Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images
A South Florida man credited with helping to convict 22 former Nazi officials after the Holocaust receives the highest civilian honor.
Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington today, in front of bipartisan House leaders.
Democrat Lois Frankel serves the Palm Beach County district that Ferencz called home until his death at the age of 103, three years ago.
"He was my constituent, in Delray Beach, Florida. He lived one of the most extraordinary lives of our time, defined by courage and justice and unshakeable belief in humanity."
Ferencz was a World War II Army veteran who helped gather evidence of Nazi war crimes and after the war was appointed chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trial that convicted 22 former Nazi officials for the murders of more than a million people, primarily Jews.
Today is known as "Yom HaShoa," a day dedicated to honoring the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.