100-year-old former Nazi guard has gone on trial, facing charges for 3518 deaths | Hacker News Reader

100-year-old former Nazi guard has gone on trial, facing charges for 3518 deaths

npr.org

29 points_Microft54 comments

Contrary to public sentiments (and maybe to other countries legal ethos), a German court has the function to first and foremost establish the truth - punishment is secondary to this. In fact, Someone can be found guilty, but still leave the court as a free person. This man, for example, had more than 75 years to bring good to the world, to fight antisemitism, to build a better society than the one that helped him show his most evil face. Let’s hope he made good use of the time - the judges will take this into consideration.

So what changed to start these two prosecutions now? As presumably their roles at the camps was already known. Or was there some new cache of evidence linking them to thousands of murders?

A change in juristic practice in 2011 (specifically, the trial and sentencing of John Demjanjuk) and new information uncovered in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow.

Too little, too late. But better than nothing.

In a way, I agree.

But then again, I'm kind of amazed that Germany is still actually prosecuting anyone for Nazi-time crimes. There's lots of countries where terrible crimes against humanity have been committed, and even if they don't reach the magnitude of the holocaust, you don't usually see a lot of enthusiasm going after the perpetrators a few years down the line.

"Still" is almost the wrong word. After the war and well into the 1950s and 1960s Germany didn't really "want" to prosecute and sometimes when there were prosecutions there was also a strong impetus to avoid strong penalties (don't recall the exact nature of the uniform pockets? Well then you are clearly not reliable as a witness). Doesn't mean there were not some prosecutions and people taking that stuff serious - but not really something "popular".

Perhaps my grandparents' family died under this man's eye.

And I forgive him.

That was almost eighty years ago.

I am not a forgiving person. Were this man 40, or 50, or even 70, things would be different.

But he is an old man at the end of his life. Punishing him now is not justice. It is merely vengeance upon his family.

"Following orders" is what people do. Don't, and you are punished. Harshly. Especially in authoritarian states. Just this past month, an Air Force drone pilot was thrown in prison for blowing the whistle about the Biden administration slaughtering a family. Things then were no different than they are now.

I am not a forgiving person. Were this man 40, or 50, or even 70, things would be different. But he is an old man at the end of his life.

Any sentence will take this into account, but determination of guilt is orthogonal to that.

The movie "Walk on Water" comes to mind. I think you might like it.

Disagree with prosecuting drones instead of people actually giving orders.

In general? So a cartel member who is ordered to murder someone and does, shouldn't be charged with anything?

80 years after the deed it becomes a tad rediciulous. Especially when all the higher ups have been identified, and not prosecuted, during these 80 years.

There is no statute of limitations on murder lol

I agree, it seems silly to me, to be prosecuting a guard after all these years, if anything I hope he will get a chance to apologize, and then live the rest of his life full of remorse.

A number of high-ranking members were convicted shortly after WWII in the so-called Nuremberg trials (as they took place in the German city of Nuremberg). Here is the introductory paragraph from Wikipedia:

"The Nuremberg trials (German: Nürnberger Prozesse) were a series of military tribunals held following World War II by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes.", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials

Why not both?

This is ridiculous.

This is a modern scapegoat ritual.

How is he a scapegoat? He is being tried for his own alleged actions.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scapegoat

I, for one, am pleased that the person being called a Nazi was actually a Nazi. That's unusual these days.

Theater maybe, scapegoat no.

Can we prosecute the Americans who drone bombed and killed an aid worker and children when running away from Afghanistan?

Ideally, yes. BTW, are you replying to the correct post?

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