My Afternoon With The Last Living Prosecutor of Nazi War Criminals

Benjamin Ferencz in 1947 or 1948 during the Nuremberg trials. Credit: Benjamin Ferencz Archive

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials. This was the international military tribunal where prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who carried out or otherwise participated in the Nazi Holocaust and other war crimes were put on trial.

In 2018, I spent an afternoon with Ben Ferencz who, at the age of 99, was the last living prosecutor of the Nazis. Without Ben, these Nazi war criminals may never have been brought to justice. Without the Nuremberg Trials, we would not have the modern system of international criminal law. It helped establish new legal principles and led directly to the creation of the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court.

My 2018 interview with Ben from “Fahrenheit 11/9.”

Basically, the Nuremberg idea was: No one is above the law — not even states. Not even powerful leaders.

Today, 80 years later, whatever system of human rights and international law we were pretending to uphold has collapsed. The mask is off.

In August, Vladimir Putin, a man who has had an ICC arrest warrant out for him since 2023, was welcomed to Anchorage, Alaska by President Donald Trump.

In January of 2024, The International Court of Justice said that Israel was plausibly committing a genocide in Gaza. Since then, most human rights organizations (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc) have declared that Israel *is* committing genocide. In November of 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Yet every few months, Netanyahu is welcomed in Washington and New York, by Democrats and Republicans, getting standing ovations while addressing both houses of Congress, and still getting unlimited military and diplomatic support from the U.S.

And to add insult to genocide — yesterday, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials, the Washington Post reported this:

The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II — as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month. Instead, the Coast Guard will [simply] classify the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive” under its new guidelines.

Potentially divisive??!!

Today, the Coast Guard has said they’re reversing that decision — but how was that ever decided in the first place?! How did we get here? And how do we get out?

Ben Ferencz died on April 7, 2023 at the age of 103. When we spoke in 2018, he lamented the dark turn America and the world was taking during Trump’s first term. While he is no longer here to witness (or prosecute) the current crop of thugs and war criminals, his legacy continues. And our work continues.

Onward!

Michael Moore
Anti-Nazi since 1954

---

** In order to have a troll-free, hate-free comments section — and because if there’s one thing I know about my crazy haters, they would rather spend an eternity in hell with Elon Musk than send me $5 if forced to become a paid subscriber — my Comments section here on my Substack is limited to paid subscribers. But, not to worry — anyone can send me their comments, opinions and thoughts by writing to me at mike@michaelmoore.com. I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. The solution here is not optimal but it has worked and my Comments section has become a great meeting place for people wanting to discuss the ideas and issues I raise here. There is debate and disagreement, but it is refreshing to have it done with respect and civility, unfettered by the stench of bigotry and Q-anon insanity.