One of the most eminent members of the German Society of International Law, Professor Thomas Buergenthal, has passed away at the age of 89 on 29 May 2023.

The German Society of International Law is indebted to Thomas Buergenthal who despite all what he had been suffering by Germans returned to Germany after WW II and taught at German universities.

Thomas Buergenthal was born in Ľubochňa, then Czechoslovakia. In 1938 he as a Jew had to flee with his family, but eventually was deported to the Concentration Camp Auschwitz. He survived a death march and the Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen and was united with his mother at the end of the war. He finished his school time in Göttingen and emigrated to the United States in 1951.

After a career as a professor of international law in the State University of New York in Buffalo, at the University of Texas, at the American University in Washington D.C., at Emory University and at George Washington University, Thomas Buergenthal became Judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, before he served as Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 2000 to 2010.

His personal biography was published in 2007 under the German title „Ein Glückskind“.

The international legal community loses a grand personality of international law who despite his experiences never became bitter and always preserved a human attitude.

We, as Germans, owe Thomas Buergenthal gratitude.