Re: Should German WWII vets be arrested?
Germany is STILL arresting WW2 vets because they were stationed at concentration camps.
BBC News - Germany arrests three suspected Auschwitz guards
Three men aged 88, 92 and 94 have been detained by German authorities on suspicion of being guards at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
The homes of a number of men were raided in three German states, months after prosecutors investigating Nazi-era war crimes announced they were recommending charges against 30 people.
Is this fair? The youngest of the three would have been probably born in 1926, making him no older than 19 when the war ended. Additionally, it's not like these guys volunteered for the war, or even to be guards at Auschwitz. They were forced into it; almost every German male of military age was forced into fighting for the Third Reich. I don't think it's right for us to do this. It's ridiculous for a bunch of people lucky enough to be born in the post-war era to go back and persecute these people for things that happened 70 years ago, especially since these people couldn't have possibly hoped to stop anything. What would have happened if they refused to be guards at Auschwitz? They would have probably just been executed on the spot for refusing to obey orders.
Mm. That's a very good question. There's great arguments on both sides. On the one hand, there's no statute of limitations on participating in genocide, nor should there be...but on the other hand, it is true that these were just kids when they were drafted and ordered what to do, what to say, what to think.
I remember one day, in the wee hours of the morning, that we had the
Shellback ceremony on board the USS Camden. There was one kid, a wog (meaning, one who had never crossed the equator before) who was not well liked by the crew. He had been told to get up on a capstan and we activated it to where it turned round and round, and we shellbacks were in a circle around the capstan hitting his backside with our shillelaghs...and we did so for several minutes - we were getting to the point of cruelty. The Chief Master-at-Arms saw what was going on and stopped us and took him out of the ceremony and made sure he got credit for getting through the entire ceremony.
I look back on that day and - though I still support the Shellback ceremony - I see that we were flat wrong in what we did to that kid. But more to the issue, I'm normally a gentle person who eschews violence (I've thrown one punch since the 9th grade)...but I was drawn into what was going on - I found out that I, too, was susceptible to mob psychology...and to this day I'm honestly frightened by it, by the realization that I, too, can be part of a violent, malicious mob given the right circumstances.
So what happens if the cruelty of the mob is government-sanctioned? That's what was going on in those days. Those kids were made part of that mob, told that they must support that mob, told what to say, what to think, and when they did so, they were rewarded for it...
...and thus the mob rules. For this reason, I think the men - who were in those days just kids doing what to do, say, think - should be forgiven, and allowed to get on with what remains of their lives.
