Lesley Stahl: They're making them run to their own death? One of these-- my defendants said-- He gets up, and he says, "[GERMAN]," which is, "What? Hitler's top lieutenants were prosecuted first. Ferencz wasnt the prosecutor in charge of the highest-level Nazis, like Herman Goering. Its name, Organization Schmelt, sounds more like a type of herring than the SS Oberfuhrer and former Gestapo head from Wroclaw, Poland, after whom it was named. I'm a realist. Exhibit 179, from Kiev in 1941: "The city's Jews were ordered to present themselves about 34,000 reported, including women and children. He told himself: Just get on with the job, Benny. Look at the emancipation of woman in my lifetime. appreciated. In the end, only four of the court's death sentences were carried out. Without pity or remorse, the SS murder squads killed every Jewish man, woman, and child they could lay their hands on. Ferencz had stumbled upon reports sent back to headquarters by secret SS units called Einsatzgruppen, or action groups. Ben Ferencz has led an extraordinary life. So the world is changing. These men would never have been murderers had it not been for the war. Good morning, he hollered. Not to elicit a confession or probe his mind. Instead, according to his website, he was asked to join the prosecution table at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials. In Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausenand other camps he found hard proof of the Nazi's cold-blooded killing machine that went far beyond what he could have ever imagined. When we first reported on him back in 2017, he was 97 years old, barely 5 feet tall, and he had served as prosecutor of what's been called the biggest murder trial ever. In their hands lay overwhelming evidence of Nazi genocide by German doctors, lawyers, judges, generals, industrialists, and others who played leading roles in organizing or perpetrating Nazi brutalities, says his bio. We've now seen the result [of enabling Western institutions to be bought by Putins henchmen], with the bodies continuing to pile up in Ukraine following Russia's invasion, says Michel. Shoot 'em there. Lawyer And Pacifist Benjamin Ferencz: A father who, his son told me the story. The last surviving prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials against Nazi leadership, he has worked tirelessly as a champion of international law and human rights. Einsatzgruppen D was the unit of Ferencz's lead defendant Otto Ohlendorf. Lesley Stahl: Going on right this minute in Sudan. He was proud of that. Since childhood, Mr. Ferencz has felt a burning desire to press for global peace; this same desire continues to motivate him today. After the war concluded, Ferencz received an honorable discharge as an Army Sergeant of Infantry. At that time, he was not familiar with using a typewriter, and he couldn't fire a weapon. Lesley Stahl: What turns a man into a savage beast like that? Ferencz was also involved in pushing the Germans to agree to maintain cemeteries where Holocaust victims were buried. Bradley Dredge Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, NetWorth & Know More, Kingdom of Hungary (now Ciolt, omcuta Mare, Romania). The Nazis were well known for keeping detailed records. Ben Ferencz, better known by her family name Benjamin Berell Ferencz, is a popular American lawyer and pacifist. Over the years, Ferencz has received a boatload of awards and honors. The International Military Tribunal identification card of Benjamin Ferencz, the chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen Trial. After securingall possible evidence at one camp, they would drive directly to the next. So you do it.". The Holocaust Memorial Museum says on its website that Ferencz has published books on the top of world peace, listing the following publications: Defining International Aggression: The Search for World Peace (Oceana Publications, 1975), An International Criminal Court: A Step Toward World Peace (Oceana Publications, 1980), Enforcing International Law: A Way to World Peace (Oceana Publications, 1983), A Common Sense Guide to World Peace (Oceana Publications, 1985), PlanetHood by Ben Ferencz and Ken Keyes (Mass Market Paperback, 1988).. Benjamin B. Ferencz was born in Transylvania in 1920 and moved to America when he was ten months old. He went on to campaign for the establishment of international law, including the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to ensure restitution and rehabilitation for the victims of Nazi war crimes, the UN says. WebBenjamin Ferencz was born on March 11, 1920 in Soncuta-Mare, Romania. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, I'm still a young man. They could-- like, they're waiting for a bus. Would Ohlendorf like him to deliver a message to his family? After securing evidence of Nazi atrocities in concentration camps and serving as the youngest prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials, the US lawyer helped found the ICC in the Hague. Ferencz was tasked with securing them before they were destroyed. You know, kick 'em in. Rep. Lois Frankel introduced a bill to honor the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremburg Trials, Ben Ferencz, 102, of Delray Beach. Ben Ferencz Net Worth his net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. The father had died just as we were entering the camp. With appreciation to the Planethood Foundation. As he wooed industrialists to his ambitious scheme of slave labor to the benefit of the Reich, his organizations profits skyrocketed.. Reviewed by Stephen Levitt (Nova Southeastern University) Published on H-Law (June, 2014) Commissioned by Charles L. Zelden. Many of the Nazi criminals in East and West Germany served short prison sentences, and some were released early. But on his 100th birthday, an email landed in his inbox from a descendant of one of the men he had prosecuted. Benjamin Ferencz: He's not a savage. Lesley Stahl: You don't think they turn into savages even for the act? Nothing new ever happened before. 