By John Parkerson
On Jan. 24, 2016, Am Yisrael Chai held its annual “Courage and Compassion” International Holocaust Remembrance in Sandy Springs. The keynote speaker was Judge/Professor Thomas Buergenthal, who recently retired from the International Court of Justice (in The Hague) and returned to a faculty leadership position at The George Washington University Law School. Judge Buergenthal easily captured the audience’s attention in Sandy Springs as he described and explained the relevance of his 1940s experiences as a child survivor of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Following his address, Judge Buergenthal signed copies of his autobiographical book, “A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy.” I encourage everyone to read Judge Buergenthal’s book so that we might remember and, in so doing, perhaps help to ensure similar atrocities are not repeated.
I was honored to be invited to attend the Am Yisrael Chai’s program in my capacity as Honorary Consul General of Hungary. I was excited to accept the invitation for personal reasons, however, that added significance to me beyond the event’s purpose. It reunited me with my law school professor and mentor, “Professor” Thomas Buergenthal. In 1989-90 – a time of immense change in central and eastern Europe as we watched the Soviet Union collapse – I was Professor Buergenthal’s post-graduate LL.M (Master of Laws) student at The George Washington University Law School. Professor Buergenthal directed my LL.M. degree program in International & Comparative Law, he was my International Law and Human Rights Law professor and mentor, and he personally directed my thesis on a humanitarian law topic. I realized then and now that I was fortunate to be a student under one of the world’s leading international law and human rights law experts: author of scholarly books; professor at leading law schools, including my J.D. alma mater, Emory Law School; Lobinger Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at The George Washington University Law School; and judge and president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. My professor soon after added further distinctions: judge at the International Court of Justice (The Hague) and, in 2015, recipient of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Elie Wiesel Award.
Having personally experienced the human rights tragedy of the Nazis’ holocaust, Professor Buergenthal unquestionably is uniquely qualified to serve as judge and teacher of human rights law. But his world view of humanity, cultures and international jurisprudence generally also had a profound and lasting influence on me; and those lessons learned during my year at GW with Professor Buergenthal provided a solid foundation that helped me also to become a better international business lawyer. I am privileged to have been provided an opportunity to know such a learned and compassionate human being as Professor Buergenthal. Thank you, Professor Buergenthal, for being an inspiration and teacher. We are grateful to you for sharing your life’s story.
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