The last Nuremberg prosecutor
Spared the shame of witnessing the destruction of accountability in Gaza
Summary
I visited the Nuremberg Palace of Justice recently - the trials setting precedent in criminal responsibility, removing the “following orders” defence and paving the way for the Genocide Convention, Humanitarian Law and the International Court of Justice.
All made a mockery of today by Israel backed by the United States. The last Nuremberg prosecutor was shamed the US did not join the International Criminal Court - his death in April 2023 spared him witnessing the destruction of accountability symbolised in the physical destruction of Gaza and slaughter of the Palestinians.
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First published: 19 Apr 2025
Contents
End Papers
1. Introduction
I recently visited the Nuremberg Palace of Justice the exhibition and the infamous Courtroom 600 where the delivered justice in full public view to the WW2 leaders of the Nazis.
At least the ones they actually caught (see Appendix A for those who evaded justice).
The precedent set formed the basis for international humanitarian law, the genocide convention and the International Criminal Court.
Exactly what Israel and the US are throwing in the face the of the world with their hypocritical treatment of the Palestinians.
I won’t dwell on the story of the trials which the museum covers in excellent detail - more a few details which stuck with me from the visit and thinking of contemporary events.
2. Courtroom film evidence of the holocaust: Nazi reactions
Huge amounts of evidence were given to the trial - written, oral and also film.
There was a tangible shift in the atmosphere when graphic footage from Auschwitz and other camps showing the world the true horror of what had occurred was shown.
The courtroom dock was lit so that cameramen could capture the reactions of the Nazis watching the footage, and courtroom psychologists watched every move of their faces for indications of guilt.
🎞️ Film here with Nazi reactions to holocaust films (⚠️ warning: graphic - you’ll need to log in to YouTube to view this).
3. 1979 German Federal vote to extend the statute of limitations for WW2 war crimes
In 1979 the 30 year anniversary of the end of the trials was coming up. Under German law the 30 year statute of limitations would kick in - and would have excused Nazis uncovered in future from prosecution, despite ongoing work by organisations such as the Simon Wiesenthal centre.
There was a debate in the Parliament on whether Germany should remove the statute of limitations for war crimes and angry protests from the gallery with protestors shouting wearing concentration camp pyjamas1.
The Bundestag voted very narrowly to extend - 255 to 222 in favour.
That really surprised me it was so close - I thought with the eyes of the world on them, Germany would have voted unanimously to extend.
Really - what was there to debate? Physiology should be the only statue of limitations for these heinous crimes.
4. Nuremberg Prosecutor Benjamin B Ferencz on the creation of the ICC in 2002 - and the calculated avoidance of accountability by the US
There was a video at the end of the exhibition of an old man giving a talk at Saltzberg law school in 2002 celebrating finally the creation finally of the International Criminal Court which he mentioned had happened a few weeks earlier.
The man was Benjamin Ferencz one of the US prosecutors of one of the major cases following the 21 initial ones - the SS-Einsatzgruppen.
Having prosecuted for accountability in the most heinous of crimes - he expressed his exasperation that it had taken so very long to create the International Criminal Court, due to the lack of co-operation through the Cold War.
And even then he expressed sorrow that in his view it wasn’t the genocide in Rwanda (which he called his greatest shame that this had been allowed to happen) that triggered the formation of the Court - but the rape of 10,000 women in Yugoslavia.
He explained that in his view - the attacks on the Rwandan women resonated with American women, concerned it could be them next. They helped pressurise the political will to push forward with creation of the court.
His sorrow was that even after the Cold War - yet again it took western privilege to get the Court over the line.
And even then the US signed but did not ratify the Treaty.
Clinton signed on 31 Dec 20002 with his introduction stating:
“The United States has a long history of commitment to the principle of accountability, from our involvement in the Nuremberg tribunals that brought Nazi war criminals to justice, to our leadership in the effort to establish the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Our action today sustains that tradition of moral leadership.
However - he expressed concerns on the power of the Court and his administration did not ratify the treaty, continued under Bush3 and all US Presidents to this day.
Ferencz expressed his disgust at his country’s approach to the ICC - to ensure the US a get-out clause to continue operating as the unipolar hegemony - with no Russia to balance - with impunity.
Ferencz’s talk in the video in the museum was in 2002 - so the US would just have invaded Afghanistan post 9/11 with the more “plausible” justification of dismantling the Taliban.
Ferecz’s talk would be very different 10-15 years later as he would have watched the US act with impunity in the Middle East starting with the fabricated reasoning used as justification to invade Iraq the following year. With the horrendous toll on civilians throughout the world.
A 2023 paper by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs estimated at least 330,000 civilian died in the Iraq and Syrian wars combined4.
5. “My friend Raphael”
Ferencz noted that one of his friends had been the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin first defined the term “genocide” codified into the 1948 Convention of Preventing and Punishment of the crime of Genocide5 that every member of the United Nation must abide by as a condition of membership.
South Africa has currently taken Israel to the ICJ on the charge of genocide, with a plausible case confirmed in a January 2024 ruling currently under consideration.
The Lemkin Institute - named after Raphael - determined that Israel WAS committing genocide in Gaza in 20236 and in the West Bank in 20247.
