News

Thomas Buergenthal was born in 1934 in Lubochna, Slovakia. His Jewish parents had left Germany soon after the Nazis came to power to live in Czechoslovakia. After the German occupation, the family was deported to the Polish ghetto of Kielce and eventually to Auschwitz, where they were separated. Buergenthal's father was shot in the camp shortly before liberation. The ten-year-old boy made his way from Auschwitz to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the death march. Here, as one of about 3,000 prisoners who remained after the camp was cleared by the SS, he experienced liberation on April 22/23, 1945.

He found his mother again after the war and initially lived with her in Göttingen before emigrating to the USA in 1951.

There, after studying law, he had an illustrious academic career as a jurist. From 1962 to 2000, he held professorships at various American universities.

In addition to his many academic activities, Buergenthal has been involved in human rights issues at UNESCO congresses since 1974 and was a member of the American Holocaust Memorial Council. The U.S. also seconded him as a judge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, which is responsible for lawsuits between states and the investigation of war crimes.

He has received numerous international awards and honorary degrees over the years and is co-editor of several journals and author of numerous books, essays and articles.

In 2005, Thomas Buergenthal visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its liberation. At that time, he said in his address: "We would like to believe that no sane person would be capable of committing such crimes on purpose, but history teaches us otherwise. And until we acknowledge this truth and draw the necessary consequences from it, we will never be able to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity."