- Benjamin B. Ferencz
Benjamin BerellGale Reference Team: "Biography - Ferencz, Benjamin B(erell) (1920-):", Thomson Gale,
April 6 ,2006 .] Ferencz (bornMarch 11 ,1920 )Logli, Ch.: " [http://web.archive.org/web/20060113182050/http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/youth-outreach/peace-heroes/ferencz-benjamin.htm Benjamin Ferencz] ", Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1999? URL last accessed2006-12-12 .] Ferencz, B.: " [http://www.benferencz.org/photos.html Photos] ". One of the captions reads "On March 11, 2003, his 83rd birthday, ..." URL last accessed2006-12-13 .] is an Americanlawyer . He was an investigator ofNazi war crime s afterWorld War II and the Chief Prosecutor for theUnited States Army at theEinsatzgruppen Trial , one of the twelve military trials held by the U.S. authorities atNuremberg ,Germany . Later, he became a vocal advocate of the establishment of an internationalrule of law and of anInternational Criminal Court . From 1985 to 1996, he was AdjunctProfessor of International Law atPace University .He was born in
Transylvania , from where his family immigrated into theUnited States when he was ten months old. According to his own account, the family leftRomania to evade the persecution of HungarianJew s after Hungary had ceded the territory where they lived to Romania afterWorld War I .Ferencz, B.: " [http://www.benferencz.org/arts/32.html A Prosecutor's Personal Account: From Nuremberg to Rome] ", "Journal of International Affairs 52",Columbia University , 1999. URL last accessed2006-12-12 .] The family settled inNew York City , where they lived in theLower East Side inManhattan .USHMM: " [http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_query/photos?hr=null&query=41618 Chief prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz presents his case at the Einsatzgruppen Trial] ", USHMM photograph #41618. URL last accessed2006-12-12 .]He studied crime prevention at the
City College of New York and won ascholarship for theHarvard Law School with his criminal law exam. At Harvard, he studied underRoscoe Pound The Legal History Project: " [http://www.legalhistory.com/LargeFrame.php?Choice=Interviews&N=Ferencz0506 Interview with Benjamin Ferencz] ", May 2006. URL last accessed2006-12-12 .] and also did research forSheldon Glueck , who at that time was writing a book on war crimes. Ferencz was graduated from Harvard in 1943.Ferencz, B.: " [http://www.benferencz.org/bio.html (Auto-)Biography] ". URL last accessed2006-12-12 .] After his studies, he joined theU.S. Army , where he served in the115th AAA Gun Battalion , ananti-aircraft artillery unit. In 1945, he was transferred to the headquarters of General Patton's Third Army, where he was assigned to a team tasked with setting up a war crimes branch and collecting evidence for such crimes. In this function, he was then sent to theconcentration camp s as they were liberated by the U.S. army.On Christmas 1945, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of
Sergeant . He returned to New York, but was recruited only a few weeks later to participate as a prosecutor in theSubsequent Nuremberg Trials in the legal team ofTelford Taylor . Taylor appointed him Chief Prosecutor in theEinsatzgruppen Case —Ferencz's first case. All of the 22 men on trial were convicted; 14 of them received death sentences, of which four were eventually carried out.In a 2005 interview for the
Washington post he revealed some of his activities during his period in Germany::"I once saw DPs beat an SS man and then strap him to the steel gurney of a crematorium. They slid him in the oven, turned on the heat and took him back out. Beat him again, and put him back in until he was burnt alive. I did nothing to stop it. I suppose I could have brandished my weapon or shot in the air, but I was not inclined to do so. Does that make me an
accomplice to murder?" [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072101680_5.html Matthew Brzezinski, Giving Hitler Hell] Washington Post Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page W08]:"You know how I got witness statements?" "I'd go into a village where, say, an American pilot had parachuted and been beaten to death and line everyone one up against the wall. Then I'd say, 'Anyone who lies will be shot on the spot.' It never occurred to me that statements taken under duress would be invalid." [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072101680_5.html Matthew Brzezinski, Giving Hitler Hell] Washington Post Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page W08]
