DeSantis awards Nuremberg trials prosecutor with Florida Medal of Freedom (original) (raw)

Two of the oldest Holocaust survivors in Florida were also recognized during the news conference in Boca Raton with letters of gratitude.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis has awarded his fourth Florida Medal of Freedom to a person he called a "living legend" — and you may recognize the name.

Benjamin Ferencz, the last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, was recognized by the governor at a news conference Thursday in Boca Raton.

"[Benjamin Ferencz] held people accountable and I think if it wasn't for people like him, you would not have the fortitude that I think we all shared never again to let this happen," DeSantis said. "So, I think this is a phenomenal award."

Soon after being born in Romania in 1920, Ferencz and his family moved to America where he grew up.

Ferencz joined the military after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1943, according to his biography. He was transferred to a newly created War Crimes Branch of the Army to gather evidence of Nazi brutality and arrest the criminals.

After being honorably discharged, he returned to New York and prepared to practice law. He was shortly after recruited for the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Ferencz, who was 27-years-old at the time, became the chief prosecutor for the U.S. in The Einsatzgruppen Case, which The Associated Press called "the biggest murder trial in history," according to the biography.

Twenty-two defendants were charged with murdering more than a million people. All of them were convicted, and 13 were sentenced to death. This was Ferencz's first case.

"My hope was we could create a more humane and peaceful world where no one would be killed or persecuted because of [their] race or [their] religion or [their] political belief," Ferencz said. "And I made those arguments in my closing statements where I had the 22 defendants convicted after two days of trial."

He now lives in Delray Beach at the ripe age of 102 and continues to write and speak worldwide for international law and global peace.