Ben Ferencz to receive U.S. Congressional Gold Medal
“Congratulations to Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, who is to receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor of appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions”, Hungary’s embassy in Washington wrote in a Facebook post.
The now 102 years old chief US prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials held Nazi war criminals accountable for their crimes against humanity, and spent decades fighting for human rights, justice and peace. The Congressional Gold Medal has only been awarded 184 times previously in America’s history to great historical figures such as President George Washington, the embassy added.
According to the Wikipedia, Ferencz was born on March 11, 1920, in Csolt, Szatmár County, Kingdom of Hungary, located close to the historical Transylvania region into a Jewish family. A few months later, Transylvania was ceded to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon (1920), the result of World War I. They left Romania when Ferencz was only 10 months old because they were afraid of anti-Jew pogroms. The family settled in New York City, where they lived on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.
