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Ben Ferencz: Last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor who secured guilty verdicts against 22 Nazis dies at 103

Ben Ferencz was just 27 when he was named the Chief Prosecutor for Nuremberg’s Einsatzgruppen trial

BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA: Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials, has died at 103. His son Donald Ferencz confirmed the news, saying his father died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Boynton Beach on the evening of April 7.

The death also was confirmed by the US Holocaust Museum, located in Washington. The museum tweeted, "Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes. We mourn the death of Ben Ferencz—the last Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor. At age 27, with no prior trial experience, he secured guilty verdicts against 22 Nazis." One of Ferencz's friends, Dan Skinner wrote, "My friend and mentor of more than 25 years, the inspirational Ben Ferencz, passed away last night. I will have more to say about this over the coming days. But let us be filled with gratitude that we had him, in all his wisdom, for so long. RIP, Ben."

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Who was Ben Ferencz?

Born in 1920 in Transylvania, Ferencz immigrated to New York as a young boy with his parents to escape antisemitism. There he graduated from Harvard Law School, following which, he joined the US Army to participate in the Normandy invasion during World War II. He also became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against US soldiers, reports NPR. When US intelligence reported soldiers encountering large groups of starving people in Nazi camps watched over by SS guards, he first went to the Ohrdruf labor camp in Germany and then the Buchenwald concentration camp. There and at other camps, he found bodies "piled up like cordwood" and "helpless skeletons with diarrhea, dysentery, typhus, TB, pneumonia, and other ailments, retching in their louse-ridden bunks or on the ground with only their pathetic eyes pleading for help."

It was "grim as hell" and he "had to refrain from letting it get to me emotionally" so that he could secure Nazi records before they were destroyed. "My goal was clear: Grab the documents. I headed straight to the main office and closed it off. Nobody goes in or out without my permission. No German, no American — nobody. I want complete control of the archives,' which I got," he said.

Secured convictions of 22 Nazis

Ferencz, who turned 103 on March 11, prosecuted Nazis for genocidal war crimes and played a key role in “securing compensation for Holocaust survivors and creating the International Criminal Court at The Hague,” states NBC News. As per another report by NBC News, he secured the convictions of 22 Nazis which was tagged as “the biggest murder trial in history.” He was just 27 and was named the Chief Prosecutor for Nuremberg’s Einsatzgruppen trial. The Nuremberg trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1946.

He said at that time, "Vengeance is not our goal. Nor do we seek merely a just retribution. We ask this court to affirm by international penal action man’s right to live in peace and dignity, regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is a plea to humanity,” reports CNN.