Alleged Auschwitz guard, #4 on Wiesenthal Center Nazi list, detained by German police

[wfgodot]

Germany arrests 'former Auschwitz guard' Hans Lipschis (BBC News)

A 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp has been arrested in southern Germany.

Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was "compelling evidence" that he had been complicit in murder.
---
Mr Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive.

more, with a picture, at BBC link above

 

[HMSHood]

I have read many Nazis fled to Argentina and Egypt. Some even turned up in America, Canada, and Australia.

 

[MsFacetious]

I have been studying the Holocaust in depth for a few months.
I home school... so I needed to study up on it before I could teach it.
I have read a dozen books... watched a dozen documentaries, testimonies, movies, etc.

I don't personally think it's going to help much to arrest people now.

They have lived their lives for 70 years while the victims were murdered, their families suffered.

I would have much preferred that they have THEIR lives stolen from them as well... 65 years ago.

This has interviews with survivors...

https://www.youtube.com/user/USCShoahFoundation/videos?query=child

I personally cannot imagine being "a cook" when these kinds of atrocities were going on around you.
I can understand there were likely people FORCED to work in the camps.
But I honestly believe I would not be able to live knowing what was going on around me. :twocents:

 

[mysteriew]

I have been studying the Holocaust in depth for a few months.
I home school... so I needed to study up on it before I could teach it.
I have read a dozen books... watched a dozen documentaries, testimonies, movies, etc.

I don't personally think it's going to help much to arrest people now.

They have lived their lives for 70 years while the victims were murdered, their families suffered.

I would have much preferred that they have THEIR lives stolen from them as well... 65 years ago.

This has interviews with survivors...

https://www.youtube.com/user/USCShoahFoundation/videos?query=child

I personally cannot imagine being "a cook" when these kinds of atrocities were going on around you.
I can understand there were likely people FORCED to work in the camps.
But I honestly believe I would not be able to live knowing what was going on around me. :twocents:

You make good points. But just like in any murder, I would think that many family members would want it prosecuted, would want to see them pay in some way no matter how long it took.

At the very least instead of lying in a comfortable bed with family around them in their 'golden years' they will be lying in a prison somewhere, with access to their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren very limited. There will be no Father's days, no luxuries for the rest of their time.

And their victims will be remembered and get their story told again.

 

[MsFacetious]

Oh I know... and I agree. Justice is great, people being reminded of the Holocaust is great.
This can never be forgotten... we cannot let it happen again! lease:

I also know that for the families... it's bittersweet. Good to have some justice, but it's painfully late.
They lived happy lives for decades... and will only lose the last few years of their lives. :banghead:

If they ever do catch the person responsible for my 18 year old cousin's brutal murder, that will be wonderful.
My family would be thrilled with any justice of course.
However, my family would still be upset that for the last 36 years... he lived his life normally...
While my cousin didn't live at all. :twocents:

Found something I didn't know... this list gave me a few more things to look further into.

90 Important Facts about the Holocaust

80. General Eisenhower ordered every citizen of the German town of Gotha
to tour the concentration camp Ohrdruf (a subcamp of Buchenwald).
After the mayor of the town and his wife did so, they went home and hanged themselves.

81. When General Eisenhower learned about the Ohrdruf concentration camp, he ordered every American soldier in the area who was not on the front lines to visit the camp.
He said that if they did not know what they were fighting for, now they would know “what they were fighting against.”

http://facts.randomhistory.com/holocaust-facts.html

 

[belimom]

I have read many Nazis fled to Argentina and Egypt. Some even turned up in America, Canada, and Australia.

Here's an article about Josef Mengele. Awful, just inhumane stuff he did with twins. :furious:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/auschwitz/a/mengeletwins.htm


And belief that he set up a 'twin' village in Brazil:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...osef-Mengele-created-twin-town-in-Brazil.html

 

[Herding Cats]

Symbolic it may be, but it's a very important symbol. It says "we don't forget" and "we're still tracking you" and "you are evil". Those are important things to say to families of the 6 million jews and 4 million other folk that the Nazis killed.

