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Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, has died at age 103 | 60 Minutes — Transcript

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0:0160 Minutes rewind
0:05not often you get the chance to meet a
0:08man who holds a place in history like
0:10Ben farenz he's 97 years old barely five
0:14feet tall and he served as prosecutor of
0:17what's been called the biggest murder
0:19trial ever
0:20the courtroom was Nuremberg the crime
0:23genocide the defendants a group of
0:26German SS officers accused of committing
0:29the largest number of Nazi killings
0:31outside the concentration camps more
0:34than a million men women and children
0:36shot down in their own towns and
0:39villages in Cold Blood
0:41forens is the last Nuremberg prosecutor
0:44alive today
0:45but he isn't content just to be part of
0:4820th century history he believes he has
0:51something important to offer the world
0:52right now
0:54you know you have seen the ugliest side
0:58of humanity yes you've really seen evil
1:02and look at you you're the sunniest man
1:05I've ever met
1:06the most optimistic at some old friends
1:11oh this is nice watching Ben ferrands
1:14during his daily swim all right his gym
1:18workout I'm showing off now and his
1:21morning push-up regimen 100 is to
1:24realize he isn't just the sunniest man
1:26we've ever met he may also be the
1:29fittest and that's just the beginning
1:31the case we present
1:34is a plea of humanity to law this is
1:38forens making his opening statement in
1:40the Nuremberg courtroom 70 years ago the
1:43charges we have brought
1:45accuse the defendants of having
1:47committed crimes against humanity the
1:50Nuremberg trials after World War II were
1:52historic the first International war
1:55crimes tribunals ever held Hitler's top
1:58lieutenants were prosecuted first then a
2:01series of subsequent trials were mounted
2:03against other Nazi leaders including 22
2:07SS officers responsible for killing more
2:09than a million people not in
2:11concentration camps but in towns and
2:14Villages across Eastern Europe they
2:16would never have been brought to Justice
2:18were it not for Ben for rent he looked
2:21so young I was so young I was 27 years
2:25old had you prosecuted trials before
2:28never in my life kind of recall if I'd
2:32ever been in a courtroom actually Perez
2:34had immigrated to the U.S as a baby the
2:37son of poor Jewish parents from a small
2:40town in Romania he grew up in a tough
2:42New York City neighborhood where his
2:45father found work as a janitor when I
2:47was taking the school at the age of
2:49seven I couldn't speak English
2:51spoke Yiddish at home and I was very
2:54small and so they wouldn't let me in so
2:57you didn't speak English till you were
2:58eight that's correct could you read no
3:01on the contrary the silent movies always
3:03had writing on it and I would ask my
3:06father who was Lucas and in Yiddish what
3:08does it say what does it say he couldn't
3:10read it either
3:13foreign
3:14he became the first in his family to go
3:17to college then got a scholarship to
3:19Harvard Law School but during his first
3:22semester the Japanese bombed Pearl
3:24Harbor and he like many classmates raced
3:27to enlist he wanted to be a pilot but
3:31the Army Air corps wouldn't take him and
3:33he said you know you're too short your
3:35legs won't reach the pedals the Marines
3:37they just looked at me and said forget
3:39it kid
3:40so he finished at Harvard then enlisted
3:43as a private in the Army part of an
3:46artillery Battalion he landed on the
3:48beach at Normandy and fought in the
3:51Battle of the Bulge toward the end of
3:53the war because of his legal training he
3:55was transferred to a brand new unit in
3:58General Patton's third Army created to
4:01investigate war crimes as U.S forces
4:04liberated concentration camps his job
4:07was to rush in and gather evidence
4:10ferenz told us he is still haunted by
4:13the things he saw and the stories he
4:15heard in those camps a father who
4:19my son told me the story his father had
4:21died
4:22just as we were entering the camp and
4:25the father had routinely saved a piece
4:28of his bread for his son and he kept it
4:30under his arm at night
4:34[Music]
4:36he kept it under his arm at night so the
4:39other inmates wouldn't steal it you know
4:41so you see these human stories which are
4:45not they're not real they're not real
4:48but they were real ferenz came home
4:51married his childhood sweetheart and
4:54vowed never to set foot in Germany again
4:57but that didn't last long General
5:00Telford Taylor in charge of the
5:02Nuremberg trials asked him to direct a
5:05team of researchers in Berlin one of
5:08whom found a cache of top secret
5:10documents in the ruins of the German
5:12foreign Ministry he gave me a bunch of
5:15a binders full binders and these were
5:18daily reports from the Eastern Front
5:20which unit entered which town how many
5:23people they killed classified so many
5:26Jews so many gypsies so many others
5:29France had stumbled upon reports sent
5:32back to headquarters by secret SS units
5:35called einsatzgruppen or action groups
5:38their job had been to follow the German
5:41Army as it invaded the Soviet Union in
5:431941 and kill Communists Gypsies and
5:48especially Jews there were three
5:50thousand SS officers trained for the
5:53purpose and directed to kill Without
5:56Pity or remorse every single Jewish man
5:59woman and child they could lay their
6:00hands on so they went right in after the
6:02troops someone behind the troop round up
6:05the Jews kill them all only one piece of
6:08film is known to exist of the einsatz
6:10group and at work it isn't easy to watch
6:13well this is a typical operation well
6:16see I hear this they rounded them up
6:18they all have already tags on them
6:20they're making them run to their own
6:22death yes it was a rabbi coming along
6:25there just put them in a dead shoot him
6:27there
6:29oh my God oh my God yeah this footage
6:32came to light years later at the time
6:35farens just had the documents and he
6:38started adding up the numbers when I
6:40reached over a million people murdered
6:42that way over a million people if more
