"The defendants in the dock were the cruel executioners, whose terror wrote the blackest page in human history. Death was their tool and life their toy. If these men be immune, then law has lost its meaning and man must live in fear."
Benjamin Berell Ferencz (11 March 1920 - 7 April 2023) had a truly remarkable life. He was the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
His childhood days were as a poor immigrant in America during the Great Depression. He won a scholarship to Harvard, landed on the Normandy beaches on D Day, and was present at the liberation of some of the concentration camps including Buchenwald and Mauthausen.
From 29 September 1947 to 9 April 1948, at the age of 27, he prosecuted members of the Einsatzgruppen charged with the murder and ill-treatment of Prisoners of War and Civilians in occupied countries. Originally there were 24 defendants but Emil Hausmann committed suicide and Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. The remaining 22 defendants were all convicted on one or more charge.
The Einsatzgruppen