Ferencz stayed in Germany after the Nuremberg Trials, together with his wife Gertrude, whom he had married in New YorkHarvard Law School: " [http://www.law.harvard.edu/conferences/nuremberg_legacies/ferenczbio.php Benjamin Ferencz] ": Speaker's biography from the " [http://www.law.harvard.edu/conferences/nuremberg_legacies/ Pursuing Human Dignity: The Legacies of Nuremberg for International Law, Human Rights & Education] " conference, November 2005. URL last accessed
2006-12-12 .] onMarch 31 ,1946 . He participated in the setup of reparation and rehabilitation programs for the victims of persecutions by the Nazis, and also had a part in the negotiations that led to theReparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany signed onSeptember 10 ,1952 USHMM: " [http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_query/photos?hr=null&query=11019 Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signs the reparations agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Israel] ", USHMM photograph #11019. URL last accessed2006-12-13 .] and the first German Restitution Law in 1953. In 1957, the family—they had four children by then—returned to the U.S., where Ferencz entered private law practice as a partner of Telford Taylor.Ferencz, B.: " [http://www.benferencz.org/arts/33.html Telford Taylor: Pioneer of International Criminal Law] ", "Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 37(3)", pp. 661 – 664; 1999. URL last accessed2006-12-13 .]But the experiences made just after World War II left a defining impression on Ferencz. After thirteen years, and under the impression of the events of the
Vietnam War , Ferencz left the private law practice and henceforth worked for the institution of anInternational Criminal Court that would serve as a world-wide highest instance for issues ofcrimes against humanity andwar crime s. He also published several books on this subject. Already in his first book published in 1975, entitled "Defining International Aggression-The Search for World Peace", he argued for the establishment of such an international court. From 1985 to 1996, Ferencz also worked as an AdjunctProfessor of International Law atPace University atWhite Plains, New York .An
International Criminal Court was indeed established onJuly 1 ,2002 , when theRome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered in force. The U.S. did sign the treaty, but did not subsequently ratify it, and furthermore concluded a large number of bilateral agreements with other states that would exclude U.S. citizens from being brought before the ICC.Coalition for the International Criminal Court: 2006. " [http://www.iccnow.org/documents/CICCFS_BIAstatusCurrent.pdf Status of US Bilateral Immunity Acts] ". 2006. URL last accessed2006-12-12 .]Ferencz has repeatedly argued against this procedure and suggested that the U.S. simply join the ICC without reservations, as it was a long-established rule of law that "law must apply equally to everyone", also in an international context. In this vein, he has suggested in an interview given on
August 25 ,2006 , that not onlySaddam Hussein should be tried, but alsoGeorge W. Bush because theIraq War had been begun by the U.S. without permission by theUN Security Council .Glantz, A.: " [http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/138319/1/ Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor] ", OneWorld U.S.,August 25 ,2006 . URL last accessed2006-12-12 .]elected bibliography
* Ferencz, B.: "New Legal Foundations for Global Survival: Security Through the Security Council", Oceana 1994; ISBN 0379212072.
* Ferencz, B.; Keyes, K. Jr: "Planethood", Vision Books 1988. Reprint 1991; ISBN 0915972212.
* Ferencz, B.: "A Common Sense Guide to World Peace", Oceana 1985.
* Ferencz, B.: "Enforcing International Law: A Way to World Peace", Oceana 1983.
* Ferencz, B.: "Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced Labor and the Quest for Compensation", Harvard 1979. Reprint 2002, Indiana University Press & USHMM; ISBN 0253215307.
* Ferencz, B.: "An International Criminal Court: A Step Toward World Peace", Oceana 1980. ISBN 0379203898.
* Ferencz, B.: "Defining International Aggression: The Search for World Peace", Oceana 1975. ISBN 037900271X.References
External links
* [http://www.benferencz.org Official Benjamin B. Ferencz website]
* [http://www.benferencz.org/loc.html A lecture Ferencz gave on Memorial Day, 2006, at the Library of Congress]
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