- Benjamin B. Ferencz Wikipedia
- Ben Ferencz (1920–2023): In His Own Words USC Shoah Foundation
- The Biggest Murder Trial in History benferencz.org
- Pace University 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.