{"id":78886,"date":"2016-09-05T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=78886"},"modified":"2016-09-02T18:28:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T17:28:13","slug":"the-improbable-story-of-the-man-who-won-historys-biggest-murder-trial-at-nuremberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/the-improbable-story-of-the-man-who-won-historys-biggest-murder-trial-at-nuremberg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Improbable Story of the Man Who Won History\u2019s \u2018Biggest Murder Trial\u2019 at Nuremberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor still longs for a peaceful world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Benjamin<\/a>

Benjamin Ferencz, 96, is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials. Even as Ferencz holds onto the images of death from the concentration camps from his time as a soldier and war crimes investigator, he still hopes for a more humane world. (Video: Erin Patrick O’Connor\/ Photo: Ryan Stone)<\/p><\/div>\n

31 Aug 2016<\/em> \u2014 Ben Ferencz pops a cough drop into his mouth, \u201cto loosen my ancient throat.\u201d Where to begin his improbable story?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in a small village in Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains,\u201d he says, sitting in the living room of his modest retirement home. \u201cIt was a small house with a thatched roof, no running water, no electricity,\u201d and, he jokes, \u201cnot even a television.\u201d<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N50whCbBeDQ<\/p>\n

Ferencz is 96. His memory astonishes, plucking dates and names from more than half a century past. He\u2019s a tiny man, barely brushing five feet, but a legal giant: the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials and a champion of international criminal law who is about to donate millions to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to promote world peace.<\/p>\n

His Nuremberg case, which the Associated Press called \u201cthe biggest murder trial in history,\u201d defines him. It involved the Einsatzgruppen, roving extermination squads responsible for more than a million deaths during World War II. Ferencz convinced his fellow attorneys at the postwar tribunals that the Nazi officers who led the squads had to be put on trial. Fine, they said. Ben, you serve as chief prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Ferencz was 27.<\/p>\n

It was his first trial.<\/p>\n

He presented precisely one witness, who certified Nazi documents that recorded the slaughter of Jews, gypsies and other civilians with a banker\u2019s efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so sure they were going to win! The Germans were great at documentation, thank you very much,\u201d Ferencz says, clapping his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath was their tool and life their toy,\u201d he told the judge in the Palace of Justice\u2019s quiet, wood-paneled courtroom. \u201cIf these men be immune, then law has lost its meaning, and man must live in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prosecution rested after two days. All 22 defendants were found guilty.<\/p>\n

Was he nervous? \u201cI\u2019m not the type,\u201d he says. \u201cFearless Ferencz!\u201d Afterward, though, \u201cmy head was bursting. I never had such a headache in my life. It was high tension.\u201d Ferencz had to lie down and skip the party he threw for his staff.<\/p>\n

The courtroom\u2019s size limited the number of defendants the prosecutors could try. \u201cThere were hundreds of people responsible,\u201d he says. \u201cHow many were put on trial? Practically none.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the trials, Ferencz fought for restitution for thousands of World War II victims and argued for the creation of the International Criminal Court<\/a>, which entered into force in 2002, headquartered in The Hague.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that people will not be content to look at the past and say never again, and then do nothing,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I am taking the measures for preventing it from ever happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the purpose of his $1\u00a0million donation to the Holocaust Museum for the Ferencz International Justice Initiative. The annual gift is renewable for up to $10 million.<\/p>\n

Where did he get the money? He saved what he earned from his salary and cases unrelated to war victims. And he appears to have saved almost every dollar.<\/p>\n

His retirement community in Delray Beach, a place he does not care for, resembles a 1970s military barracks capped with glazed pink Spanish tile roofs. His home, which he purchased 40 years ago for less than $23,000, is decorated with budget furniture that offers little comfort. Personal flourishes are few. It looks like he moved in yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaw not war, that\u2019s my motto. Simple. Three words,\u201d he says. \u201cIt causes me pain to see the world as it is. But not to do anything, not to try, that would be a wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ferencz<\/a>

Ferencz trying his first case in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1947. (Benjamin Ferencz Archive, courtesy of Planethood Foundation & Schulberg Productions)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ferencz,<\/a>

