World War II Honoree

Benjamin Berrell 'Ben' Ferencz

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

New York

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

Relationship

A Grateful American

He joined the U.S. Army, where he served in the 115th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion, an anti-aircraft artillery unit. He landed on the beaches of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. In 1945, he was transferred to the headquarters of General Patton's Third Army, where he was assigned to a team tasked with setting up a war crimes branch and collecting evidence for such crimes. In that role, he was sent to the concentration camps - Buchenwald, Mauthause, Flossenburg, Ebensee - that had been liberated by the U.S. Army. On Christmas 1945, he was discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant. He was then recruited to serve as a prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials.