It’s impossible not to love Benjamin Ferencz. He has all the charm and optimisim of a young American soldier from the 1940s and an endless supply of fascinating WWII stories. Stories about liberating the concentration camps, told in a way that brought tears to even the most hardened members of our film crew. Stories about how in 1947 he served as the chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) Trial, dubbed The Largest Murder Trial in History. Stories about how the international court is the only way to save mankind, told in such a clear, direct way you can’t help wonder why the U.S. has been slow to embrace it.
I was thrilled to sit in on the filming of his interview for Stacey Fitzgerald’s upcoming documentary about Caroline Ferriday and how Caroline helped the Polish women known as the rabbits, victims of concentration camp medical experiments. The shoot took place at Ferencz’s home in Florida and was riveting–especially when he told stories about Caroline, one of my main characters in my novel Lilac Girls, and how he helped her fight for reparations from the German government for the Polish women.
Ben’s story of how, after he succeeded in gaining reparations for the “Rabbits,” the Polish government invited him to Warsaw as a thank you for his help was especially touching. He grew teary-eyed himself, describing how the women waited for him in the pouring rain with flowers in their hands.
Ben also talked about how he came to become a chief prosecutor. After graduation from Harvard Law School in 1943, he joined an anti-aircraft artillery battalion preparing for the invasion of France. As Nazi atrocities were uncovered at the end of the war, he was transferred to a newly created War Crimes Branch of the US Army to gather evidence.
Ben and 50 other researchers went to Berlin to scour Nazi offices and archives. They found overwhelming evidence of genocide, since theThe Einsatzgruppen committed some of the most heinous atrocities of the Holocaust, including the massacres of around one million Jews and tens of thousands of Soviet political commissars, partisans, Roma, and disabled persons. Ben told us the Nazis had kept detailed records of the killings, including the officers in charge, the number of people murdered and the dates of the murders, giving him plenty of evidence for the trial.
After the trial of major war criminals before the IMT (International Military Tribunal) the United States held a series of other war crimes trials at Nuremberg—the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings- and General Telford Taylor, chief counsel chose Ben to work on his team. The ninth of these trials focused on members of the Einsatzgruppen, who had been assigned to kill Jews and other people behind the eastern front. Taylor asked Ben to head up this team and Ferencz became chief prosecutor for the United States. Ferencz was only 27 years old. It was his first case.
Twenty-four defendants were charged with war crimes such as the shooting of Jews at Ivanhorod, Ukraine, below. Ben told us the defendants testified that Einsatzgruppen soldiers were ordered to shoot mother and child with one bullet to save ammunition.
Seven of the defendants.
Two of the defendants: Chief defendant Otto Ohlendorf, commanding officer of the killing squads (above, left) and Heinz Jost. Commanding officer Ohlendorf’s Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the 1941 massacre at Simferopol where over 14,00 people, mostly Jews, were killed. Over 90,000 murders were attributed to Ohlendorf’s command, as well as mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea and north Caucasus. Ohlendorf showed no remorse for his actions and at the trial told Prosecutor Ferencz that the Jews of America would suffer for what Ferencz had done. Ohlendorf was more worried about the mental strain the murders had put on his men who’d carried them out than about the victims.
All of the defendants were found guilty. Fourteen death sentences and two life sentences were handed out. Otto Ohlendorf was convicted of war crimes, sentenced to death and executed in 1951. Jost was sentenced to life imprisonment, later commuted to ten years.
Ben Ferencz today. Giving out Hershey’s kisses at the U.N. (below)
Ben Ferencz has dedicated his life to helping others and worked hard to help establish a world court where world issues can be settled without war. At a youthful 96 years old, he works harder than ever to see some change in the time he has left. His slogan LAW. NOT WAR. says it all.
Says Ferencz: “Nuremberg taught me that creating a world of tolerance and compassion would be a long and arduous task. And I also learned that if we did not devote ourselves to developing effective world law, the same cruel mentality that made the Holocaust possible might one day destroy the entire human race.”
He’s achieved so much in his 96 years. Not bad for a kid from Transylvania who grew up in a basement in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC.
You can read more about this inspirational man here: http://www.benferencz.or
Below are the Eizengruppen Trial defendants:
Adolf Ott
Gustav Adolf Nosske
Walter Haensch
Werner Braune
Ernst Biberstein
Eugen Steimle
Willi Seibert
Martin Sandberger
Walter Blume
Franz Six
Paul Blobel
Erwin Schulz
Otto Rasch
Erich Naumann
Heinz Jost
Otto Ohlendorf
Mathias Graf
Waldemar von Radetsky
Lothar Fendler
Eduard Strauch
Waldemar Klingelhoffer
Emil Haussmann
Felix Ruehl
Heinz Schubert
Also I was only 7 years old in 1945, I still feel ashamed of my german countrymen, now 53 years in Canada.
Thank you for reaching out, Richard. I think Germany has come a long way.
My father first cousin was Manfred Isserman an investigator at Nuremberg. My dad went to the trial but Manfred never talked about what he did! Can you
Shead some light?
Sadly most of the convicted mass killers had their sentences commuted to time served and were released. For example one of the worst killers, Martin Sandberger was released in 1958 and lived a long happy in Stuttgart where he passed away peacefully and comfortably in bed in 2010.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-quiet-death-of-a-nazi-martin-sandberger-s-last-and-only-interview-a-687922.html
The 486 ss officers directly under these 24 were never prosecuted.
Bottom line Mr. Ferencz and his team worked admirably to gain convictions, but all the death sentences except 5, were commuted and the convicte ed allowed to go free.
I would be interested to know if Mr. Ferencz was consulted by folks like John McCloy and James Bryant Conant, a former president of Harvard University, who were the US. High Commissioners for Germany that allowed the mass murders to go free.
The lesson learned is that prosecutions and convictions for war crimes are meaningless unless the punishment is enforced.