Last Surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor Donates $10M to Holocaust Museum

Benjamin Ferencz

By Josefin Dolsten September 1, 2016

(JTA “”)) — The last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg war crimes trials has donated $1 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington D.C.

Benjamin Ferencz will donate the sum on an annual renewable basis, up to $10 million, to the museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, according to a statement by the museum.

“I have witnessed holocausts and I cannot stop trying to deter future genocides,” Ferencz said. “You cannot kill an entrenched ideology with a gun. Compassion, tolerance and compromise must be taught at all levels.”

Ferencz, 96, served as chief prosecutor for the U.S.-conducted Einsatzgruppen trial of former Nazi leaders in 1947-1948. In what was his first criminal trial ever, he successfully prosecuted 22 SS death squad members for their involvement in murdering over one million Jews and other minorities.

After the trial, Ferencz worked to secure restitution for thousands of Holocaust survivors.

Ferencz is a long-time supporter of the museum, which in 2015 bestowed him with its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award. The new donation is being given as part of his initiative, the Planethood Foundation, which promotes international law as an alternative to war.

Ferencz was born in Romania, but moved to the U.S. as a baby with his family to avoid anti-Semitic persecution.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO