World War II created unimaginable atrocities that time cannot erase. Benjamin Ferencza observed this inhumanity, so much so that it is still impossible for him today to talk about it without reliving the trauma. Although Jewish, the Hungarian-American was not held in a concentration camp. However, he went there during the liberations in order to find all the possible evidence that there had been a war crime, an expression that previously did not exist.
Trained in law at Harvard a few years earlier, Ben Ferencz had been able to take an interest in the subject thanks to a professor. These extracurricular studies led him, after a mission as a soldier, to be contacted by the Pentagon in order to look into the question in a more practical way.
One thing leading to another, he will find evidence requiring that a judgment be rendered. At the age of 27, with no experience in court, he became the chief prosecutor of the trials of the extermination groups (Einsatzgruppen) of Nuremberg, known today to be the largest murder trial in history. “The case we are presenting today is humanity’s call to law,” he will say in the introduction.
He became specialized in crimes against humanity and causes that seemed lost. But more importantly, he always did what he felt was right. The achievements of the now 102-year-old extend far beyond this trial. Duty of memory, the documentary In pursuit of the devil brings to light this very high life in emotions and actions that this deeply and truly good man lived.
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