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Comment by credit_guy | Hacker News Reader

Nit-picking here, but I am not sure this person is accused of genocide. This person is not wanted in relation to the genocide of the Jews in WW2, but for his participation in the retaliation killing of Polish civilians. Today I learned that Germany killed about 5 million Polish, mostly civilians, during WW2 [1], which is mind-boggling. But I don't know if this was ever classified as genocide, as this was not done with the intent of exterminating the Polish population in part of whole (which is the definition of genocide [2]), while the Jews were killed with precisely that intent.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_punishment#By_Germa...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_Convention

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"Today I learned that Germany killed about 5 million Polish, mostly civilians, during WW2"

I thought I'd clarify one thing : two-thirds of those 5 million murdered Polish civilians were Jews.

Felt it was worth mentioning, as your comment differentiates between the Nazi slaughter of Jewish and non-Jewish civilians. The 5 million is a total count.

The 3.1 million Polish Jews that were killed represented nearly the entire Polish Jewish population.

FYI, I say this as a Jew who lost family to the Nazi's in Poland.

Thank you, I didn't know that.

And the polish killed their fare share of German civilians.. It's a reason that statute of limitations is considered a part of a civilized justice system. Sometimes letting the past be the past and move on is a good thing.

"And the [P]olish killed their fare [sic] share of German civilians.."

You're not serious. What a despicable claim.

Also, there is no statute of limitations on murder, much less war crimes.

>You're not serious. What a despicable claim. A very strong argument based on facts ?

Between 500.000 -2.000.000 German civilians, from the eastern part of Germany parish in the period 1945-1950.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_German...

Previous Polish governments have triad to take actions against some of the perpetrators:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/1376...

While I personally is against dragging old people in front of courts 70 years after the alleged crimes (polish or German), at list the Polish do not discriminate.

You're being disingenuous. First of all, my objection was to your equating whatever instances of Polish (please capitalize) retaliation against Germans with German war crimes. THAT is despicable. You cannot draw a moral equivalency between systematic German extermination and instances of retaliation (whether expulsion, spontaneous and isolated retribution, Jewish revenge squads or actions orchestrated by the Russians). Sadly, there have been attempts by some (like Erika Steinbach) to relativize and manipulate history to make Nazi war crimes seem not unusual for the time period, presumably to soften the guilt. Your original comment was doing precisely that. Second, much of the history surrounding retribution is still not settled and controversial. Sadly, it is politicized. There have been attempts to use favorable narratives to, e.g., extract restitution from Poland (!!) for confiscated property or property abandoned even decades after the war. A number of exaggerated, fabricated or unsubstantiated claims about supposed Nazi collaboration have been published as well which were later discredited. Third, expulsion (which was ordered by Russia and not something alien to Germans) is not systematic extermination (see first point). Fourth, ideally, everyone, regardless of ethnicity, should face justice. It is not always possible, but it does not mean that it should not be done when possible. Sadly, of the thousands of members of the SS involved in extermination and massacres, relatively few have faced trial. Finally, it's worth noting that Michael Karkoc, the subject of the article, is not German but Ukrainian. Ukrainians have not yet come to terms with Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis.

My comment was to the absurdity of having a trail for a 98 year old man. As I get from your emotional involvement in this case, you come from the region? As you then probably know, in one country the SS (local) are among many considered heroes, in the neighbour country criminals. Elements of the local SS units was after the war taken over by the CIA(Gehlen Organization). And was waging guerilla war against the soviets. There successor units are presently fighting in the eastern Ukraine and are US allies (Right sector and others)..

https://www.thenation.com/article/dark-side-ukraine-revolt/

Not really defending the posters point, but the ethnic cleansing of former easternmost germany from modern poland is a well established historical fact, over 2 million may have died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_German...

See my response above.

Does any country have a statute of limitations for murder? I don't think any state in the USA does, nor does the Federal government.

Most European country’s at least had that. Populist sentiments are of course against this.

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