Thomas Buergenthal came to the United States at the age of 17.  He spent the first 11 years of his life in various German camps and is one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps.  He graduated from Bethany College and New York University Law School, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar, and received his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in International Law from Harvard University.  In 2000 he was elected to the International Court of Justice in the The Hague, The Netherlands, where he served for a decade.  Considered one of the world's leading international human rights experts, Professor Buergenthal was a Judge and President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as well as President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank.