At 100, last Nuremberg prosecutor still yearns for justice

[rooster59]

At 100, last Nuremberg prosecutor still yearns for justice

By Lena Toeppler

 

Seventy-five years on from the Nuremberg Trials, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals behind some of history's worst crimes is 101-years-old and still spreading a message to younger generations about the scourge of conflict and repression. Soraya Ali reports.

 

NUREMBERG, Germany (Reuters) - Seventy-five years on from the Nuremberg Trials, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals behind some of history's worst crimes is 100-years-old and still spreading a message to younger generations about the scourge of conflict and repression.

 

Benjamin Ferencz was 25 and a U.S. soldier when, in the last days of World War Two, he was assigned to collect evidence about the war crimes committed by Germany under Adolf Hitler.

 

Later, Ferencz became a prosecutor at the U.S. military tribunal in Nuremberg, southern Germany, securing the convictions of 22 members of the Einsatzgruppen - paramilitary death squads who slaughtered upwards of a million people, most of them Jews, across occupied Europe.

 

"There are very few people who have seen what I have seen," he said from his home in Delray Beach, Florida.

 

"My job was to get into the concentration camps as they were being liberated, with the dead bodies all over the floor and with people waiting to be burned because the crematorium was so overcrowded."

 

The trials are today seen as the forerunners of tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has prosecuted politicians and soldiers for their crimes against humanity, albeit with mixed results.

 

Ferencz campaigned for decades for the ICC to be established, delivering a closing prosecution statement at the conclusion of its historic first case, against the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, in 2012.

 

"Take your case to a fair court and have them decide what's right and what's wrong," he said on Wednesday. "Now you save yourself killing a lot of innocent people."

 

The courtroom in Nuremberg has been preserved and still draws many visitors to see the seat where defendants like Air Marshal Hermann Goering heard their death sentences.

 

"There is huge interest," Axel Fischer, curator of the museum, said.

 

(Reporting by Lena Toeppler, Writing by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-21

 

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[ThailandRyan]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Seventy-five years on from the Nuremberg Trials, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals behind some of history's worst crimes is 100-years-old and still spreading a message to younger generations about the scourge of conflict and repression.

 

You wonder if the youth movement of today here in Thailand understand what happened back then and what the Germans did to the other classes of people.  If they now know what occurred then maybe they are feeling a little bit more repressed by this current Military regime. 

[CorpusChristie]

4 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

 

You wonder if the youth movement of today here in Thailand understand what happened back then and what the Germans did to the other classes of people.  If they now know what occurred then maybe they are feeling a little bit more repressed by this current Military regime. 

 

  There is absolutely no comparison between Germany 1938 and Thailand 2020

[Jai Dee]

Several off-topic posts and replies have been removed.

[Andy from Kent]

My Ms. does't even realize there's something called WWII.

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

  There is absolutely no comparison between Germany 1938 and Thailand 2020

Never alluded to there being a comparison.  I only stated that if they understand what happened in the past and how repressed those people were, then add in whats happening now,  and just maybe they could understand the past on a whole nother scale as far as how they are being repressed and how much further and badly it could go. Especially with the PM stating that all laws will be used against them.

[Reigntax]

4 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

  There is absolutely no comparison between Germany 1938 and Thailand 2020

Yes. Germany was much more developed then than Thailand is now.

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Never alluded to there being a comparison.  I only stated that if they understand what happened in the past and how repressed those people were, then add in whats happening now,  and just maybe they could understand the past on a whole nother scale as far as how they are being repressed and how much further and badly it could go. Especially with the PM stating that all laws will be used against them.

 

Stalin murdered and repressed far more; but of course never had to face any trial. Mao repressed and killed mostly his own people so also never faced trial.

 

Looking around the world today, many people in many different countries are being repressed and killed. 

 

So no, people don't learn from history and politicians still do as they please and most still get away with it.

[Scott]

A post with a derogatory racial term has been removed. 

 

[Caldera]

So here you have an American who has seen and prosecuted war crimes first-hand and who campaigned for establishing the ICC as a result. If only the American government would see the value in this, too.

 

[Road Warrior]

does the youth of the world understand what happened  inflicted by fellow humans !!!!  this should be taught in very classroom world wide. and we must never forget .