Bearing Witness

For 98-year-old Benjamin Ferencz, starting each day at the gym with 100 push-ups is no big deal – although the life of this New York resident, who also has a home in Delray Beach, has always been extraordinary.

At 27, in what was his first trial, Ferencz was chief prosecutor in one of the Nuremberg trials (the Einsatzgruppen Case), where he helped convict 22 Nazi leaders for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. Since that time, he has devoted all of his energies to creating a more humane world. "Law, not war," is his slogan.

To spread his message, Ferencz has written countless articles and books; organized a nonprofit with similar goals; and lectured all over the world, including at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's 25th Anniversary Dinner earlier this year. In 2016, he provided funding for genocide prevention through the International Justice Initiative at the museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.

For those seeking to make a positive change in the world, Ferencz urges: "Never lose hope; never stop trying; and do your best to protect the rights of people everywhere, regardless of race or creed."

Born in 1920 in Romania, Ferencz immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was about 10 months old. Although he grew up in poverty in New York City, he graduated from City College of New York and earned a scholarship to Harvard Law School. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to an anti-aircraft artillery battalion; he received five battle stars for surviving every major battle in Europe during World War II.

"I was a combat soldier; a personal eye witness to atrocities committed on innocent victims; and a liberator of many concentration camps, beginning with Buchenwald in Germany," Ferencz says.

He has been happily married to wife Gertrude for 72 years, and all four of their children were born in Nuremberg.

Nonetheless, the horrors he observed have taken their toll.

"There is no spare time in my life," he says. "I don't golf, don't play cards. I work, write, read, go to synagogue and go preaching all around the world. I am a driven man, and there is not room for the normal pleasures of life." O