jews – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Jews know what Bigotry and Injustice look like!

David Posnett — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:50:10 +0000

By Shoshana Hershkowitz:

“I am tired of being gaslit by my government. Seeing an American political party attempt to weaponize my family’s history enrages me in a deeply personal way. The arrogance of the Republican Party trying to tell me what anti-Semitism is, when there are literally two Jewish Republicans in the entire US Congress (2 in the House, zero in the Senate) is astounding.

I’m not much of a statistician, but let’s talk stats for a minute. Only one in six American Jews identifies as Republican. More than 79% of American Jews cast their votes for Democratic candidates in 2018. We voted for Democrats at a higher rate than Evangelical Christians voted for Republicans. So the idea of someone like Senator Steve Daines from Montana purporting to know what a Jewish person like me thinks is preposterous. That dude wouldn’t know what to do with hummus if I handed it to him on the fucking pita itself.

And let’s talk about Israel, since every Republican politician seems to think they know something about it. It seems like they missed some important facts, The reason I’m never going to support a Republican is that they continue to deny the American people what my Israeli family has: universal healthcare, affordable public college, gun safety laws, and paid maternity leave. They don’t get to tell me what Israel’s all about when they don’t even have a clue what its citizens get from their government.

Let’s talk about Israel some more, because Republicans seems to think that’s the only thing Jews care about. Which by the way, is anti Semitic in itself. I’m an American citizen. I care deeply about Israel, but I’m capable of caring about Israel while voting based on what I’d like to see happen in the nation I’m raising my family in. Assuming I vote on one issue and one issue alone insults my intelligence. And since you lump all Jews together, you should remember that Albert Einstein was Jewish. And my guess is that he was not a one issue voter. Neither am I, or most American Jews.

And last but not least, Jews know what bigotry and injustice looks and feels like. So when I see Republicans justify the atrocities against migrants at the border, when I see them practice xenophobia against Muslims, and racism against blacks, I identify with these oppressed groups far more than with the oppressor. Because we’ve been there. I don’t want anyone else to experience it on my watch.

So, in conclusion, I find far more solidarity with #TheSquad, a group of black and brown progressive women, than I ever will with the Republican Party. I’ve already been called a self hating Jew (and much worse) by lots of Pete King and Lee Zeldin supporters. It’s funny how these two members of Congress, who claim to fight anti Semitsm, allow it to flourish on their pages, isn’t it? But that’s the cognitive dissonance of being the party of Trump. And it’s why the Republican Party, try as they might to use people like me as a human shield against the just accusations of bigotry, ain’t never gonna get my vote.”

Trickle Down Hate Crimes

David Posnett — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 17:19:22 +0000

Devastatingly awful. The rise of hate crimes & Trump’s vitriol are not independent or coincidental. It’s not the media, it starts in the oval office and trickles down.

Trump

(and his minions)

↓

VITRIOL
HATE

direct INSTRUCTIONS for violence

↓

And the NRA / Trump / Zeldin, they are promoting more guns. Guns for the nutcases, guns in schools and guns in the churches and synagogues.

Barbara —

The news coming out of Pittsburgh this morning is unspeakably tragic. A Synagogue — a place of worship, peace, and safety — invaded. 8 dead. Dozens wounded. All at the hands of a hate-fueled anti-Semite with a powerful military-style weapon.

The President is talking about how we need more weapons of war in our streets and places of worship. The NRA is silent. GOP politicians are “deeply troubled” yet again. But they don’t act. They won’t act. Even though it’s right-wing bigots committing the mass-violence, they’re fully bought-and-paid-for by the NRA and the giant corporations it represents. That’s the truth.

As veterans, we stand in solidarity with all who face these acts of violence — violence that Donald Trump has encouraged and fueled through his extremist rhetoric since day 1. And we’re devoting every resource available to make sure Congress does the right thing this time and puts an end to this terrorism in our communities.

I need you to make a pledge: can you promise to either vote for, donate to, or volunteer with a candidate who OPPOSES the NRA’s agenda of using bigotry and division to fuel corporate profits?

