Former UND Law Professor Remembers Nuremberg’s ‘Citizen Prosecutor’

(Photo by Joe Banish/UND Today)

(By Joe Banish. UND Today) – A former UND law professor returned to campus to deliver a lecture on the life and legal career of one of the 20^th century’s most influential jurists — one whose contributions to the field of international justice resonate today.

Over the course of an hour, Gregory Gordon, professor of law at Peking University’s School of Transnational Law, chronicled the life of Ben Ferencz, chief prosecutor for the U.S. Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, aka “the biggest murder trial in history.” The trial was one of 12 military tribunals known collectively as the “Nuremberg Trials,” which investigated and prosecuted crimes against humanity committed by leaders of Nazi Germany from 1933-45.

The Einsatzgruppen was a particularly barbaric paramilitary death squad, whose members oversaw the murders of more than a million people during the Nazi invasions of Poland and the Soviet Union from 1939-45. All 22 Einsatzgruppen officers tried by Ferencz were convicted — largely due to Ferencz’s meticulous gathering of evidence and sharp legal mind.

Gordon said a hallmark of Ferencz’s work as a prosecutor was his focus on victim advocacy. “I think he would consider that his life’s most important work,” Gordon said.