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BOYNTON BEACH, Florida: The last living prosecutor from the World War II Nuremberg trials, Ben Ferencz, has died at the age of 103 in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Ferencz was among the international prosecutors who placed on trial Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps.

Ferencz’s death was reported by St. John’s University law professor John Barrett, who writes a blog about the Nuremberg trials. The passing of Ferencz was also confirmed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

“Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes,” the museum tweeted.

Born in Transylvania in 1920, Ferencz immigrated as a very young boy with his parents to New York to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he joined the US Army and took part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. Using his legal background, he became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against US soldiers.

After US intelligence reports described soldiers encountering many victims of Nazi concentration camps, Ferencz visited Ohrdruf labor camp in Germany, as well as the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp.

“The Buchenwald concentration camp was a charnel house of indescribable horrors,” Ferencz wrote.

After the war, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the US Army and returned to New York to begin practicing law. But due to his experiences as a war crimes investigator, he was recruited to help prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, which had begun under the leadership of US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.