The remarkable life of one of the twentieth centurys great warriors for justice, from Nuremberg to the first trial of the International Criminal Court
On September 29, 1947, in Courtroom 600, before the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, twenty-seven-year-old Benjamin Ferencz approached the lectern to deliver the prosecutions opening statement against Hitlers brutal henchmen of the Einsatzgruppenthe SS killing units responsible for more than 1.5 million deaths during the Holocaustin what the Associated Press dubbed the biggest murder trial in history. As the field of international criminal justice was being born in the aftermath of World War II, only Ferencz led in all its phases: investigation, prosecution, and restitutionan extraordinary feat given his humble origins as an impoverished immigrant escaping antisemitic persecution in Eastern Europe and growing up in New Yorks Hells Kitchen. A Harvard Law scholarship student, Ferencz had been General Pattons lead war crimes field investigator before becoming a chief prosecutor at Nuremberg. Horrified by what he encountered, he dedicated his career to Holocaust survivors, pioneering key restitution efforts and helping negotiate the landmark reparations treaty between West Germany, Israel, and Jewish civil society. Later, he became a peace advocate and driving force behind the creation of the International Criminal Court, remarkably joining the prosecution for the Courts first trial as the last living Nuremberg prosecutor.
Gregory Gordon, a former war crimes prosecutor himself and the first scholar with full access to Ferenczs personal papers, has produced an expansive, page-turning biography that uncovers incredible, and previously unknown, details about Ferenczs remarkable life. In this first major biography of the Nuremberg prosecutor in English, Gordon reveals fascinating missing links running through Ferenczs career which throw into a whole new light his landmark achievements.
