Never Give Up

By Michael Caruso

For all those like me who receive a Treasury check every two weeks, last Friday's passage of the 2023 spending bill came as a welcome relief. And, because this bill is a "must pass" measure, lawmakers were furiously negotiating to include various items in the last few weeks. For example, the Senate failed to include the EQUAL Act—which eliminates the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine—in the omnibus appropriations bill.

One of our local representatives, however, successfully led a bipartisan effort to correct a different wrong by awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to Benjamin Ferencz—the last living Nuremberg prosecutor.

Ferencz was born in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania in 1920. When he was ten months old, his family moved to New York—a small basement apartment in "Hell's Kitchen." After he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1943, he joined an anti-aircraft artillery battalion preparing for the invasion of France. As an enlisted man under General Patton, he fought in most major European campaigns. As Nazi atrocities were uncovered, he was transferred to a newly created War Crimes Branch of the Army to gather evidence of Nazi brutality and apprehend the criminals.

After his discharge from the Army, he returned to New York and prepared to practice law. Shortly after, he was recruited for the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Ferencz became Chief Prosecutor in The Einsatzgruppen Case, which the Associated Press called "the biggest murder trial in history." Twenty-two defendants were charged with murdering over a million people. He was only twenty-seven years old. It was his first case.

According to Ferencz, "Nuremberg taught me that creating a world of tolerance and compassion would be a long and arduous task. And I also learned that if we did not devote ourselves to developing effective world law, the same cruel mentality that made the Holocaust possible might one day destroy the entire human race."

In 1970, Ferencz decided to withdraw gradually from the private practice of law and dedicate himself to studying and writing about world peace. Earlier this year, right after his 102nd birthday, Ferencz said when he publicly presents his life story, he always tells his audience, "There are three important lessons I wish to transmit: One, never give up, Two, never give up, and three, never give up."

We all should be grateful Mr. Ferencz never did.