The same Court in July 2024 ruled that Israel’s brutal occupation of the West Bank was apartheid, illegal and must stop backed by a United Nations General Assembly Resolution in December 2024.
And the International Criminal Court - already investigating Israel’s crimes from 2014 Operation Protective Edge killing 2000 Palestinians - issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024.
And what was the response from Ferencz’s country?
To censor the Court and rubbish any investigations into Israel’s conduct, continuing to supply weapons, funding and political protection in the UN to continue the slaughter with impunity.
6. Conclusion
The last living Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B Ferencz died in April 2023.
It is unclear if in the last six months of his life he would have been aware of the election of the most right with Government in Israel’s history under Netanyahu.
Fortunately he was spared the shame of watching the horror unfold from the 7th and the unconscionable behaviour of the US and Israel in enabling and executing a genocide.
In the words of the Institute bearing the name of Ferencz’s friend Raphael:
Appendix A: The Nazis evading justice … almost
Those who committed suicide.
Hitler - shot Eva then himself in his bunker
Goebbles - he and his wife poisoned their three children then themselves, also in the bunker
Himmler - caught but during a medical inspection suddenly bit down on a poison capsule and killed himself. It took him fifteen minutes to die8.
Göering - at Nuremberg, escaping the gallows. After being convicted he took a cyanide capsule that an American GI had been persuaded to give him “as medicine” by a pretty girl outside9.
Joseph Mengele was never caught - initially down to Argentina, where they sell a lot of wurst. At least Mossad got Albert Eichmann from Buenos Aires in 1960.10
Appendix B: Mengele reimagined
The Eichmann capture was dramatised in Chris Weitz’s 2018 film “Operation Finale” starring Ben Kingsley as Eichmann.
I think of the 1976 film “Marathon Man” a story about a fictional Nazi returning to the New York to collect some diamonds. Lawrence Olivier plays the title role of a thinly disguised Mengele - “Der weiße engel” (“the White Angel”) - playing a Nazi dentist who used to torture his concentration camp prisoners with his dental instruments. Utterly chilling.
There is a very powerful scene as Olivier walks down the street of a Jewish jewellery district in New York imagining he feels the accusing stares of the Jewish people on the street. Finally an elderly man with concentration camp numbers tattooed on his arm says “wait - I know you!”. Olivier spins around and slashes his throat with a knife and shouts for help as he lowers him to the ground and creeps off. Horrifying. Anger. No justice… but Hollywood of course delivered later in the film.
Further Reading
Summary of Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 Substack Related Articles referenced in this article:
Israeli Violations of International Law: A comprehensive review (first published Dec 30 2023):
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
International Criminal Court
International Court of Justice
Israeli Supreme Court rulings
External independent legal opinions
UN Security Council Resolution and General Assembly Motions
NGO Reports (International, Israeli)
ICJ Case 192: A plausible case to assess the applicability of genocide in Gaza(first published Jan 28 2024):
Options the ICJ could have taken
ICJ ruling assessment
Analysis of judge statements
Next steps to ceasefire
Approach after the ceasefire - new actors Palestine, Israel, peacekeeping force
ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel and Hamas leaders (first published Nov 23 2024):
The Choice
Upholding international law consistently - Ukraine/Palestine
Moral Equivalence red herring
US sanctions on ICC individual judges - “your grandchildren will never study in the US”
A lesson in integrity: Nelson Mandela
Analysis of pro-Israel tweets: various arguments justifying Israel’s actions following the issuance of warrants
END PAPERS
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References
Jewish Currents Jul 2 2017 “Germany Lifts the Statute of Limitations on Murder“ - https://jewishcurrents.org/germany-lifts-the-statute-of-limitations-on-murder
US Department of State Archive 31 Dec 2000 “President Clinton: Statement on Signature of the International Criminal Court Treaty“ - https://1997-2001.state.gov/global/swci/001231_clinton_icc.html
American Society of International Law May 11 2002 “U.S. Announces Intent Not to Ratify International Criminal Court Treaty“ - https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/7/issue/7/us-announces-intent-not-ratify-international-criminal-court-treaty
The Watson Institute for Public Affairs, Brown University Mar 15 2023 “BLOOD AND TREASURE: UNITED STATES BUDGETARY COSTS AND HUMAN COSTS OF 20 YEARS OF WAR IN IRAQ AND SYRIA, 2003-2023“ - https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2023/IraqSyria20
United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - 1948 Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of Genocide - https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide
The Lemkin Institute 29 Dec 2023 - “Statement on Why We Call the Israeli Attack on Gaza Genocide“ - https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-why-we-call-the-israeli-attack-on-gaza-genocide
The Lemkin Institute 8 April 2024 “Israel is Committing Genocide across Palestine:
Active Genocide Alert Condemning Ongoing Violence in the West Bank“ - https://www.lemkininstitute.com/active-genocide-alert
The North-Western Tasmania Advocate 26 May 1945 - “Himmler commits suicide after arrest“ - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68925806
DW News 2 Sep 2005 - “Secret Lifted Around Göring's Suicide“ - https://www.dw.com/en/secret-lifted-around-görings-suicide/a-1482751
Yad Vashem - “The Eichmann Trial” - https://wwv.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/eichmann/operation-eichmann.asp