DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Ben Ferencz, a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials who secured convictions against 22 Nazi death squad commanders, died in Boynton Beach. He was 103.
His son Don confirmed his death to NBC News and The New York Times reported he died Friday at an assisted living facility.
Ferencz was the last living prosecutor from trials marking the first time in history that mass murderers were prosecuted for war crimes. Ferencz was 27 at the time and played a crucial role in securing compensation for Holocaust survivors and creating the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
He turned 103 on March 11.
On Dec. 23, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., introduced a bipartisan bill to award Ferencz the medal, which is Congress' highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions.
On Jan. 19, Frankel was at a ceremony honoring him in Delray Beach. His son accepted the medal on behalf of father, who is bedridden.
Palm Beach County commissioners on Feb. 5, 2021 delcared the date as “Benjamin Ferencz Law Not War Day."
"I am touched by the fact that I'm not speaking only to myself, I'm speaking for all people who realize when they hear it that the guy is right," Ferencz said.
A street was named in his honor at Canyon District Park in west Boynton Beach.
In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the governor's medal of freedom to Ferencz.
After he graduated from Harvard University, Ferencz fought in a U.S. Army artillery unit during World War II. He earned several medals and participated in battles that included D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war, he was appointed chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials from Nov. 20, 1945 to Oct. 1, 1946, for the conviction of 22 former Nazi SS officials for their direct roles in the systematic murder of more than a million Jews. He was there when Nazi concentration campers were liberated.
Ferencz had gathered evidence of Nazi crimes, such as death registries that contained victims’ names, at concentration camps. He was chief prosecutor in the trial of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi killing squads assigned to murder Jews and others deemed “inferior.”
In 2021, he told WPTV, "The Germans were very methodical, they kept a record of which unit killed how many people in which time. The mistake they made, I found the record.”
Sharyn Bey is a friend who spent nearly a decade filming him for historic archives and speaking engagements.
“That stuff is archival, it’s not going away,” she told the Sun Sentinel on Saturday. “What needs to be done is, this wave of racism that our country is enduring right now, it needs to be met. It needs to be met with the truth.”
On March 11, a photo posted to his official Twitter page showed him in a wheelchair holding a small piece of paper that read, "Do something you love."
Benjamin Ferencz was born on this day in 1920. Here he is in March 2023 reminding us to "Do something you love." Let's wish Ben a happy birthday!
— Benjamin Ferencz (legacy) (@BenFerencz) March 11, 2023
As a present, please share some of Ben's stories with someone in your life: https://t.co/RbhAMS5f1k#LawNotWar
- @danielrskinner pic.twitter.com/pD8OjIx0e6
Ferencz, born in 1920 to Hungarian Jews, was 10 months old when his family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. He his father worked as a janitor-turned-house painter.
Ferencz is survived by his four children. His wife, Gertrude, died in 2019, his website states.
