“In September 2014, 94 years old SS sergeant Oskar Gröning was put on trial as an accessory to murder in 300,000 cases, for his role at the Auschwitz concentration camp.”
Does it make any sense? Putting a one-foot-in-the-grave very minor Nazi underling on trial?
Yes and No.
Yes, because there should be no statute of limitation for crimes against humanity.
No, because this man has only a few more months (?) to live, has escaped punishment through most of his life and putting him in jail would be more of a burden to society than punishment.
So what can you do with such a man?
Put him in jail for the rest of his life? Or let him get away with murder?
Difficult to say.
At least Gröning recognized his guilt and showed some contrition.
According to the UK The Telegraph:
“Of the 6,500 former SS members who served at Auschwitz and survived the war, only 49 have ever been convicted by a German court.”
49 out 6500!
Who are we kidding here?
Right after the end of World War Two, surviving Germans were reluctant to bring anybody to trial.
Since most of them had been ardent Nazis supporters and did not want to attract undue attention to themselves, they found it more convenient to ignore or absolve their former partners in crime.
So they all embraced a general omertà and did not rat on each other for fear of getting implicated themselves.
All the very few parties brought to trial were invariably:
- “declared unfit for trial by prosecutors in Germany”
- “medically unfit to be punished”
- “found unfit for trial due to dementia”
- “because he is very old and does not pose danger to society”
Now, a younger generation not burdened by the horrors of World War Two, has the gumption to bring guilty parties to trial.
But how many Nazi monsters are there left? Most of them are now where they belong: under 6 feet of dirt.
The big fishes (through various connections – very often on the American side) managed to escape justice and openly lived in Germany often rising to managerial positions.
If you managed 6 millions jews efficiently during the war, you have got to be a good manager!
The only reason to bring such men to trial is to remind younger people “what evil lurks in the heart of men.”
Given a chance, a mild mannered fellow can easily turn into a murderous fanatic.
Beware of political extremists of all creeds. They are all one and the same. Bloodthirsty madmen. And what happened in Germany 75 years ago could easily anywhere. Absolutely anywhere!
Be vigilant (especially during election times) and don’t let anybody convince you otherwise.
Alain