In September 1947, twenty-seven-year-old Benjamin Ferencz took the floor for the United States of America in Courtroom 600 to deliver the prosecution’s opening statement against the henchmen of the so-called Einsatzgruppen, the SS killing units. The Associated Press called it “the biggest murder trial in history”. In advance to his Nuremberg mission, Ferencz – as a member of the US-American armed forces – had been among the first ones to encounter the horror of the German concentration camps after their liberation. From Nuremburg until his death in 2023 at the age of 103 Ferencz was the world’s most charismatic voice for preserving the Nuremberg legacy, the establishment of an International Criminal Court and the prosecution of wars of aggression as an international crime. In 2021, the University of Cologne Law Faculty awarded Ferencz with the honorary doctorate.
Gregory Gordon, a former war crimes prosecutor himself, now lecturing in China, has produced a new biography of Ferencz partly based on material previously unknown and will present his latest work in conversation with Professor Claus Kreß.
The event will take place on 9 December 2025 at 19:30 in the Tagungsraum (meeting room of Seminargebäude, building no. 106).
Please register by sending an email to Tanja Liese until December 1, 2025: tanja.lieseuni-koeln.de.