Oppose the NRA »

For years, the NRA has fed violent, paranoid rhetoric to their massive audience. And since his campaign begun, Donald Trump has done the same. They share apocalyptic, terrorizing propaganda videos, openly threatening peaceful protesters with menacing violence. They spew hateful rhetoric about Muslims and people of color in our neighborhoods. And Congress is fine with this as long as the campaign contributions keep flowing.

We have to break that cycle, and call out the NRA for what they really are: propagandists who will use racism and bigotry to stir up fear and hate, and watch mass-shootings from the sidelines as long as it means they can sell more guns and maintain control over Congress.

Join us today in pledging to support as many candidates as possible who will fight for peaceful and secure communities.

Our hearts ache for the people of Pittsburgh, the Jewish community, and for all who’ve been subjected to such terrorism. I know we can’t undo what happened today, but we can fight tooth and nail and hopefully reduce the chances of it ever happening again.

In solidarity,

Alexander McCoy
U.S. Marine Corps veteran
Common Defense

Stop the madness and

VOTE PERRY GERSHON

on Nov 6th

Zeldin and Bannon do the 2 step dance

David Posnett — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 01:03:21 +0000

White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (AP/Steve Helber)

A shorter version, was published as a letter to the editor in the East Hampton Star, Nov 30, 2017: “Anti-Semitic Stance“

Lee Zeldin is one of only 2 Republican Jews in Congress. As such he should be a strong voice for those suffering religious persecution and anti-semitism in particular.

His latest move, is his alliance with Steve Bannon, who will be headlining a high end fundraiser for Congressman Lee Zeldin in New York City. Bannon is the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, the “platform for the alt right” which has a public anti-Semitic stance and is in lockstep with the neo-Nazi movement.

Mr. Zeldin has cast a blind eye on the rise of anti-semitic hate crimes since the campaign and election of Donald Trump.

The FBI just released 2016 data: There were 6,063 single-bias incidents involving 7,509 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type showed that 58.9 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 21.1 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias.

The SLPC has commented on this data from the FBI: The number of hate crimes has reached a five-year high in 2016, taking a noticeable uptick toward the end of the year around Donald Trump’s surprise electoral college victory.

The majority, by far, of these hate crime incidents were anti-jewish, not anti-muslim or anti any other religion!

This flies in the face of an earlier statement by Lee Zeldin that denies a correlation between increase in anti-Semitism and Trump’s election and blames “those who are … looking for any excuse to undermine the Trump presidency,”

Zeldin hasn’t responded to a US vote against condemning Nazism at the United Nations. The resolution called on all U.N. member nations to ban pro-Nazi speech and organizations. The Russian-drafted resolution was approved Thursday by the General Assembly’s human rights committee on a vote of 125-2, with 51 abstentions. Only Ukraine joined the United States in voting “no.” Despite U.S. pressure to vote “no,” Israel supported the resolution.

On October 13^th, Richard Cohen, President of the SPLC, wrote about the annual “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, featuring a rogue’s gallery of far-right extremists along with President Trump and Steve Bannon! “No one should be fooled. These are people and groups who harbor extreme beliefs that are antithetical to the very foundations of our democracy.”

One of the headliners at the Summit, was Roy Moore – the former Alabama chief justice who suggested in a 2002 judicial opinion that the state would be justified in executing gay men and women to protect children. Moore also wrote in 2006 that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, shouldn’t be allowed to serve because of his faith. As any judge should know, the U.S. Constitution explicitly bars any sort of religious test as a prerequisite to holding federal office.

We’ve twice had Moore removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for thumbing his nose at the Constitution. The first time, in 2003, was after he defied a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the state judicial building. The second time was after he ordered state officials to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue with its landmark ruling in 2015.

Bannon, however, called Moore a “good and righteous man” during his Summit appearance.

Bottom line: When Jews neglect to call out anti-Semitism and intolerance, I am reminded of those Jews that stood by Hitler and lived (or died) to regret it.

Postscript 1:

It may not be surprising that Trump brought so much racial animus into the 2016 election cycle, given his family history. His father, Fred Trump, was a target of folk singer Woody Guthrie’s lyrics after Guthrie lived for two years in a building owned by Trump père: “I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial hate / He stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts.” And last fall, a news report from 1927 surfaced on the site Boing Boing, revealing that Fred Trump was arrested that year following a KKK riot in Queens. It’s not clear exactly what the elder Trump was doing there, or what role he may have played in the riot.

