The only surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, passes away at age 103.

Before Ferencz made history as a prosecutor, he was a US soldier who saw the liberation of multiple concentration camps and exposed horrifying Nazi atrocities.

When he tried Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, he was barely 30 years old.

In Nuremberg, which Adolf Hitler intended to use as the capital of his Reich, the victorious allies began putting prominent Nazis on trial in late November 1945 after winning World War II.

These included Hermann Göring, the commander of the German air force, and Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy.

After almost a year, the International Military Tribunal’s trial came to a close with 12 execution warrants.

The so-called Following Nuremberg Trials followed the main trial from 1946 to 1949.

There were 12 of these trials, and Ferencz served as the lead prosecutor in the one that addressed the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile Nazi killing squads.

For their roles in the death of more than a million people, the trial led to the conviction of 20 Nazi officers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and membership in a criminal organization.

On lesser accusations, two additional people were found guilty.

It is believed that what happened in Nuremberg directly led to the creation of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which Ferencz referred to as his “baby” after campaigning for its establishment.

In an interview with dpa in 2020, he said: “I learned that a war can make mass murderers out of otherwise decent people… War itself destroys all sense of morality, and it’s been glorified for centuries.”

Ferencz appealed to the younger generation to follow his example.

“We must protect the rights, the minimum rights of all human beings to live in peace and dignity in every country,” he said at the time.

“That’s my goal. If you share the goal, do whatever you can.”