96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany

[Rogue Valley]

96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany

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AP October 20, 2017

A pile of human bones and skulls is seen in 1944 at the Nazi concentration camp of Majdanek, the second
largest death camp in Poland after Auschwitz, following its liberation in 1944 by Russian troops. Getty Images

BERLIN -- A former guard at the Majdanek death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland has been charged in Germany with being an accessory to murder for allegedly serving there during a period when at least 17,000 Jews were killed, Frankfurt prosecutors said Friday. The 96-year-old Frankfurt resident, whose name wasn't released under German privacy regulations, is alleged to have served at the death camp near the Polish city of Lublin between August 1943 and January 1944. Prosecutors allege that as a 22-year-old member of the SS's Death's Head division, the man worked as a perimeter guard and in the camp's guard towers. "According to the known evidence, the suspect, as well as all other SS members of the camp, knew of the cruel and organized mass murder," prosecutors said in a statement. In particular, the indictment accuses the man of supporting the so-called Operation "Erntefest" - Operation Harvest Festival - on November 3, 1943.

On that day, at least 17,000 Jewish prisoners from the Majdanek camp and others who were being used as forced laborers in and around Lublin were shot in ditches just outside the camp. Music was blared from the Majdanek loudspeakers to mask the sound of the executions. The Frankfurt resident charged Friday "contributed in his role as a perimeter guard and as a tower guard, and thus knowingly and deliberately aided" the killings, prosecutors said. No trial date has been set. More than 70 years after the end of World War II, German prosecutors continue to bring new cases against former Nazi war crimes suspects. Due to their advanced ages, the task of getting suspects to trial is getting increasingly difficult, but prosecutors have secured notable convictions in recent years.

Convictions today are more difficult because the camps operated 74+ years ago. Living witnesses are becoming scarce due to their advanced age and health issues.

I do favor trials to establish culpability, but not incarceration. These beast's are already at death's door. Their eternal fate is close at hand.

 

[HowardBThiname]

96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany

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Convictions today are more difficult because the camps operated 74+ years ago. Living witnesses are becoming scarce due to their advanced age and health issues.

I do favor trials to establish culpability, but not incarceration. These beast's are already at death's door. Their eternal fate is close at hand.

And, their fate will be the same as yours and mine and every other person who passes from this planet at some point.

I agree that incarceration is silly at his age.

I also think that the world needs to heal and move on. Let him be. There is no honor in prosecuting an incredibly old man.

 

[joG]

96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany

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Convictions today are more difficult because the camps operated 74+ years ago. Living witnesses are becoming scarce due to their advanced age and health issues.

I do favor trials to establish culpability, but not incarceration. These beast's are already at death's door. Their eternal fate is close at hand.

What is most noteworthy about the trickle of cases now being brought to trail is that they waited so long. Many of the persons that did bad stuff back them were well known to have. But nobody wanted to bring the criminals to justice any more than they wanted to compensate the slaves or their relatives or the relatives of the people killed in the concentration camps or in places like Greek towns they wiped out. Now, as the hundreds of thousands of Nazis have lost power and dies away, they are picking out a few last ones to show good will.

 

[Red_Dave]

And, their fate will be the same as yours and mine and every other person who passes from this planet at some point.

I agree that incarceration is silly at his age.

I also think that the world needs to heal and move on. Let him be. There is no honor in prosecuting an incredibly old man.

Even if hes only put away for a few years thats a few years less that he enjoys the freedoms he deprived others of.

 

[MrPeanut]

Even if hes only put away for a few years thats a few years less that he enjoys the freedoms he deprived others of.

I agree, elderly or not he has seemingly not paid for his crimes. He can enjoy his last few years being forced to reflect on the terrors he helped inflict upon other people.

 

[Red_Dave]

If anything his age makes him more deserving, he got 90 odd years more of freedom than most of his victims did.

 

[washunut]

And, their fate will be the same as yours and mine and every other person who passes from this planet at some point.

I agree that incarceration is silly at his age.

I also think that the world needs to heal and move on. Let him be. There is no honor in prosecuting an incredibly old man.

I wonder if you would be that understanding if it had been your wife,children etc who he helped butcher.

Do you believe all people should have a retirement age for prison. So if you killed and/or raped someone, perhaps you get out at 65. Perhaps a mass murderer stays a bit longer.

Really disgusted by this POV.

 

[PoS]

I agree, elderly or not he has seemingly not paid for his crimes. He can enjoy his last few years being forced to reflect on the terrors he helped inflict upon other people.

Someone that old will not be placed in prison, more like house arrest. Chances are he will pass away before he is even convicted.

 

[Sweden]

What is most noteworthy about the trickle of cases now being brought to trail is that they waited so long. Many of the persons that did bad stuff back them were well known to have. But nobody wanted to bring the criminals to justice any more than they wanted to compensate the slaves or their relatives or the relatives of the people killed in the concentration camps or in places like Greek towns they wiped out. Now, as the hundreds of thousands of Nazis have lost power and dies away, they are picking out a few last ones to show good will.

To show good will? Seems more like virtue signalling to me.

