89-year-old former Auschwitz guard arrested in Philadelphia

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I still don't see the point of punishing the guardsmen. They would have been shot if they didn't do what Hitler wanted to be done.

If this was 1954, I wouldn't be so opposed to the arrest. But this man is going to be dead within a few years. If he truly did commit atrocities, God will judge him for it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I still don't see the point of punishing the guardsmen. They would have been shot if they didn't do what Hitler wanted to be done.

I believe the concentration camp guards were volunteers for the SS or that service, and had not been drafted as if they were in the Wehrmacht. And the policy of the SS toward Jews was not a secret, even if some of the methods weren't openly discussed. I welcome evidence to the contrary on the former, though.

People who served in the camps were not prisoners of conscience.

I wasn't aware of that, but IIRC, the SS were (at least after 1941) were drafted from the ranks of the Wehrmacht. I don't remember where I heard this, and I doubt its true, but that was the impression I was under. It's an interesting subject to look into, actually.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Due to magnitude of Nazi crimes, age is not an excuse. While I don't see a point of actually locking a 89-year old man in jail, he should face justice.

Trying him and sentencing him with no actual prison time wouldn't be a bad way to handle this; he's gonna face justice worse than anything man can ever do in a short while.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The man was a willing accomplice in the murders of upwards of 1.1 million innocent people, simply because he managed to escape justice for 70 years makes it no less important to obtain that justice for all of the victims, just because he is old and harmless now makes his crimes no less heinous.

I still don't see the point of punishing the guardsmen. They would have been shot if they didn't do what Hitler wanted to be done.

If this was 1954, I wouldn't be so opposed to the arrest. But this man is going to be dead within a few years. If he truly did commit atrocities, God will judge him for it.

The guards were given loaded firearms and to shoot stragglers  and anyone who tried to make a dash for freedom.

The German place name for the camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Again, the concept of hell exists for this reason. Nature will do him justice in and of itself.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The man was a willing accomplice in the murders of upwards of 1.1 million innocent people, simply because he managed to escape justice for 70 years makes it no less important to obtain that justice for all of the victims, just because he is old and harmless now makes his crimes no less heinous.

I still don't see the point of punishing the guardsmen. They would have been shot if they didn't do what Hitler wanted to be done.

If this was 1954, I wouldn't be so opposed to the arrest. But this man is going to be dead within a few years. If he truly did commit atrocities, God will judge him for it.

The guards were given loaded firearms and to shoot stragglers  and anyone who tried to make a dash for freedom.

The German place name for the camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Again, the concept of hell exists for this reason. Nature will do him justice in and of itself.

The existence of hell does not foreclose the need for prisons or the judicial system, even where the person found guilty is too infirm to be a further threat.

No, we shouldn't let people like Anders Brevik out on the streets again because "oh, well he'll die and burn for eternity in forty years." You're absolutely right on that point, but in this individual case, all we are going to end up doing is hastening this man’s death. He isn’t going to be alive in two years when this case gets a verdict. I wouldn’t be surprised if he croaked from the agony of waiting for the trial to begin, which is justice in and of itself.

Why did they not go after these people twenty years ago, is what I am wondering?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

In the United States, the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 expressly states that there is no statute of limitations for the crime of genocide.

Since that is the case, I have no further qualms about the extradition.

Clarification: My initial distaste at the arrest was due to the theater of it-dragging an old, dying man and putting him on trial (and possibly in prison, though he will spend any sentence he serves in a hospital I’m sure) seemed very unnecessary. But as there are no statutes of limitation, and the fact that it took them twenty years to build a case (they clearly have the evidence if their doing this now instead of just waiting for him to die), makes the arrest an actually legitimate prosecution.

Furthermore, I want to apologize for my gross lack of knowlege on the role of guards in the camp. Doing just the smallest bit of research has clearly proven me wrong on that one.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Well, my point stands. He croaked before the trial, and this will happen with the remaining Nazi guards as well. God's wrath is enough, and I am sure that if he was guilty (which of course he was), it will be more brutal than anything we mortals can do.

RIH

Also this, though I prefer "BIH" (burn in hell)...