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Nuremberg trials prosecutor donates $1M to Holocaust Museum

Ben Ferencz, now 96, was the chief US prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen case, which tried 22 commanders of the Nazi SS killing units that murdered more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews.

Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials in which Nazi war criminals and leaders were tried, has donated $1 million to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s genocide prevention center.

The museum announced Wednesday that Ferencz will donate $1 million to the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. The annual gift is renewable for up to $10 million.

Ferencz, now 96, was the chief US prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen case, which tried 22 commanders of the Nazi SS killing units that murdered more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews.

The ruling included 14 death sentences and two life sentences. Only four executions were carried out, in 1951. The rest were reduced to lesser sentences. Four additional Einsatzgruppe commanders were later tried and executed by other nations.

Ferencz has dedicated his life since then to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could prosecute any government’s leaders for war crimes. He advocates steps to replace the “rule of force with the rule of law,” according to his website.

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By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News 
AP contributed to this report.