{"id":84445,"date":"2016-12-19T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84445"},"modified":"2016-12-19T11:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T11:39:46","slug":"last-surviving-nuremberg-prosecutor-aims-to-save-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/12\/last-surviving-nuremberg-prosecutor-aims-to-save-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor Aims to \u2018Save the World\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

11 Dec 2016 – <\/em>Ben Ferencz once worked under the glare of the world spotlight seeking the semblance of justice for crimes that claimed millions of lives. Today, seven decades later, his arena is a home office in a retirement village in suburban Delray Beach, but he says his battle is not won and he works daily to make sure someone will make the arguments against hate and war even when he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

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Benjamin Ferencz, Chief Prosecutor Nuremberg.<\/p><\/div>\n

His fight begins with one sheet of paper in a gray folder.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a list of nonprofits to which he is donating what fortune he has squirreled away in his 97 years. And with it he intends to save the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not doing this for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m doing this for you, the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most Kings Point residents move to the gated complex to spend golden years by the pool or on the greens, but Ferenz\u2019s self-assigned duties won\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, the international hearings that began in 1945 to hold Nazi leadership responsible for the crimes of the Holocaust .<\/p>\n

He was 27 when he argued, as chief prosecutor, for the convictions of 22 men.<\/p>\n

Ferencz, a father of four and decorated attorney and military veteran, later wrote book after book calling for what would eventually be the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

His pace hasn\u2019t slowed even as he closes in on a century of life.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, Ferencz hopes to spread more seeds of world peace with a talk at B\u2019nai Torah in Boca Raton. The event is sponsored by United States Holocaust Museum, another recepient of Ferencz\u2019s generosity. It received $1 million to promote the arguments for peace and understanding long after he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the young people to carry on. I\u2019m getting old you see,\u201d said Ferencz. But the pace at which he\u2019s trampling the grass around his condo while expounding on his prescription for the world\u2019s woes would say otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I began, when Nuremberg began, war was the approved way of obtaining glory and power,\u201d he said . \u201cAnd for a thousand years, wars have been glorified in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lists Vietnam, Rwanda, Syria as avoidable mistakes of a world consumed by violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, the current system is if the two heads of state are unable to agree, they take their young people, send them out to kill other young people they don\u2019t even know, in a country they may never have heard of, who never did them any harm, and may never have harmed anyone,\u201d Ferencz said. \u201cThey kill each other until they get tired of killing each other. Then they each declare victory. They rest. And they kill each other again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He calls for countries such as the United States, Russia and China to join the International Criminal Court, a tribunal that prosecutes global crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAggression is not a national right,\u201d Ferencz said. \u201cIt\u2019s an international crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferencz was born in Hungary and moved with his family when he was 10 months old to the United States . From humble beginnings, he attended Harvard Law School and, when the war broke out, was eager to serve.<\/p>\n

He wanted to fly planes in the Air Force, but standing at 5-foot-nothing, he wastoo small, he recalled. So he joined the U.S. army where they put this law school graduate to work cleaning bathrooms. Then the Army went looking for attorneys capable of prosecuting Nazis.<\/p>\n

It was at Ferencz\u2019s urging that his trials even took place. He found documents that spelled out the number of people murdered by 22 men who kept detailed records of the killings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told (Gen. George S. Patton), \u2018You\u2019ve got to put on a new trial. What I have in my hand is mass murder. We can\u2019t let these guys go,\u2019 \u201d Ferencz said.<\/p>\n

As a sergeant in Gen. Patton\u2019s 3rd Army during World War II, Ferencz visited a handful of concentration camps shortly after they were liberated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scenes have been well-depicted,\u201d he said. \u201cDead bodies lying around, you can\u2019t tell if their dead or alive, their eyes beg for help. Dysentery, lice, rats, stench. Things that are not only indescribable, but unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That image, he said, changes one\u2019s perception of war.<\/p>\n

\u201c I refuse to accept that we, as human beings, cannot change,\u201d Ferencz said.<\/p>\n

And so when Ferencz is not caring for his wife of 70 years, who has Alzheimer\u2019s, he\u2019s talking to any audience he can find, and scouting for more nonprofits to add the the list tucked away in his gray folder that, he hopes, will carry the torch when he can no longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a realist because I can see the problems,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m an optimist because I can see the progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Lulu Ramadan is a breaking news reporter for <\/em>The Palm Beach Post covering crime and safety. She received a degree in Communication Studies from Florida Atlantic University, where she held the position of editor-in-chief at the college magazine<\/em>, The University Press.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

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

Ben Ferencz once worked under the glare of the world spotlight seeking the semblance of justice for crimes that claimed millions of lives. Today, seven decades later, his arena is a home office in a retirement village in suburban Delray Beach, but he says his battle is not won and he works daily to make sure someone will make the arguments against hate and war even when he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}