Re: Should German WWII vets be arrested?
These are not civilian criminal trials or even military criminal trials. These are war crimes trials. The rules are different and many issues already decided.
It was unanimously ruled post WWII that the SS did not have the protections of the Geneva Convention nor those of it. Rather, it was a criminal organization specifically for the purpose of committing crimes against humanity (civilians) and war crimes. Joining the SS was not required. Rather it has to be sought after and if allowed in this brought benefits and status for which the person gained a known personal benefit by doing so.
The actions of the SS in nearly every village, town, city, countryside, in POW camps, in concentration camps - unthinkable levels of routine and sadist torture, abuse, rape, theft and murder of babies, children, women, men, elderly - anyone and everyone - often for the purpose of to establish a total rein of terror and climate of terror to everyone was not only routine, but known. A person who sought after joining the SS was joining to obtain personal benefits and status specifically by willingness to commit any and all autrocities, and crimes against civilians and against humanity as a whole.
Therefore, by virtue of being SS he was a co-conspirator on his own decision and for his own personal benefit. It is never necessary to show a co-conspirator is who pulled the trigger, turned on the gas or any other specific action. Rather, they were knowingly and willfully on their own decision and for their own personal benefit part of the mass murder and countable acts of criminality not allowed under any theory of rules of war. They had not become a part of and supporting person of that criminal organization except because they wanted to be. Therefore, "I was following orders" is not a defense when you volunteered and sought such jobs, nor is claiming someone else actually did the crimes a defense since you voluntarily were part of the overall operation.
If they can prove he was SS, he is guilty. This question was extensively tried publicly with volumes of evidence concerning the SS and those who joined it, why they joined and what they knew they were join it to do as they knew the purpose of the SS and what it did. Its purpose was terror, murder and nothing of it within the rules of war or any tolerance within warfare.
If they can show he was SS at the death camp, he is already adjudicated a co-conspirator of mass murder and horrific crimes against humanity. This is a long standing judgment already made decades ago. An SS member, regardless of age, is facing charges and accusations before what in way has been a never-ending military tribunal and never will end until the last SS officer is captured, tried or dead.