We don't forget. And we can never forget, because it will happen again...and, some argue, is happening again already.

MsF., yes, Eisenhower did some very important things in having the town and then his soldiers tour the camp. I have watched a lot of video about the concentration camps, I worked for a survivor of one (tattoo and all), and studied under a man who lost his whole extended family to the horrors of Nazi Germany.

Never forget. Even when all the victims have died, never forget. Even when the world moves on, never forget. Never. Forget.

Best-
Herding Cats

 

[wfgodot]

Lipschis's detainment is also interesting in that it coincides with a huge and important trial in Germany:

DE - Munich trial begins for neo-Nazi woman charged with robberies, arson, 10 murders

 

[MsFacetious]

You may have forgotten 9/11 but we have not. :usa:
We still put up a 6 foot flag for every single victim of 9/11, every single year.
It has a tag with their name and all their information on it.
We just put up a huge statue of the firefighters from 9/11 as well.

http://www.healingfield.org/

My girls are learning about 9/11 and the Holocaust.
They will NOT forget.

The Holocaust could happen again if people forget.
It is even more than honoring the victims.
It is about preventing it from happening again.

Nobody cares until it is them that people are targeting.
Well, my daughter and brother both would have been killed in the Holocaust.
So, it is MY family that would be targeted if it happened again.

People didn't learn one of the big lessons of the Holocaust.
Care about what is happening, BEFORE it directly impacts YOU. :twocents:

http://www.river.org/~dhawk/quote2.html

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out -
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Homosexuals, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Homosexual.

Then they came for the disabled, and I did not speak out -
Because I was not disabled.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me. :twocents:

 

[MsFacetious]

For those who would like to learn more about the Holocaust... as I have.
Feel free to ask questions... I have become a wealth of information these last few months. :seeya:

I am not linking directly to videos for obvious reasons.
Obviously, any of these videos may contain upsetting content.
It's the Holocaust after all.
These videos can all be found on youtube.

One of the most compelling documentaries with direct survivor testimony I have seen was:

Search for: "Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories"

Treblinka was the place no one survived, the most deadly of the camps.
875,000 died... 67 known to have survived.
It's also the forgotten camp... due to the lack of evidence. Most having been destroyed.


There is a documentary on youtube about Auschwitz

Search for: "Auschwitz - The Blueprint of Genocide (Documentary)"


There are also documentaries done on "Josef Mengele".
Searching his name on youtube will bring up things there as well.

Including amazing survivor testimony. There is a DVD done as well, about forgiveness.


I quite liked the detailed documentary on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
It is in several parts.

Search for: "The Relief of BERGEN-BELSEN Part 01"


This youtube user has many Anne Frank videos and other Holocaust videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AnneAulisRobin/videos?view=0

 

[Nova]

I have been studying the Holocaust in depth for a few months.
I home school... so I needed to study up on it before I could teach it.
I have read a dozen books... watched a dozen documentaries, testimonies, movies, etc.

I don't personally think it's going to help much to arrest people now.

They have lived their lives for 70 years while the victims were murdered, their families suffered.

I would have much preferred that they have THEIR lives stolen from them as well... 65 years ago.

This has interviews with survivors...

https://www.youtube.com/user/USCShoahFoundation/videos?query=child

I personally cannot imagine being "a cook" when these kinds of atrocities were going on around you.
I can understand there were likely people FORCED to work in the camps.
But I honestly believe I would not be able to live knowing what was going on around me. :twocents:

MsF, I think the point is that the justice system responds whenever and wherever it can, even if justice isn't as fast as we would like it to be.

Good for you for taking your teaching so seriously and doing your research so diligently!

