The remarkable life of one of the twentieth century’s 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 prosecution’s opening statement against the brutal henchmen of the Einsatzgruppen—the SS killing units responsible for more than 1.5 million deaths during the Holocaust—in 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 restitution—an extraordinary feat given his humble origins as a poor immigrant escaping antisemitic persecution in Eastern Europe and growing up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. A Harvard Law scholarship student, Ferencz had been Patton’s lead war crimes field investigator before becoming chief prosecutor at Nuremberg. Horrified by these experiences, he then dedicated his career to Holocaust survivors, pioneering key restitution efforts and helping negotiate the landmark Jewish civil society–Israel–West Germany reparations treaty. Later, he became a peace advocate and driving force behind the creation of the International Criminal Court, remarkably joining the prosecution for the Court’s first trial as the last living Nuremberg prosecutor.

Gregory Gordon, a former war crimes prosecutor and the first scholar with full access to Ferencz’s personal papers, has produced an expansive, page-turning account of Ferencz’s troubled early years, his historic Nuremberg achievements, and his post-Nuremberg life as a pioneer victims’ advocate and catalyst behind the International Criminal Court’s conceptualization and creation.

The remarkable life of one of the twentieth century’s 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 prosecution’s opening statement against the brutal henchmen of the Einsatzgruppen—the SS killing units responsible for more than 1.5 million deaths during the Holocaust—in 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 restitution—an extraordinary feat given his humble origins as a poor immigrant escaping antisemitic persecution in Eastern Europe and growing up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. A Harvard Law scholarship student, Ferencz had been Patton’s lead war crimes field investigator before becoming chief prosecutor at Nuremberg. Horrified by these experiences, he then dedicated his career to Holocaust survivors, pioneering key restitution efforts and helping negotiate the landmark Jewish civil society–Israel–West Germany reparations treaty. Later, he became a peace advocate and driving force behind the creation of the International Criminal Court, remarkably joining the prosecution for the Court’s first trial as the last living Nuremberg prosecutor.

Gregory Gordon, a former war crimes prosecutor and the first scholar with full access to Ferencz’s personal papers, has produced an expansive, page-turning account of Ferencz’s troubled early years, his historic Nuremberg achievements, and his post-Nuremberg life as a pioneer victims’ advocate and catalyst behind the International Criminal Court’s conceptualization and creation.