Still bearing witness

Picture yourself at age 27. How do you and your accomplishments compare to those of a young Ben Ferencz? In 1947, Ferencz was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, bringing to account 22 Nazi SS commanders for the murders of more than 1 million innocent people.

Now picture yourself at 97, if you can, but make it a fiercely passionate and brilliant 97 years old. This is Ferencz today, still fighting the good fight against evil as the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, 70 years later.

More than an old U. S. Army vet telling his story, the Eastern European- born Ferencz uses his unique link to World War II history to advocate for peace, morality and justice. His idealistic vision is that someday humans learn to settle political differences without arming themselves to kill and destroy.

As an Army sergeant and Harvard Law grad, Ferencz was among the troops who liberated Nazi death camps. What he saw shocked him: the death and degradation of prisoners, their bodies stacked like wood. Two years later he was back in Germany working for the Nuremberg tribunals when a researcher in Berlin uncovered documents showing how Nazi death squads were responsible for the systematic extermination of civilians in the former Soviet Union.

The Nazi documents told the story in meticulous detail. Ferencz added up the horrifying numbers— 55,000 Jews liquidated here, 91,678 executed there— until he’d reached a total of more than a million victims. The war crimes tribunals were under way, requiring Ferencz to persuade his superiors to add another trial.

The Germans’ paperwork was so detailed, Ferencz never had to call a witness. All 22 defendants were found guilty; four were hanged.

War is a horror. And maybe perpetual. But as Ben Ferencz showed, evil committed in the guise of war is intolerable and punishable.