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Dan Snow's History Hit

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.712.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ben Ferencz at 102 years old is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials and a direct witness to the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Ben was born in Transylvania before emigrating to the United States with his family as a child to escape antisemitic persecution. He trained at Harvard Law School graduating in 1943 and served in the US army in the campaign to liberate western Europe. In 1945 at the end of the war he was assigned to a team charged with collecting evidence of war crimes during which he visited the death camps and saw first hand the appalling conditions there. He then became a prosecutor during the Nuremberg war crimes trials where his work focussed on the prosecution of the Einsatzgruppen death squads. His experiences during the war have led him to be a passionate, lifelong campaigner advocating for the international rule of law and helped found the international criminal courts in The Hague. In this episode, he shares his life experiences and how we all need to find ways to resolve our differences peacefully if we want to continue to see humanity flourish.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, and welcome to Dance Know's History Hit. I can't tell you how excited I am to have

0:04.0

my guest today on the podcast. He's been for ends. He's 102 years old. He's the last surviving

0:09.6

prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Trials. He went into the death camps at the fall of the

0:14.0

third right. He witnessed uphauling things to gather evidence to prosecute the men who

0:19.2

were responsible for these things. He was born Little Virgin Transylvania. He went to

0:24.4

America as a child to escape anti-Semitism after that part of Transylvania was absorbed into

0:30.4

Romania after the First World War. In New York City he worked hard and won a scholarship to Harvard

0:35.8

Law School. He graduated in 1943 and then served in the US Army in the campaign to liberate

0:42.8

Western Europe. In 1945 right at the end of the war he was transferred to a headquarters of

0:48.4

General Patton and he was assigned to a team tasked with collecting evidence for war crimes

0:54.4

trials that would take place after the war. He then became a Nuremberg prosecutor. We believe

1:00.8

he is the last living prosecutor to partner Nuremberg Trials. He was legally focused on the

1:06.8

Einsatzgruppen Trials as he'll hear. He is a passionate lifelong campaigner. He advocates for

1:13.5

the International Rule of Law, for International Criminal Courts and he's one of the most inspiring

1:19.2

people you'll ever hear talk about our need to find ways to resolve difference peacefully if

1:26.8

we're going to continue to survive on this planet. I can't tell you what a privilege it was to have

1:30.8

been for ends on this podcast. It was one of those conversations that I will never, ever forget.

1:38.0

If you're interested in learning more about the end of the Second World War or the Nuremberg

1:41.5

War Trials, we've got several podcasts, documentaries available on History Hit TV. It's like Netflix

1:46.9

for History. It's a subscription history service that we started here at History Hit. You just

1:51.2

head over to HistoryHit.tv. Very small subscription you can access a galaxy of documentaries.

1:57.4

That's the Netflix but just for History. But we've got audio on there as well and there's plenty of

...

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