Ferencz, seated left, was 27 at the time of the trials. (Benjamin Ferencz Archive, courtesy of Planethood Foundation & Schulberg Productions)<\/p><\/div>\n

As a private who rose to the rank of sergeant in Gen. George S. Patton\u2019s 3rd Army, Ferencz was present at, or arrived days after, the liberation of several concentration camps: Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenburg, Ebensee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story is basically the same for every camp,\u201d he says. \u201cInmates being worked to death at every camp. Conditions absolutely horrible and indescribable, unforgettable. Guards fleeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferencz has shared his stories for seven decades. \u201cI saw the inmates beat up a guy they captured and burn him alive,\u201d Ferencz says of a German guard. \u201cSlowly. I saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stops. His eyes pool with tears and a linen handkerchief emerges from his pinstriped pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I still see it. Could I have probably stopped it? No. Did I try? No. Should I have tried? No. You try being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of twins who endured Josef Mengele, the Nazi \u2018Angel of Death\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ferencz spends his days in a narrow office overlooking a man-made lagoon and a flock of white ibises. At his desk, crafted from a slab of plywood supported by filing cabinets, he curses the computer for failing to obey his commands. \u201cIt must be an anti- \u00adSemite,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A New Yorker most of his life, Ferencz has another home in New Rochelle, where he raised four children. He has lived long enough to see them retire.<\/p>\n

Ferencz is here, in the punishing late summer heat and humidity, only because Gertrude, his wife of 70 years, is in failing health and prefers Florida. Her problem? \u201cShe\u2019s old!\u201d<\/p>\n

He lived simply, invested wisely and sat on those investments for decades. \u201cI don\u2019t gamble. I like plain food,\u201d he says, pulling at his navy suspenders. \u201cI like simple things.\u201d The slippers he\u2019s wearing, purchased for $5, are his fancy pair. A copy of the Kama Sutra winks from a bookshelf thick with tomes on international criminal law. He\u2019s a bit of a flirt. His indulgence is talk. For four hours he talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came into the world a poor boy. I want to go out of this world a poor boy,\u201d he says. \u201cMy resolve is to give it all back in gratitude for the opportunity I\u2019ve had in the United States. I have been trying with my life, ever since I can remember, to try and create a more peaceful and humane world. And I want the money to go for that purpose. I realize it will not happen in my lifetime, because I\u2019m trying to reverse thousands of years of tradition and glorification of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recipient of Ferencz\u2019s largesse is the Holocaust Museum\u2019s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. \u201cWe\u2019re planning to make sure the fight he has waged his whole life continues after he is gone. Ben has seen absolutely the worst of humanity,\u201d says Cameron Hudson, director of the center. \u201cHe\u2019s seen it up close, and to have this kind of faith in humanity, that we can overcome our most base impulses, is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferencz has lived to see many more atrocities \u2014 Rwanda, Sudan, Syria. Still, he believes \u201cwe can reverse the glorification of war. We can change hearts and minds and hold individuals accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remains frustrated that despots and terrorists are killed instead of tried in criminal courts to deter further aggression. He would have brought Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to trial in international court.<\/p>\n

But he is also optimistic about civilization\u2019s advances. \u201cI have also lived through unbelievable change, that a woman is running for president, or that a man can marry a man \u2014 enormous, inconceivable transformations in my lifetime,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Ferencz,<\/a>

Ferencz, kneeling at right, in France in 1945. He served with Patton\u2019s 3rd Army during the war. (Benjamin Ferencz Archive, courtesy of Planethood Foundation & Schulberg Productions)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ferencz<\/a>

Ferencz in Munich in 1945. (Benjamin Ferencz Archive, courtesy of Planethood Foundation & Schulberg Productions)<\/p><\/div>\n

This is how Ferencz speaks, alternating between speeches about global peace and what he calls \u201cBenny stories,\u201d<\/a> tales worthy of Sholem Aleichem if Aleichem had been raised in a Hell\u2019s Kitchen cellar and gone to Harvard Law.<\/p>\n

