Benjamin Ferenc, Germany’s last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor who prosecuted Nazi war criminals after World War II, died Friday at the age of 103, US media reported.

According to the BBC, Ferenc passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday night (4/7) in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Following the news of his death, the US Holocaust Museum issued a statement emphasizing that the world has lost “a leader in the pursuit of justice for the victims of genocide.”

Today, the world has lost a leader in the search for justice for the victims of genocide and related crimes. We mourn the death of Ben Ferenc, Nuremberg’s last war crimes prosecutor. At the age of 27, with no trial experience, he won convictions against 22 Nazis.

— United States Holocaust Museum (@HolocaustMuseum) April 8, 2023

It is noted that Ferenc, a lawyer with a Harvard education, managed to convict numerous German officers who led roving death squads during World War II.

He was only 27 years old when, in 1947, he served as a prosecutor in Nuremberg, where Nazi defendants, including Hermann Göring, were charged with a number of crimes against humanity, including the genocide known to history as the Holocaust, during which six million Jews and millions more people were killed.

“With regret and hope, we are here uncovering the deliberate murder of over 1 million innocent and defenseless men, women and children,” Ferenc said in his opening remarks at the trial.

“It was a tragic execution of a program of fanaticism and arrogance. Revenge is not our goal, and we are not just looking for just retribution. We ask the Court to uphold, through international prosecution, the right of the individual to live in peace and dignity, regardless of race or religion. The case we represent is the call of humanity to justice,” added Ferenc.

In court, Ferenc documented that the accused Nazis carried out methodical, long-term plans to destroy ethnic, political, and religious groups “condemned to Nazi thinking.” “Genocide – the extermination of entire classes of people – was the preeminent instrument of Nazi doctrine,” he said.

All defendants were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Fourteen were sentenced to death, two to life imprisonment. However, only four executions were ultimately carried out.

Source: BBC, Guardian, New York Times.