Postscript 2:

This blog has posted numerous past entries on the topic of anti-semitism and religious/ethnic tolerance in the Trump era. They are listed here for reference:

Holocaust Seen Through the Eyes of a Child

Hatemongers without the Robes and Hoods

“They Want Everything Done For Them”

Zeldin & Bigotry

Devoid of Emotion & Supported by Zeldin

Remove Lee Zeldin from the US Holocaust Memorial Council

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Alive

What has Zeldin Actually Done ?

“Prejudice, hatred, and racism”

How sincere was trumps condemnation of racism as evil? His history indicates not very.

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

Mr. Zeldin Learns the Trump “Two-Step”

Anti-Semitic Posters on Cornell Campus

Zeldin – Bannon Alliance

David Posnett — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 02:02:05 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – NOVEMBER 29, 2017
CONTACT: Mara Gerstein: mgfightclub@gmail.com or Victoria Glynn
Victoria.Glynn@berlinrosen.com
Coalition of Groups Launch Petition to Demand Lee Zeldin Disinvite Steve Bannon From
Upcoming NYC Fundraiser

Suffolk County and New York, NY – New York City and Long Island residents and activist
organizations are planning coordinated actions between now and Lee Zeldin’s December 14th fundraiser in New York City to protest his headline speaker, Steve Bannon.

Steve Bannon proudly foments hatred against immigrants, Muslims, people of color, women, the poor, and Jews. As a member of Trump’s inner circle and executive chairman of Breitbart, Steve Bannon’s platform and strategy empowered the white supremacists who violently took to the streets in Charlottesville. Now, removed from the White House, Bannon is focused on electing extremists to Congress who support Trump and a white supremacist agenda. By hosting Bannon, Congressman Zeldin is declaring that he wants to be part of that plan too.

Jewish social justice organization, Bend the Arc, in collaboration with several New York activist groups, launched a petition to demand that Lee Zeldin immediately disinvite Bannon from his December 14 fundraiser.

You can read and sign the petition here: http://www.weveseenthisbefore.org/zeldin_dump_bannon

The groups are also planning protests as part of a coordinated response.
Congressional District 1 resident Amy Turner said,” Zeldin says he represents the needs of our diverse district yet he is willing to align himself with Bannon’s white supremacist agenda. We will not allow him to infect our district and the City of New York with his message of hate.”

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, rabbi of a congregation in Lee Zeldin’s district, said “I’m sickened that Zeldin is aligning himself with Bannon and the divisiveness and bigotry he fuels. During the high holiday season, I stood in the wind and rain outside Lee Zeldin’s office alongside Jews and allies to blast the shofar. I said these words to Zeldin: ‘You cannot include Nazis and White Supremacists as part of your coalition and not be complicit in their hate and violence. It’s that simple.’”

This is national news that is spreading virally!

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

David Posnett — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 12:41:02 +0000

From my friend Larry Smith:

By Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman

Berkeley, California, 8/16/17

To our fellow Jews, in the United States, in Israel, and around the world:

We know that, up to now, some of you have made an effort to reserve judgment on the question of whether or not President Donald Trump is an anti-Semite, and to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some of you voted for him last November. Some of you have found employment in his service, or have involved yourself with him in private business deals, or in diplomatic ties.

You have counted carefully as each appointment to his administration of an avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi or crypto-fascist appeared to be counterbalanced by the appointment of a fellow Jew, and reassured yourself that the most troubling of those hires would be cumulatively outweighed by the presence, in his own family and circle of closest advisors, of a Jewish son-in-law and daughter.

You have given your support to the President’s long and appalling record of racist statements, at worst assenting to them, at best dismissing them as the empty blandishments of a huckster at work, and have chosen to see the warm reception that his rhetoric found among the hood-wearers, weekend stormtroopers, and militias of hate as proof of the gullibility of a bunch of patsies, however distasteful.

You have viewed him as a potential friend to Israel, or a reliable enemy of Israel’s enemies.

