Benjamin B. Ferencz

Benjamin B. Ferencz served as a chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg war crimes trials against the Nazi extermination squads. (see his website at www.benferencz.org)

After the Allied victory in World War II, Benjamin B. Ferencz, a Jew born in Translyvania in 1920, who came to America as an infant, was put in charge of gathering evidence of Nazi war crimes in the concentration camps. Trial of 61 staff members at Mauthausen camp

Benjamin B. Ferencz, on the left, General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the center.
In the photo above, taken on April 12, 1945, the soldier on the far left is Benjamin B. Ferencz. In the center is General Eisenhower and behind him, wearing a helmet with four stars is General Omar Bradley. They are inside a salt mine near Ohrdruf, Germany where Nazi gold and art treasures were found and confiscated by the Americans. In 1945, Ferencz was transferred from General Patton's army to the newly created War Crimes Branch of the U.S. Army, where his job was to gather evidence for future trials of German war criminals. Trial of 61 staff members at Mauthausen camp

Chief prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz at the Einsatzgruppen Trial. Photograph #09917; Courtesy US Holocaust Museum.

In the photo above, the man on the far right wearing a dark jacket is a Dutch survivor of the camp who served as a guide for the American generals on their visit. The second man from the right is Captain Alois Liethen, who is interpreting for General Bradley to his left and General Eisenhower in the center of the photo. The man to the left of General Eisenhower is Benjamin B. Ferencz, who is taking notes. On the far left is one of the survivors of Ohrdruf. Ohrdruf subcamp