The family moved to the United States when Ben was 10\u00a0months old. Ferencz\u2019s father was a janitor who graduated to house painting. His parents were in an arranged family marriage \u2014 they were cousins \u2014 and later divorced. Crime was the neighborhood\u2019s chief industry. An uncle told him, \u201cYou\u2019ll either be a good lawyer or a good crook.\u201d Ferencz attended City College, where bright immigrants went free in the 1930s. \u201cI didn\u2019t know any lawyers. I wanted to go to the best school,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Someone mentioned Harvard. Okay, Ferencz said, Harvard it is.<\/p>\n

He wanted the best as insurance and protection, he says, to command respect. \u201cBecause I was very short. I was very small. Five-foot-two at the height of my height,\u201d he says. \u201cIt kept me out of the Air Force. I wanted to be a pilot. I couldn\u2019t reach the pedals. But, by chance, I had a very good education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard, where he began his lifelong study of war crimes, got him to Nuremberg, but not before he served as a grunt in Patton\u2019s army.<\/p>\n

He enlisted. \u201cIn their typical brilliance, being a Harvard Law School graduate and an expert on war crimes, they assigned me to clean the latrines in the artillery and do every other filthy thing they could give me,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy? Because I was a Harvard man. I was never high and mighty. They didn\u2019t care. They were a bunch of idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n

His low rank had its privileges. On bathtub duty, he claims, he saw Marlene Dietrich naked. As a member of Patton\u2019s forces, he was at Normandy, broke though the Maginot and Siegfried lines, crossed the Rhine at Remagen, and took part in the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne.<\/p>\n

He was awarded five battle stars, though not, he argues, for bravery. \u201cI was hiding under whatever truck or tank I could get under,\u201d he says. \u201cMy weapon was a typewriter.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his return to the States and Gertrude, Ferencz was recruited for Nuremberg. Telford Taylor<\/a>, his eventual boss, noted that his Army files indicated that he was occasionally insubordinate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not correct, sir. I am not occasionally insubordinate,\u201d Ferencz told his future law partner. \u201cI am usually insubordinate. I don\u2019t take orders that I know are stupid or illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/a>

After the war, Ferencz wrote books on international law and pushed for an international criminal court. (Ryan Stone\/For The Washington Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ferencz<\/a>

Ferencz has received many honors for his work, including the French Legion of Honor and other medals. (Ryan Stone\/For The Washington Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

After Nuremberg, Ferencz worked for years seeking restitution for individuals and organizations. \u201cI was known as a lawyer who takes hopeless but morally well-founded cases on a contingency basis,\u201d he says. He wrote books on international law. The Vietnam War disgusted him \u2014 \u201ccrazy and should be illegal,\u201d he says. He quit his law practice to dedicate himself to peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible to take the most fundamental, strongly held ideas and change them. What makes people change? Sometimes fear, sometimes reason, sometimes sentiment,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to teach people to be more tolerant, to be more compassionate, to compromise. It takes courage. Crimes are committed by individuals, not movements, and you have to hold the people responsible in courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferencz has lived long enough to participate in the first case before the International Criminal Court. At age 91, he gave a closing statement in the prosecution of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo in Uganda. But he is far from satisfied and has railed at senators and former Cabinet members, urging more aggressive prosecution of war criminals.<\/p>\n

Abraham Peck, survivor of 9 Nazi concentration camps, dies at 91<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ferencz has been awarded a trove of medals, including the French Legion of Honor, Germany\u2019s military medal of honor and Holland\u2019s Erasmus Prize<\/a>. He doesn\u2019t want to see the Holocaust Museum \u201cjust be a historical archive. It has to do something, to build on the suffering to avoid any in the future.\u201d In pursuit of peace and more teaching of international criminal law, he is working with Harvard and Cardozo law schools.<\/p>\n

Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg. The last remaining prosecutor could be excused for watching a baseball game or two, or reading a mystery.<\/p>\n

Ferencz does none of that. He performs 100 push-ups each morning, swims in his retirement community pool, cares for Gertrude at night. Otherwise, he works at his makeshift desk, cursing the computer.<\/p>\n

Fun? Ferencz has no time for fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am too busy,\u201d he says, \u201ctrying to save the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Karen Heller is national general features writer for Style. She was previously a metro columnist for<\/em> The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she also reported on popular culture, politics and social issues<\/em>. Follow @kheller<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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