You have tried to allay or dismiss your fears with the knowledge that most of the President’s hateful words and actions, along with those of his appointees, have targeted other people — immigrants, Black people, and Muslims — taking hollow consolation in how open and shameless his hate has been, as if that openness and shamelessness guaranteed the absence, in his heart and in his administration, of any hidden hatred for us.

The President has no filter, no self-control, you have told yourself. If he were an anti-Semite — a Nazi sympathizer, a friend of the Jew-hating Klan — we would know about it, by now. By now, he would surely have told us.

Yesterday, in a long and ragged off-the-cuff address to the press corps, President Trump told us. During a moment that white supremacist godfather Steve Bannon has apparently described as a “defining” one for this Administration, the President expressed admiration and sympathy for a group of white supremacist demonstrators who marched through the streets of Charlottesville, flaunting Swastikas and openly chanting, along with vile racist slogans, “Jews will not replace us!” Among those demonstrators, according to Trump, were “a lot” of “innocent” and “very fine people.”

So, now you know. First he went after immigrants, the poor, Muslims, trans people and people of color, and you did nothing. You contributed to his campaign, you voted for him. You accepted positions on his staff and his councils. You entered into negotiations, cut deals, made contracts with him and his government.

Now he’s coming after you. The question is: what are you going to do about it? If you don’t feel, or can’t show, any concern, pain or understanding for the persecution and demonization of others, at least show a little self-interest. At least show a little sechel. At the very least, show a little self-respect.

To Steven Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, and our other fellow Jews currently serving under this odious regime: We call upon you to resign; and to the President’s lawyer, Michael D. Cohen: Fire your client.

To Sheldon Adelson and our other fellow Jews still engaged in making the repugnant calculation that a hater of Arabs must be a lover of Jews, or that money trumps hate, or that a million dollars’ worth of access can protect you from one boot heel at the door: Wise up.

To the government of Israel, and our fellow Jews living there: Wise up.

To Jared Kushner: You have one minute to do whatever it takes to keep the history of your people from looking back on you as among its greatest traitors, and greatest fools; that minute is nearly past. To Ivanka Trump: Allow us to teach you an ancient and venerable phrase, long employed by Jewish parents and children to one another at such moments of family crisis: I’ll sit shiva for you. Try it out on your father; see how it goes.

Among all the bleak and violent truths that found confirmation or came slouching into view amid the torchlight of Charlottesville is this: Any Jew, anywhere, who does not act to oppose President Donald Trump and his administration acts in favor of anti-Semitism; any Jew who does not condemn the President, directly and by name, for his racism, white supremacism, intolerance and Jew hatred, condones all of those things.

To our fellow Jews, in North America, in Israel, and around the world: What side are you on?

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Alive

David Posnett — Wed, 31 May 2017 01:55:33 +0000

At 97, Ben Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive and he has a far-reaching message for today’s world (click to watch 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl).

Twenty-two SS officers responsible for the deaths of 1M+ people would never have been brought to justice were it not for Ben Ferencz.
The officers were part of units called Einsatzgruppen, or action groups. Their job was to follow the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and kill Communists, Gypsies and Jews.
Ferencz believes “war makes murderers out of otherwise decent people” and has spent his life working to deter war and war crimes.

Ben Ferencz

CBS NewsIt is not often you get the chance to meet a man who holds a place in history like Ben Ferencz. He’s 97 years old, barely 5 feet tall, and he served as prosecutor of what’s been called the biggest murder trial ever. The courtroom was Nuremberg; the crime, genocide; the defendants, a group of German SS officers accused of committing the largest number of Nazi killings outside the concentration camps — more than a million men, women, and children shot down in their own towns and villages in cold blood.

Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive today. But he isn’t content just to be part of 20th century history — he believes he has something important to offer the world right now.

“If it’s naive to want peace instead of war, let ’em make sure they say I’m naive. Because I want peace instead of war.”

Lesley Stahl: You know, you– have seen the ugliest side of humanity.

Benjamin Ferencz: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: You’ve really seen evil. And look at you. You’re the sunniest man I’ve ever met. The most optimistic 27-year-old Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at Nuremberg.

