‘He did the lion’s share’: Last Nuremberg lawyer passes away in Florida, leaves lasting impact

TAMPA, Fla. - Benjamin Ferencz was a Harvard Law School graduate, but he had never tried a case before becoming a prosecutor in the famous Nuremberg trials.

His presentation of evidence in 1946 led to the conviction of 22 former Nazi commanders who were charged with murdering more than one million people.

Ferencz, who was 27 years old when he prosecuted those cases, died Friday in Boynton Beach at the age of 103. 

Ferencz grew up in New York City, but he was well-known by many in the Tampa Bay Area. In 2017, he spoke by teleconference at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. Michael Igel was in attendance and was awestruck by what Ferencz accomplished.

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"There wasn’t a blueprint for this, and he did the lion’s share before he was 30 years old," says Igel, the chairperson of the museum’s board, who attended the program, which was arranged as part of a Lawyers of Conscience series. 

Ferencz was small in stature. "I’m 5 foot 8, and he made me look like a basketball center," jokes Igel.

But that never stopped Ferencz. 

"He was a small gentleman that if you placed a brick wall in front of him, he would have dashed right through it," says Igel.  

Ferencz served in the Army and was part of the D-Day invasion before visiting Nazi concentration camps, personally. After the Nuremberg trials, he advocated for international law to replace war as the way for nations to settle their differences. 

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He shared his secret of success in 2019 with FOX 13’s Jennifer Holton.

"I have three rules," said Ferencz. "One: Never give up. Two: Never give up. And three: Never give up. That’s my song," he said.

Governor Ron Desantis presented Ferencz with the Governor’s Medal of Freedom last April.