introduction

About dreams
About education
About the environment
About life
About the principles
About the truth
About love
About Persistence
About the future

Acknowledgements

Wisdom of an era that makes life positive
What Benjamin Ferenc, who has lived a century, has learned from his remarkable life.

2021 marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.
Nuremberg, where the Nazi Party Congress was held every year from 1945 to 1948, became the historic site where, for the first time in human history, war crimes and crimes against humanity were condemned.
A total of twelve trials were held, the ninth of which involved the prosecution of twenty-two members of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi killing squads.
It was a trial conducted by Benjamin Ferenc, the then twenty-seven-year-old chief prosecutor, who found the bodies of Jews and gathered evidence.
He later participated in reparations negotiations between Israel and West Germany, leading the way in returning the assets of Holocaust survivors, a milestone in international morality.
At the entrance to the Nuremberg court stands a bust bearing his slogan, “Law not war.”

Benjamin Ferenc hoped that the lessons of Nuremberg would lead to a more humane world.
And he devoted his life to that hope.
His efforts to prevent tragedies like the Holocaust from happening again and to ensure that the rule of power, such as war, is replaced by the power of fair law are truly remarkable.
Having survived major battles of World War II, he knew better than anyone how war claimed countless innocent lives.
I also knew very well how terrible revenge was.
He has been guided by the belief that the world should be one in which everyone, regardless of creed, race, or religion, can live in peace and dignity under the protection of the law, and has been at the forefront of important stages in modern history, such as playing a pioneering role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2002.
There, he persistently did what he could.
And I witnessed many things that everyone thought were impossible come true before my eyes.

It is surprising that even now, at the age of 101, he is not stepping back because he is old and tired, but is still doing what he can in his own place.
His words, “There is not even time to die,” are not a joke, but a very sincere statement.
Because there is so much to do.

This book is a compilation of conversations between Nadia Komami, a former reporter for The Guardian, and Benjamin Ferenc.
We have summarized important topics in our lives into nine keywords by following the life of Benjamin Ferenc.
His stories, filled with simple truths we should cherish—from dreams to the environment, principles to love—are delightful and heartwarming.
His attitude of finding humor in even the most dire of situations is like that, and above all, he believes in hope even after witnessing horrific horrors that are still unforgettable to this day.
That was the strength that allowed me to tirelessly seek change until now.

What we call progress, the big and small changes in our daily lives, don't happen all at once.
It happens so little by little, so slowly, that I feel like giving up on faith.
But progress is real.
What Benjamin Ferenc, with his century of experience, gives us is the faith that his long years have taught us.

When your goals become doubtful, even as you struggle towards your dreams and hopes,
When you feel like you're swimming in place in the ocean
The courage and hope that Benjamin Ferenc's life gives us

Perhaps his life is now something you only see in old black-and-white movies.
Born in the now-defunct country of Transylvania, he grew up in a poor immigrant family during the Great Depression and spent his childhood in a crime-ridden Manhattan neighborhood known as "Hell's Kitchen."
He grew up with parents who never read a book, barely earned enough money to eat, and studied at Harvard Law School.
Thanks to the environment he grew up in, he learned how to survive at an early age.
Because of his short stature of about 150 centimeters, he was often bullied by larger people, but no one bullied him twice.
He knew how to protect himself.
Instead of complaining about the adversities in front of me, I took them as opportunities and moved forward.
In a time when there were few experts on war crimes, he studied diligently, biding his time, and took on numerous impossible challenges, including the Nuremberg trials and the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
I encountered all kinds of dangers along the way, but I was never afraid.
Rather, I have lived with humor and a positive attitude that makes me a lucky person in any environment.
He survived the war because “he was short and bullets flew over his head.”
People called him “Fearless Ferenc.”

Whatever it is, as you struggle towards your hopes and dreams, there are times when it feels like you're swimming in place in the ocean.
If you're struggling to achieve your dreams, on the precipice of a cliff with no parents to support you and no safety net, or in an environment where your colleagues have never done it before or where there are many obstacles, or even in the face of small and big tasks like applying for a new job, climbing a mountain, or building your body, Benjamin Ferenc's life will give you courage and strength.
When you feel like you have nothing, when you feel like giving up on your faith, just remembering this story will give you strength.

In his long and arduous quest to create a more humane world over a century, he learned one thing.
The truth is, if you don't give up, you will start to see changes.
So today he says again.

“Let’s not give up, let’s not give up, let’s never, ever give up.”

As the coronavirus has shown us, we are all connected.
Making this small planet we live on peaceful
In the end, it's for my own good.

How far have we come since Nuremberg? From ongoing war crimes, to the expulsion of refugees for lack of proper documentation, to the killing and denial of education for people of different skin color, to the hatred directed at certain groups… From everyday life to the state, the "us-versus-them" approach has spawned countless conflicts and wars, increasingly endangering values ​​and ideals once taken for granted, like fairness and tolerance.
Benjamin Ferenc says:
That we must continue to scream.
What I am saying is that we cannot tolerate the persistence of the same mindset, values, and systems of the 20th century in the 21st century.

But the reality is that my life alone is too burdensome to put effort into creating a more humane world.
Words like justice and world peace have now become too distant and grandiose for individual desires and individual survival.
But Benjamin Ferenc tells us that it is a matter of survival, that making this small planet we live on peaceful is ultimately for the sake of ourselves who live within it.
Just as the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world has revealed the simple fact that we are all intimately connected somewhere.
Benjamin Ferenc learns that the human spirit can be resilient no matter what adversity we face, that we have more in common than we think, no matter where we come from or what we do, and that when we unite in this way, we become stronger.

“I feel more and more powerful.
I hope you all think positively too.
We will undoubtedly survive even in worse circumstances.”