Benjamin Ferencz: You oughta get some more friends.

Watching Ben Ferencz during his daily swim, his gym workout and his morning push-up regimen is to realize he isn’t just the sunniest man we’ve ever met — he may also be the fittest. And that’s just the beginning.

This is Ferencz making his opening statement in the Nuremberg courtroom 70 years ago.

Ben Ferencz in court: The charges we have brought accuse the defendants of having committed crimes against humanity.

The Nuremberg trials after World War II were historic — the first international war crimes tribunals ever held. Hitler’s top lieutenants were prosecuted first. Then a series of subsequent trials were mounted against other Nazi leaders, including 22 SS officers responsible for killing more than a million people — not in concentration camps — but in towns and villages across Eastern Europe. They would never have been brought to justice were it not for Ben Ferencz.

Lesley Stahl: You look so young.

Benjamin Ferencz: I was so young. I was 27 years old.

Lesley Stahl: Had you prosecuted trials before?

Benjamin Ferencz: Never in my life. I don’t—

Lesley Stahl: Come on.

Benjamin Ferencz: –recall if I’d ever been in a courtroom actually.

Ferencz had immigrated to the U.S. as a baby, the son of poor Jewish parents from a small town in Romania. He grew up in a tough New York City neighborhood where his father found work as a janitor.

Benjamin Ferencz: When I was taken to school at the age of seven, I couldn’t speak English– spoke Yiddish at home. And I was very small. And so they wouldn’t let me in.

Lesley Stahl: So you didn’t speak English ’til you were eight?

Benjamin Ferencz: That’s correct.

Lesley Stahl: Could you read?

Benjamin Ferencz: No, on the contrary. The silent movies always had writing on it. And I would ask my father, “Wazukas,” in Yiddish, “What does it say? What does it say?” He couldn’t read it, either.

But Ferencz learned quickly. He became the first in his family to go to college, then got a scholarship to Harvard Law School. But during his first semester, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he, like many classmates, raced to enlist. He wanted to be a pilot, but the Army Air Corps wouldn’t take him.

Benjamin Ferencz: They said, “No, you’re too short. Your legs won’t reach the pedals.” The Marines, they just looked at me and said, “Forget it, kid.”

So he finished at Harvard then enlisted as a private in the Army. Part of an artillery battalion, he landed on the beach at Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Toward the end of the war, because of his legal training, he was transferred to a brand new unit in General Patton’s Third Army, created to investigate war crimes. As U.S. forces liberated concentration camps, his job was to rush in and gather evidence. Ferencz told us he is still haunted by the things he saw. And the stories he heard in those camps.

Benjamin Ferencz: A father who, his son told me the story. The father had died just as we were entering the camp. And the father had routinely saved a piece of his bread for his son, and he kept it under his arm at… He kept it under his arm at night so the other inmates wouldn’t steal it, you know. So you see these human stories which are not — they’re not real. They’re not real. But they were real.

Ferencz came home, married his childhood sweetheart and vowed never to set foot in Germany again. But that didn’t last long. General Telford Taylor, in charge of the Nuremberg trials, asked him to direct a team of researchers in Berlin, one of whom found a cache of top-secret documents in the ruins of the German foreign ministry.

Benjamin Ferencz: He gave me a bunch of binders, four binders. And these were daily reports from the Eastern Front– which unit entered which town, how many people they killed. It was classified, so many Jews, so many gypsies, so many others–

Ferencz had stumbled upon reports sent back to headquarters by secret SS units called Einsatzgruppen, or action groups. Their job had been to follow the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and kill Communists, Gypsies and especially Jews.

Benjamin Ferencz: They were 3,000 SS officers trained for the purpose, and directed to kill without pity or remorse, every single Jewish man, woman, and child they could lay their hands on.

Lesley Stahl: So they went right in after the troops?

Benjamin Ferencz: That was their assignment, come in behind the troop, round up the Jews, kill ’em all.

Only one piece of film is known to exist of the Einsatzgruppen at work. It isn’t easy viewing…

Benjamin Ferencz: Well, this is typical operation. Well, see here, this– they rounded ’em up. They all have already tags on ’em. And they’re chasing them.