 

[Bodi]

Do to him what others of the same crime were sentenced with...

 

[zyzygy]

And, their fate will be the same as yours and mine and every other person who passes from this planet at some point.

I agree that incarceration is silly at his age.

I also think that the world needs to heal and move on. Let him be. There is no honor in prosecuting an incredibly old man.

I disagree. Lock the swine up.

 

[HowardBThiname]

I wonder if you would be that understanding if it had been your wife,children etc who he helped butcher.

Do you believe all people should have a retirement age for prison. So if you killed and/or raped someone, perhaps you get out at 65. Perhaps a mass murderer stays a bit longer.

Really disgusted by this POV.

I get that you believe punishment should be meted out no matter what the age, but I see it as folly when a person is that old. More than that -- I feel that the time has passed to pursue Nazi criminals.

The Nuremberg Trials were staged to try Nazis for war crimes. But there were other trials -- the Tokyo Trials were staged for a similar purpose, yet very few, comparatively, were ever sentenced, perhaps 30 or so, in the Tokyo Trials.

Some of worst war crimes were committed by the Japanese, yet we did not pursue all those who participated. We understood that the war was over, we let bygones be bygones and we eventually formed an alliance with Japan, which still serves us today. If we were still hunting Japanese war criminals, that alliance would likely not be as strong as it is now.

But, back to the 96 year old...why do you think the urge is still so strong to punish him for war crimes that occurred 70 years ago? Why the Nazis and why not the Japanese? Those war crime tribunals served their purpose -- to show the world what type of behavior was unacceptable.

My personal opinion is that, at this point, the world learned its lesson and that going after a very old Nazi now serves no moral or ethical purpose. Do you want to retry the participants of the Mỹ Lai Massacre? What purpose would that serve today? And, they're younger men. Yet, they, too, committed war crimes.

You ask if I think we ought to let criminals out of prison at a certain age. I don't necessarily, but I don't see the need to imprison someone who clearly poses no threat to society. If an 80-year old man beats his wife to death, he's still a danger and should be contained. But, a 96 year old man, who has lived a "post war" life in which he committed no crimes, has no place in prison.

We cannot correct man's inhumanity by being inhumane ourselves.

 

[yankintx]

96-year-old ex-Nazi guard charged in Germany

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Convictions today are more difficult because the camps operated 74+ years ago. Living witnesses are becoming scarce due to their advanced age and health issues.

I do favor trials to establish culpability, but not incarceration. These beast's are already at death's door. Their eternal fate is close at hand.

I have been to the camps, seen the massive pile of baby shoes from those infants shoved into the gas chambers. This guy should pay, i dont care how old he is, baby killers.

 

[holbritter]

I wonder if you would be that understanding if it had been your wife,children etc who he helped butcher.

Do you believe all people should have a retirement age for prison. So if you killed and/or raped someone, perhaps you get out at 65. Perhaps a mass murderer stays a bit longer.

Really disgusted by this POV.

'Disgusted'? That seems a bit overboard. While I don't agree with letting the guy off, it's not 'disgusting' that someone shows empathy for a 96 year old man.

 

[PoS]

What is most noteworthy about the trickle of cases now being brought to trail is that they waited so long.

I read a bit of background as to whats happening and it seems that the John Demjanjuk trial set forth a new precedent. Now the prosecutors can bring someone to trial for strictly being a guard at one of these camps, even though there is no hard evidence that they actually participated in any war crimes.

Demjanjuk was once labeled as Ivan the Terrible, until it was later revealed he was a different man and the prosecutors got his identity wrong. His children are asking the the courts to posthumously reinstate his US citizenship.

 

[MrPeanut]

Someone that old will not be placed in prison, more like house arrest. Chances are he will pass away before he is even convicted.

I just care that he is actually punished. I have no problem with house arrest or prison. I mainly just want there to be a trial where his actions are brought to the surface in front of everyone.

 

[X Factor]

I get that you believe punishment should be meted out no matter what the age, but I see it as folly when a person is that old. More than that -- I feel that the time has passed to pursue Nazi criminals.

The Nuremberg Trials were staged to try Nazis for war crimes. But there were other trials -- the Tokyo Trials were staged for a similar purpose, yet very few, comparatively, were ever sentenced, perhaps 30 or so, in the Tokyo Trials.

Some of worst war crimes were committed by the Japanese, yet we did not pursue all those who participated. We understood that the war was over, we let bygones be bygones and we eventually formed an alliance with Japan, which still serves us today. If we were still hunting Japanese war criminals, that alliance would likely not be as strong as it is now.

But, back to the 96 year old...why do you think the urge is still so strong to punish him for war crimes that occurred 70 years ago? Why the Nazis and why not the Japanese? Those war crime tribunals served their purpose -- to show the world what type of behavior was unacceptable.

My personal opinion is that, at this point, the world learned its lesson and that going after a very old Nazi now serves no moral or ethical purpose. Do you want to retry the participants of the Mỹ Lai Massacre? What purpose would that serve today? And, they're younger men. Yet, they, too, committed war crimes.