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Before his health deteriorated, he reflected on his extraordinary life in a 45-minute interview with NBC News. The Germans relented shortly thereafter, according to Ferencz. The Nuremberg trials after World War II were historic -- the first international war crimes tribunals ever held. I knew that what I was seeing was horror, he said. The progress has been remarkable. But they were real. He also lobbied for the creation of the International Criminal Court and was selected, at age 91, to deliver a closing statement in the courts first case, the prosecution of the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. General Telford Taylor, in charge of the Nuremberg trials, asked him to direct a team of researchers in Berlin, one of whom found a cache of top-secret documents in the ruins of the German foreign ministry. The defendants were the cruel executioners whose terror wrote the blackest page in human history, he said in his opening statement. He said, Never has moral authority been squandered that fast. Ferencz was born on March 11, 1920, in Csolt, Szatmr County, located in the historical Transylvania region in the Kingdom of Hungary (today part of omcuta Mare, Romania). Ferencz traveled to multiple concentration camps Buchenwald, Mauthause, Flossenburg, Ebensee often within days and sometimes hours of their liberation. After being honorably discharged from the army, Ferencz returned to the US andbeganlooking for a job as a lawyer, but he didn't search for long. The Marines, they just looked at me and said, "Forget it, kid.". Ferencz told us he is still haunted by the things he saw. But when money is funneled through questionable means by a man linked to the Kremlinimplicated in inciting far-right, anti-Semitic, extremist violenceits hallowed place as a conveyer of Holocaust memory and center for international learning about genocide demands a higher ethical bar, not a lower one. Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, answered the phone in bright spirits. Along with his sanctioned cronies Avn and German Kahn (chairman of Russias third-largest oil company, TNK Oil), Fridman announced last week that the three are donating $10 million to Ukraines Jewish community. "He is not only doing it, but he is passionate about it.". Benjamin Ferencz: And I've got-- I've got his reports of how many he killed. It was pure luck that he survived the war, he later said. What were his final words to the lead defendant after a judge sentenced the man to death in 1948? But he spoke with the power and eloquence of a seasoned litigator. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin Ferencz, Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust, < The Ferencz International Justice Initiative, Explore the Museum's Benjamin B. Ferencz collection, Learn more out about Ben Ferenczs legacy, Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, To Make Us Slowly Disappear: The Chinese Governments Assault on the Uyghurs, About the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, The Ferencz International Justice Initiative, Ferencz International Justice Initiative: Our Approach, Ferencz International Justice Initiative: Public Outreach, Lessons Learned in Preventing and Responding to Mass Atrocities, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center, Follow Mr. Ferencz's Nuremberg Legacy project on. Another company that was vital to the Nazis was I.G. It also raises the question: should nonprofits be taking money from those linked to criminal enterprises, let alone lobby for them? Luck!. Thus, Ferencz was named Chief Prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case, proseucting 22 people charged with murdering more than a million people. Would love your thoughts, please comment. The trials of leading German officials before the International Military Tribunal are the best known of the postwar war crimes trials. Benjamin Ferencz: Of course. For him, it was about justice. Benjamin Ferencz: No. Boy, I felt if I'd had a bayonet I woulda jumped over the thing, and put a bayonet right through one ear, and let it come out the other. And he's been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. One thing that people dont realize is how incredibly dangerous it was for these people, said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, an organization created to negotiate the agreements and later handle the dispersal of the money. According to Yad Vashem scholar Bella Guttermans book, A Narrow Bridge to Life, Schmelt sought to fill his and his superior SS Reichsfhrer Heinrich Himmlers coffers by creating an independent enterprise of forced labor camps where he could exploit Jewish youth and stash away the profits he plundered in a secret accountunknown even to the central SS authorityand that would allow him to expand his influence throughout Silesia and into Sudetenland. Lesley Stahl: Did you look at the defendants' faces? Its a well-known playbook, Michel argued, citing a litany of Russian oligarchs who have sought to whitewash their dirty deeds through philanthropy, turning our most vaunted cultural institutions into reputation laundering factories that attract the same sketchy agents who have already poured their ill-gotten funds into American hedge funds, real estate, and shell companies, according to a 2020 report by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective. Benjamin Ferencz: We're marching forward. If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don't say they're naive, I say they're stupid. No German, no American nobody. Thetribunal prosecutesindividuals for war crimes; even heads of state are held legally accountable. At Harvard, he studied under Roscoe Pound and also did research for Sheldon Glueck who, at that time, was writing a book on war crimes. His website says he served in an anti-aircraft artillery battalion preparing for the invasion of France.. He was previously married to Gertrude Fried. Benjamin Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg war-crimes prosecutor, gave $1 million through his Planethood Foundation to the museums Simon-Skjodt Center for the There's the rabbi coming along there. Germanys business elites met with Hitler before the March 1933 election, intoxicated by his vow to eradicate trade unions and communists (code for Jews). 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