Lesley Stahl: They’re making them run to their own death?

Benjamin Ferencz: Yes. Yes. There’s the rabbi coming along there. Just put ’em in the ditch. Shoot ’em there. You know, kick ’em in.

Lesley Stahl: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

This footage came to light years later. At the time, Ferencz just had the documents, and he started adding up the numbers.

Benjamin Ferencz: When I reached over a million people murdered that way, over a million people, that’s more people than you’ve ever seen in your life, I took a sample. I got on the next plane, flew from Berlin down to Nuremberg, and I said to Taylor, “General, we’ve gotta put on a new trial.”

But the trials were already underway, and prosecution staff was stretched thin. Taylor told Ferencz adding another trial was impossible.

Benjamin Ferencz: And I start screaming. I said, “Look. I’ve got here mass murder, mass murder on an unparalleled scale.” And he said, “Can you do this in addition to your other work?” And I said, “Sure.” He said, “OK. So you do it.”

And that’s how 27-year-old Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at trial number 9 at Nuremberg.

Judge: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?

Defendant: Nicht schuldig.

Benjamin Ferencz: Standard routine, nichtschuldig. Not guilty.

Judge: Guilty or not guilty?

Defendant: Nicht schuldig.

Lesley Stahl: They all say not guilty.

Benjamin Ferencz: Same thing, not guilty.

But Ferencz knew they were guilty and could prove it. Without calling a single witness, he entered into evidence the defendants’ own reports of what they’d done. Exhibit 111: “In the last 10 weeks, we have liquidated around 55,000 Jews.” Exhibit 179, from Kiev in 1941: “The city’s Jews were ordered to present themselves… about 34,000 reported, including women and children. After they had been made to give up their clothing and valuables, all of them were killed, which took several days.” Exhibit 84, from Einsatzgruppen D in March of 1942: Total number executed so far: 91,678. Einsatzgruppen D was the unit of Ferencz’s lead defendant Otto Ohlendorf. He didn’t deny the killings — he had the gall to claim they were done in self-defense.

Benjamin Ferencz: He was not ashamed of that. He was proud of that. He was carrying out his government’s instructions.

Lesley Stahl: How did you not hit him?

Benjamin Ferencz: There was only one time I wanted to– really. One of these– my defendants said– He gets up, and he says, “[GERMAN],” which is, “What? The Jews were shot? I hear it here for the first time.” Boy, I felt if I’d had a bayonet I woulda jumped over the thing, and put a bayonet right through one ear, and let it come out the other. You know? You know?

Lesley Stahl: Yeah.

Benjamin Ferencz: That son of a bitch.

Lesley Stahl: And you had his name down on a piece of—

Benjamin Ferencz: And I’ve got– I’ve got his reports of how many he killed. You know? Innocent lamb.

Lesley Stahl: Did you look at the defendants’ faces?

Benjamin Ferencz: Defendants’ face were blank, all the time. Defendants– absolutely blank. They could– like, they’re waiting for a bus.

Lesley Stahl: What was going on inside of you?

Benjamin Ferencz: Of me?

Lesley Stahl: Yeah.

Benjamin Ferencz: I’m still churning.

Lesley Stahl: To this minute?

Benjamin Ferencz: I’m still churning.

All 22 defendants were found guilty, and four of them, including Ohlendorf, were hanged. Ferencz says his goal from the beginning was to affirm the rule of law and deter similar crimes from ever being committed again.

Lesley Stahl: Did you meet a lot of people who perpetrated war crimes who would otherwise in your opinion have been just a normal, upstanding citizen?

“War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.”

Benjamin Ferencz: Of course, is my answer. These men would never have been murderers had it not been for the war. These were people who could quote Goethe, who loved Wagner, who were polite–

Lesley Stahl: What turns a man into a savage beast like that?

Benjamin Ferencz: He’s not a savage. He’s an intelligent, patriotic human being.

Lesley Stahl: He’s a savage when he does the murder though.

Benjamin Ferencz: No. He’s a patriotic human being acting in the interest of his country, in his mind.

Lesley Stahl: You don’t think they turn into savages even for the act?