You ask if I think we ought to let criminals out of prison at a certain age. I don't necessarily, but I don't see the need to imprison someone who clearly poses no threat to society. If an 80-year old man beats his wife to death, he's still a danger and should be contained. But, a 96 year old man, who has lived a "post war" life in which he committed no crimes, has no place in prison.

We cannot correct man's inhumanity by being inhumane ourselves.

"We're" not doing this though. Germany is.

 

[HowardBThiname]

"We're" not doing this though. Germany is.

Given Germany's proclivity for cruelty in WWII, that isn't surprising, but, does that make it right?

 

[washunut]

'Disgusted'? That seems a bit overboard. While I don't agree with letting the guy off, it's not 'disgusting' that someone shows empathy for a 96 year old man.

Perhaps if it was your family that was murdered and the killer was allowed to get away with it for 70 years you might feel differently.

 

[Parrish]

'Disgusted'? That seems a bit overboard. While I don't agree with letting the guy off, it's not 'disgusting' that someone shows empathy for a 96 year old man.

...One who showed no empathy for others deserves no empathy. I take it you're not Jewish or empathetic to those 6 million who were treated as human filth.

 

[justabubba]

he was a soldier in military uniform
performing his duties as assigned
what was he to have done instead?

 

[PoS]

I just care that he is actually punished. I have no problem with house arrest or prison. I mainly just want there to be a trial where his actions are brought to the surface in front of everyone.

Let's hope he gets a fair trial because from what I read the German authorities arrested him simply because he was a guard in the camp. No proof he participated in killings so far.

 

[maxparrish]

he was a soldier in military uniform
performing his duties as assigned
what was he to have done instead?

The SS was voluntary. I could cut the guy a little slack if ALL he did was act as a guard. If, however, he participated in the torture and killing of innocents he ought to be punished. So many SS members escaped justice because of the complacency (and sometimes sympathy) of the West German government, and who were often protected abroad.

Frankly, after WII I wished they shot every official and soldier connected to the roundup, transportation, and extermination of Jews and Slavs. And until the murderous Russian Stalinist communists are held to account for their horrible crimes, justice will never be finished.

 

[maxparrish]

I get that you believe punishment should be meted out no matter what the age, but I see it as folly when a person is that old. More than that -- I feel that the time has passed to pursue Nazi criminals....

But, back to the 96 year old...why do you think the urge is still so strong to punish him for war crimes that occurred 70 years ago? Why the Nazis and why not the Japanese? Those war crime tribunals served their purpose -- to show the world what type of behavior was unacceptable.

My personal opinion is that, at this point, the world learned its lesson and that going after a very old Nazi now serves no moral or ethical purpose. Do you want to retry the participants of the Mỹ Lai Massacre? What purpose would that serve today? And, they're younger men. Yet, they, too, committed war crimes.

... But, a 96 year old man, who has lived a "post war" life in which he committed no crimes, has no place in prison.

We cannot correct man's inhumanity by being inhumane ourselves.

If we assume that all the man did was to act as a guard during his time at the camp, I can see why a minimal punishment is warranted - especially because it is my impression that most SS guards (and there must be many hundreds, if not thousands) were never prosecuted.

If, on the other hand, he participated directly in the torture and killing of inmates then I don't see a problem with prison, most likely for life.

The "time has" never "passed" for accountability for the genocide of Hitler's death camps - a crime so horrid and revolting that the mere death penalty for its perpetrators would have been far too kind. Roughly 12 million people were murdered in the death camps, 1/2 of them being Jews. Men, women, and children were shot, beaten, starved, and gassed. They were used for fatal medical experiments. They were harvested for their tooth fillings, hair, glasses, and personal items...there dead bodies (including babies) shoveled into the ovens.

The war crime tribunals did not serve their full purpose - if they had, then every NAZI and SS member even remotely associated with the rounding up and killing of innocent Jews, Slavs, and oppositional writers and artists, would have been shot between 1945 and 1955.

And I have no problem with holding those accountable for the Mỹ Lai Massacre. If Ken Burn's documentary on Vietnam is accurate, Calley earned a visit to the firing squad, perhaps with several others.

 

[Northern Light]

It says right in the article that he was posted to a guard tower, which means he saw the starving naked men, women and children. He saw the dead bodies on the ground. He saw the interned victims toiling in their own suffering. There's no way he didn't know what was going on. If you were stationed at one of the death camps, you knew what it was for... either officially or through gossip among the staff. Everyone knew.

Put in him prison or don't. It makes no real difference at this point. There have been genocides since that were worse that we didn't really do anything about, whose orchestrators are still at large. If anything, charging this 90 year old Nazi now just shows our own hypocrisy. We have killed millions in the Mid-East since 2001, for example. Not a genocide, sure, but who cares?

Humans learn nothing from the past. The Nuremberg trials were just a show trial really, with a lot of righteousness. It was also during a hopeful time when Europe felt like it was in a position to rebuild and never repeat the same mistakes; but we've repeated them since, at least a dozen times over. A trial now just doesn't have the same gravity. Maybe it will feed some petty vengeance for the descendants of victims, that's about it.