6:44people than you've ever seen in your
6:45life
6:46I took a sample I got on the next plane
6:49flew from Berlin down to Nuremberg and I
6:51said to Taylor General we've got to put
6:53on a new trial but the trials were
6:55already underway and prosecution staff
6:58was stretched thin Taylor told forens
7:01adding another trial was impossible and
7:04I started screaming I said look I got
7:06here mass murder mass murderer on a
7:09parallel scale and he said can you do
7:11this in addition to your other work and
7:12I said sure he said okay so you'll do it
7:14and that's how 27 year old Ben firenz
7:18became the chief prosecutor of 22
7:21Einstein's group and commanders at trial
7:23number nine at Nuremberg how do you
7:26plead to this indictment guilty or not
7:29guilty
7:32not guilty
7:39but for Rands knew they were guilty and
7:42could prove it without calling a single
7:45witness he entered into evidence the
7:47defendant's own reports of what they had
7:50done exhibit 111 in the last 10 weeks we
7:54have liquidated around 55 000 Jews
7:57exhibit 179 from Kiev in 1941. the Jews
8:02of the city were ordered to present
8:04themselves about 34 000 reported
8:07including women and children after they
8:10had been made to give up their clothing
8:12and valuables all of them were killed
8:15which took several days exhibit 84 from
8:19einsight's group in D in March of 1942
8:23total number executed so far 91
8:27678 einsight's group in D was the unit
8:31of forens lead defendant Otto olendorf
8:34he didn't deny the killings he had the
8:37gall to claim they were done in
8:39self-defense it was not ashamed of that
8:41he was proud of that he was carrying out
8:44his government's instructions how did
8:47you not hit him there was only one time
8:49I wanted to really
8:52one of these my defensive he gets up and
8:55he says
8:59which is what the Jews were shot I hear
9:03it here for the first time boy I felt if
9:06I had a bayonet I would have jumped over
9:07the thing I put a bayonet why she wanted
9:09and let it come out the other you know
9:11you know
9:14I've got his reports of how many killed
9:17you know I'm an innocent left did you
9:19look at the defendant's faces defense
9:22phase will blank all the time Defenders
9:26absolutely blank they could like this
9:27they're waiting and waiting for a bus
9:29what was going on inside of you of me
9:32yeah
9:34I'm still churning
9:37to this minute
9:43I'm still churning all 22 defendants
9:46were found guilty and four of them
9:48including olendorf were hanged faren
9:52says his goal from the beginning was to
9:55affirm the rule of law and deter similar
9:58crimes from ever being committed again
10:00did you meet a lot of people who
10:03perpetrated war crimes who would
10:06otherwise in your opinion have been just
10:08a normal upstanding citizen of course
10:11here's my answer these men would never
10:13have been murderers had it not been for
10:15the war these were people who could
10:18quote Goethe Who Loved Wagner who were
10:21polite what turns a man into a Savage
10:25Beast like that he's not a Savage he's
10:27an intelligent patriotic Savage when he
10:30does the murder though no he's a
10:32patriotic human being acting in the
10:35interest of his country in his mind you
10:38don't think they turn into Savages even
10:39for the ACT do you think the man who
10:41dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima
10:43was a Savage
10:45and now I will tell you something very
10:47profound which I have learned after many
10:49years war makes murderous out of
10:52otherwise decent people
10:55all wars and all recent people
10:59the story will continue after this
11:06so for rent has spent the rest of his
11:09life trying to deter war and war crimes
11:12by establishing an international Court
11:15like Nuremberg he scored a victory when
11:18the international criminal court in The
11:20Hague was created in 1998. they'd please
11:23your honors he delivered the closing
11:25argument in the Court's first case now
11:28you've been at this for 50 years if not
11:31more we've had genocide since then and
11:35going on right this minute going on
11:37right this minute and so Dan we've had
11:39Rwanda we've had Bosnia
11:41you're not getting very far what don't
11:44say that people get discouraged they
11:46should remember from me it takes courage
11:48not to be discouraged did anybody ever
11:51say that you're naive of course some
11:55people say I'm crazy well if it's naive
11:57to want peace instead of War let us make
12:00sure they say I'm naive because I want
12:02peace instead of War if they tell me
12:04they want war instead of peace I don't
12:06see the naive I say they're stupid
12:08stupid to an incredible degree to send
12:11young people out to kill other young
12:13people they don't even know who never
12:15did anybody any harm never harm them
12:17that is the current system
12:20I am naive that's insane thanks thank
12:24you very much for rent is legendary in
12:26the world of international law and he's
12:29still at it are you going to help me
12:31save the world I heard so it's up to you
12:33he never stops pushing his message
12:44Holocaust Museum he says he's grateful
12:47for the life he's lived in this country
12:49and it's his turn to give back you are
12:52such an idealist I don't think of an
12:55idealist I'm a realist and I see the
12:57progress the progress has been
12:58remarkable look at emancipation of women
13:00in my lifetime your city has a female
13:03look what's happened to the same-sex
13:05marriages you to tell somebody a man can
13:07become a woman a woman can become a man
13:09and a man can marry a man they always
13:10said you're crazy but it's a reality
13:13today so the world is changing and you
13:15shouldn't you know be despairing because
13:19it never happened before nothing new
13:21ever happened before but we're on a roll
13:23we're marching forward Ben I'm sitting
13:26here listening to you and you're very
13:27wise
13:28and you're full of energy and passion
13:30and I can't believe you're 97 years old
13:34well I'm still a young man clearly and
13:37I'm still in there fighting and you know
13:39what keeps me going
13:41I know I'm right

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