In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paid tribute to Benjamin Ferencz who has died at the age of 103:

"It is with profound gratitude, sadness, and the greatest respect that Holocaust survivors around the globe bid farewell to Benjamin Ferencz. Throughout his life he made sure that the people murdered in the Holocaust did not vanish into the darkness of oblivion, and that the perpetrators of crimes against humanity be tracked down and brought to trial. Immediately at the end of the war Benjamin Ferencz was personally confronted with the crimes during the liberation of several concentration camps. It made him acutely aware of the fact that he too belonged to one of those Jewish families that the Nazis had sentenced to death in the gas chambers. From then on, the experiences and impressions he gained in those months determined his lifelong commitment to work for the implementation of law, for justice and for reparation claims on behalf of the surviving victims of that reign of terror. Vengeance was never his goal. Benjamin Ferencz always stood up against anti-Semitism, torture, hate and war crimes. And he was convinced that justice will win through in the end – ‘Never give up!’ His legacy is sorely needed in these challenging times. May it be a powerful source of inspiration."