The Passing of Benjamin Ferencz (11 Mar 1920 – 7 Apr 2023) RIP
OBITUARIES, 10 Apr 2023
Jim Albertini | Malu 'Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action – TRANSCEND Media Service
Ferencz trying his first case in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1947. (Benjamin Ferencz Archive, courtesy of Planethood Foundation & Schulberg Productions)
Read: What of Military Aggression? By Benjamin Ferencz – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Dec 2010
Easter 2023 (9 Apr) was marked by the passing of a remarkable man–Benjamin Ferencz. He died on 7 Apr at the age of 103. Ben was the last living Nuremberg WWII war crimes prosecutor. I met him in 1972.
He had voluntarily come to Hawaii to offer his assistance in a Vietnam War resistance trial on which I was involved, along with Jim Douglass, for pouring our blood on top secret files at Hickam Air Force Base, the HQ of the US Pacific Air Force in Honolulu, Hawaii. Our action was an act of nonviolent resistance to try and stop US war crimes in Vietnam. Ben Ferencz and another former Nuremberg prosecutor, the late Mary Kaufman, came to assist us in our defense. It was quite an honor to have them backing us.
Ben made a difference on a moribund world, now 90 seconds away from extinction.
Mahalo, Ben, for your example. May you Rest In Peace. + We will never give up!
The 2023 Doomsday Clock is displayed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on 24 Jan 2023. It is set at ninety seconds to Midnight.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Benjamin Berell Ferencz was an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the chief prosecutor for the US Army at the Einsatzgruppen trial, one of the 12 Subsequent Nuremberg trials held by US authorities at Nuremberg, Germany. Ferencz was a lifetime advocate of the international rule of law and the establishment of an International Criminal Court.
Jim Albertini is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, a former Catholic School teacher, and long-time social justice activist since the US war on Vietnam. He has done research on the use of depleted uranium at Pohakuloa Military Training Area and is the author of “The Dark Side of Paradise: Hawai’i in a Nuclear World.” Jim is the founder and director of Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action, a spiritual community based on peace, justice and sustainable organic farming on Big Island, Hawai’i – P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760. Phone (+ 808) 966-7622 Email: ja@malu-aina.org – website: malu-aina.org
Tags: Benjamim Ferencz, Crimes against Humanity, Germany, History, International Criminal Court ICC, Justice, Nazism, Nonviolence, Nonviolent Action, Nuremberg Trials WWII, Obituary, USA, War crimes
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 10 Apr 2023.
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