Benjamin Ferencz: Do you think the man who dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was a savage? Now I will tell you something very profound, which I have learned after many years. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.

So Ferencz has spent the rest of his life trying to deter war and war crimes by establishing an international court – like Nuremburg. He scored a victory when the international criminal court in The Hague was created in 1998. He delivered the closing argument in the court’s first case.

“If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don’t say they’re naive, I say they’re stupid.”

Lesley Stahl: Now, you’ve been at this for 50 years, if not more. We’ve had genocide since then.

Benjamin Ferencz: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: In Cambodia—

Benjamin Ferencz: Going on right this minute, yes.

Lesley Stahl: Going on right this minute in Sudan.

Benjamin Ferencz: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: We’ve had Rwanda, we’ve had Bosnia. You’re not getting very far.

Benjamin Ferencz: Well, don’t say that. People get discouraged. They should remember, from me, it takes courage not to be discouraged.

Lesley Stahl: Did anybody ever say that you’re naive?

Benjamin Ferencz: Of course. Some people say I’m crazy.

Lesley Stahl: Are you naive here?

Benjamin Ferencz: Well, if it’s naive to want peace instead of war, let ’em make sure they say I’m naive. Because I want peace instead of war. If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don’t say they’re naive, I say they’re stupid. Stupid to an incredible degree to send young people out to kill other young people they don’t even know, who never did anybody any harm, never harmed them. That is the current system. I am naive? That’s insane.

Ferencz is legendary in the world of international law, and he’s still at it. He never stops pushing his message and he’s donating his life savings to a Genocide Prevention Initiative at the Holocaust Museum. He says he’s grateful for the life he’s lived in this country, and it’s his turn to give back.

Lesley Stahl: You are such an idealist.

Benjamin Ferencz: I don’t think I’m an idealist. I’m a realist. And I see the progress. The progress has been remarkable. Look at the emancipation of woman in my lifetime. You’re sitting here as a female. Look what’s happened to the same-sex marriages. To tell somebody a man can become a woman, a woman can become a man, and a man can marry a man, they would have said, “You’re crazy.” But it’s a reality today. So the world is changing. And you shouldn’t– you know– be despairing because it’s never happened before. Nothing new ever happened before.

Lesley Stahl: Ben—

Benjamin Ferencz: We’re on a roll.

Lesley Stahl: I can’t—

Benjamin Ferencz: We’re marching forward.

Lesley Stahl: Ben? I’m sitting here listening to you. And you’re very wise. And you’re full of energy and passion. And I can’t believe you’re 97 years old.

Benjamin Ferencz: Well, I’m still a young man.

Lesley Stahl: Clearly, clearly.

Benjamin Ferencz: And I’m still in there fighting. And you know what keeps me going? I know I’m right.

Produced by Shari Finkelstein and Nieves Zuberbühler.

Lesley Stahl

One of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since 1991.

jews – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Jews know what Bigotry and Injustice look like!

Trickle Down Hate Crimes

Trump

↓

VITRIOL
HATE

direct INSTRUCTIONS for violence

↓

Stop the madness and

VOTE PERRY GERSHON

Zeldin and Bannon do the 2 step dance

Zeldin – Bannon Alliance

Jewish Republican blasted over fundraiser with ‘enemy of our …

Bannon has House Republicans looking over shoulders for 2018 …

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Alive

“If it’s naive to want peace instead of war, let ’em make sure they say I’m naive. Because I want peace instead of war.”

“War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.”

“If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don’t say they’re naive, I say they’re stupid.”

jews – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Jews know what Bigotry and Injustice look like!

Trickle Down Hate Crimes

Trump

↓

VITRIOL HATE

direct INSTRUCTIONS for violence

↓

Stop the madness and

VOTE PERRY GERSHON

Zeldin and Bannon do the 2 step dance

Zeldin – Bannon Alliance

Jewish Republican blasted over fundraiser with ‘enemy of our …

Bannon has House Republicans looking over shoulders for 2018 …

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Alive

“If it’s naive to want peace instead of war, let ’em make sure they say I’m naive. Because I want peace instead of war.”

“War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.”

“If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don’t say they’re naive, I say they’re stupid.”

VITRIOL
HATE