 

[txsvicki]

Looks to me like he may have a history of lying. His records show he was a guard and he lied to get into this country. He's # 4 on the most wanted list and there are about 50 others still alive. Imo, there are very few who are really innocent, even this government who only allowed a certain amount of Jewish people to flee here. Many more could have hidden people, joined the resistance, etc. I like to read about all the heroic people who did something like Corrie Ten Boom and her family or the "ethnic status" man who chose to go to a camp with the children at his orphanage. I have no idea if all who worked at camps were pursued over the years or how many were arrested and what laws were passed regarding them.. There really doesn't seem to be a way any could say they didn't know.

 

[MsFacetious]

Listen guys... use your ignore list. :seeya: My life here is much better since I started.

It's under your settings and options here: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/usercp.php

Ignore and ALERT on any post that make you feel stabby okay??

Let's just focus on posting information about the Holocaust. :seeya:

 

[MsFacetious]

In their search for justice that has endured for decades, the biggest challenge Nazi hunters face is time.

The knowledge that war criminals are escaping prosecution through death by natural causes means their task has never been more pressing.

----------------------------

“Demjanjuk was convicted solely for his service as an armed SS guard at a death camp,” he added.
“As a result, this opened up a whole new potential number of people to bring to justice.”

Zuroff said there were usually three obstacles to holding Nazi war criminals to account:
Finding them; getting enough evidence; and persuading the authorities to act.

The Demjanjuk ruling changed that in Germany.

------------------------------

Zuroff said that no one really knew how many people were involved in the killings, let alone how many were still alive.

But, asked to estimate, he reckoned that “probably not more than 10 to 15 percent” of tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals had been brought to justice.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center publishes an annual “most wanted” list, and also rates countries based on their willingness to take action. Only the United States got the top rating in 2013; Germany was among five countries in the second-highest group.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...ursue-50-elderly-auschwitz-war-criminals?lite

 

[TrackerSam]

John Demjanjuk died Saturday in Germany, ending nearly 35 years of legal battles with officials in three countries who claimed he was a Nazi death camp guard.

During those years, the former Seven Hills autoworker was imprisoned in the United States, sentenced to death in Israel until its highest court freed him ... last May, convicted in Germany for serving as an accessory in the deaths of more than 28,000 people at a death camp. He was sentenced to five years in prison but freed while he appealed the conviction.

"My father fell asleep with the Lord as a victim and survivor of Soviet and German brutality since childhood," Demjanjuk's son, John Jr., told the Associated Press. "He loved life, family and humanity. History will show Germany used him as a scapegoat to blame helpless Ukrainian POWS for the deeds of Nazi Germans."

Attorney Joseph McGinness, who over the last two decades has represented guards who patrolled the perimeter of concentration camps, said the government wasted its time and tax dollars in dealing with Demjanjuk and others.

"These were nobodies -- if in fact they were even there," McGinness said Saturday. "They weren't the people making the decisions in the camps. There was no reason to chase any of them. None of them had a rank above private. Everyone of these people was nothing. They were draftees."

As a teenager, Demjanjuk survived by working as a plowman and a tractor driver on a farm. He was later drafted into the Soviet Red Army and in 1941, he was wounded in combat as the Germans tried to take control of Kiev. An explosive sent shrapnel into his back. He was hospitalized for four months, released and sent back to the front lines, where he was captured by German soldiers in the Crimea in May 1942.

His activities and whereabouts from that time until he found his way to an American-operated displaced persons camp in 1945 became the focus of the trials he would face decades later.

Demjanjuk had said he was sent to a series of prisoner-of-war camps after his capture and did heavy labor. In 1944, he said, he was transferred to Graz, Austria, where he joined a group of Ukrainian soldiers who began fighting the Soviets, in collaboration with the Germans.

After the war, Demjanjuk found refuge in displaced persons camps. In 1945, while in the camp in Landshut, Germany, he met a Ukrainian named Vera. They married two years later and moved to nearby Regensburg, another displaced persons camp, where Demjanjuk worked as a truck driver for the U.S. Army.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/03/seven_hills_john_demjanjuk_con.html