Germany - Prosecutors recommend Auschwitz guard charges

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http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...p-prosecutors_conclude_auschwitz_guard_inv-ap

LUDWIGSBURG, Germany (AP) — The German special prosecutors' office that investigates Nazi war crimes said Tuesday it is recommending charges against dozens of alleged former Auschwitz guards, opening the possibility of a new wave of trials almost 70 years after the end of World War II.

Federal prosecutor Kurt Schrimm, the head of the office in Ludwigsburg, said an investigation of 49 suspects turned up enough evidence to recommend that state prosecutors pursue charges of accessory to murder against 30 people in Germany who were stationed at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland..........

Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said the decision could mean even more cases will be opened against guards at the other five main death camps established by the Nazis........

"It's only a shame that this kind of legal reasoning was not applied previously, because it would have led to many, many more cases of people who definitely deserved to be brought to justice."............

Much more in 3p. article


Most of the ones to be prosecuted are now in their 80s and 90s. I'm not sure how I feel about this, this 'late in the day'. At this point is it justice, revenge or what?
 
I'm not sure either. Anyone still alive would have had to have been very young at the time, and therefore low down in the chain of command.
 
It surprises me that there is still a Nazi War Crimes division after all this time. My first thought is why? But then I think about all those people who went through the camps and all the people who now don't believe that it ever happened and realize the memories must be kept alive so something like this does not happen again.

I just did a google search on the death camps and am now sick again about this part of history. It must be kept alive so it is not repeated.
 
I agree with that, but I don't know if this is the best way to keep it alive. A bit conflicted on the issue really.
 
From the OP link, one of the reasons given for pursuing these cases:

As part of the investigation prosecutors surveyed anew the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and concluded no one could have been there for more than a day or two without learning that people were being gassed to death and their bodies incinerated at the site, he said.
Click to expand...
 
I don't doubt that they knew about it, but what were they supposed to do about it? The Third Reich was a totalitarian regime, any junior officer, or even senior officer, who went against them would have been put right into the gas chambers too.
 
I don't think people in their 80s and 90s were spared from the gas chambers. If the suspects were involved, they should face justice.
 
Cappuccino said:
I don't doubt that they knew about it, but what were they supposed to do about it? The Third Reich was a totalitarian regime, any junior officer, or even senior officer, who went against them would have been put right into the gas chambers too.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, officers who objected to working in a camp were not required to do so. Their careers might have suffered, but they would not have faced imprisonment or death.

Sadly, a lot of the people involved in Nazi crimes turned out not to need coercion.

ETA link with more information on this:

http://www.yadvashem.org/download/about_holocaust/studies/aly_full.pdf
 
There are still a few living survivors, who suffered the unimaginable horrors of the camps, too. I have known a few of them, in my life. Heard their stories. Seen their tattoos. Two had lost their entire family. Every member, but for themselves, was murdered.

I think they deserve to witness any shred of justice that can be handed to the men - and women- who participated in the cause of that suffering.

Holocaust deniers need some kind of professional help.. It's like saying electricity was never harnessed, in a room lit by a lightbulb. The hatred scares me slightly less than the rampant stupidity, and moreso the deliberate ignorance.
 
Cappuccino said:
I don't doubt that they knew about it, but what were they supposed to do about it? The Third Reich was a totalitarian regime, any junior officer, or even senior officer, who went against them would have been put right into the gas chambers too.
Click to expand...

Kinda makes me wonder how all of US/you and me, will be judged in the years to come, even though we hate invasion and war. WE have no power.
 
Ausgirl said:
There are still a few living survivors, who suffered the unimaginable horrors of the camps, too. I have known a few of them, in my life. Heard their stories. Seen their tattoos. Two had lost their entire family. Every member, but for themselves, was murdered.

I think they deserve to witness any shred of justice that can be handed to the men - and women- who participated in the cause of that suffering.

Holocaust deniers need some kind of professional help.. It's like saying electricity was never harnessed, in a room lit by a lightbulb. The hatred scares me slightly less than the rampant stupidity, and moreso the deliberate ignorance.
Click to expand...

WOW, just wow, and I was worried about a war in the middle east.
 
I really don't know what your point is there, Trident. Sorry.
 
Trident said:
Kinda makes me wonder how all of US/you and me, will be judged in the years to come, even though we hate invasion and war. WE have no power.
Click to expand...

Not sure what point you're trying to make here, I'm afraid. You're surely not comparing the lack of power any individual has to change things single handedly in a democracy with the experience of living under a totalitarian regime?
 
Cappuccino said:
Not sure what point you're trying to make here, I'm afraid. You're surely not comparing the lack of power any individual has to change things single handedly in a democracy with the experience of living under a totalitarian regime?
Click to expand...

Well, it does seem to have some similarities. 'Course I'm probably wrong and we won't be blamed for the chaos in the middle east the way the German people were, nor will our sons be blamed, but still, I'm a bit uncomfortable.

Forgive me for feeling a wee hair different, it's only my opinion.
 
Well, we are all entitled to our opinions...

However. I'm not sure how yours equates here, in a thread about bringing to trial people who actively worked toward a goal of cultural genocide, on a scale of millions, in those horrific death camps.

WWII, like other wars, was horrific as a whole, nations fought and fell.. people suffered and died... like they do now. War is, and always has been, a giant pile of injustice for all concerned.

But those camps are a testament to the blackest portions of the human soul, and those who participated in them ought to pay for their part in it all.
 
You think the German people and their sons were blamed for the Holocaust? I always thought the Nazis were blamed for it. The German people weren't tried en masse at Nuremberg, and the US gave money under the Marshall Plan to be distributed among Europeans and by Europeans. That was an effort to make sure the sons weren't blamed for it, and if you look at Germany today, you'll find it worked.
 
Thundar said:
It surprises me that there is still a Nazi War Crimes division after all this time. My first thought is why? But then I think about all those people who went through the camps and all the people who now don't believe that it ever happened and realize the memories must be kept alive so something like this does not happen again.

I just did a google search on the death camps and am now sick again about this part of history. It must be kept alive so it is not repeated.
Click to expand...

I made this same argument in a very similar thread a few months back; I got somewhat flamed because "there were bigger issues going on", essentially. But in essence I agree. Those on the fence should google Birkenau, Madjanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, and Zyklon-B.

I know, I know; the quality of mercy is not strain'd and all that, but I think we're rapidly losing touch with the last generation who actually experienced it. All politics (and religion) aside, it was an unprecedented tragedy of the human race, and I think it's too soon to sweep it aside due to tragedy fatigue.
 
Cappuccino said:
I don't doubt that they knew about it, but what were they supposed to do about it? The Third Reich was a totalitarian regime, any junior officer, or even senior officer, who went against them would have been put right into the gas chambers too.
Click to expand...

Untrue, unfortunately. I know this literature pretty well, and cannot think of a single case of a prosecution or court-martial for a German camp guard who refused to carry out an order of torture, execution, etc. Refusal might impact privileges, get you transferred or lose you a promotion, but it would most certainly NOT land you in the gas chambers too.

No statute of limitation on murder -- why should there be one on mass murder? Whether a case can be made is, of course, another question.

s
 
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