Really, Germany?

[abaris]

That guy has been indicted nearly a year ago. Why rawstory finds it newsworthy right now, is beyond me. He won't go to jail. The purpose of these trials, last year it was another over 90 year old, isn't actual punishment. It's to show that no matter how long it has been, you're not safe, since when it comes to murder, there is no statute of limitation. It's also, in part, to offer the relatives of the victims some kind of closure. In all these trials there are always a number of joint plaintiffs, commissioned by victim's families. So there's also some international pressure involved.

Also, saying an orderly didn't have any power over life and death, is misleading. During the Auschwitz trial at Frankfurt (ended in 1965), one defendant, a certain Josef Klehr, held the same position. It was proven that he administered lethal phenol injections himself.

[Anomalocaris]

The trial last year was also for a 90 something former SS Clerk who counted the valuable stolen from victims auschwitz, who had no power of life or death over anyone,  but who actually spent the last 20 years admitting his complicity in the overall scheme and fought publically against holocaust denial.

A rather unfortunate and petty denial of redemption, if you ask me.

[CapnAwesome]

At what point is someone too old to be prosecuted for thousands of murders? There is no statue of limitation for having committed one murder, much less thousands of them.

The worse job anyone can get stuck with during wartime is that of a concentration camp guard.  The best thing to do when on such duty is to kill all of the inmates and burn the camp down destroying all records and high-tail it to some place else.  Concentration camp guards always get stuck with the crappy end of the stick once the war is over.

The concentration camp guards were not drafted soldiers. They were people volunteered to be in those positions.

[CapnAwesome]

Hypothetically, if Hitler had fled to South America and escaped justice until he was 90, would you guys not want him prosecuted because he is old?

[Minimalist]

At what point is someone too old to be prosecuted for thousands of murders? There is no statue of limitation for having committed one murder, much less thousands of them.

The charge is "accessory to murder."  As noted elsewhere in the thread such judicial nonsense was extended to a clerk who tallied up the goods of camp arrivals.  This nazi hunt is approaching the theater of the absurd.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/ap...al-germany

A 93-year-old man who was assigned to confiscate the luggage of prisoners arriving at Auschwitz concentration camp in his capacity as an SS guard has gone on trial in Germany , charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Holocaust victims.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

The worse job anyone can get stuck with during wartime is that of a concentration camp guard.  The best thing to do when on such duty is to kill all of the inmates and burn the camp down destroying all records and high-tail it to some place else.  Concentration camp guards always get stuck with the crappy end of the stick once the war is over.

The concentration camp guards were not drafted soldiers. They were people volunteered to be in those positions.

Maybe so, but did they know exactly what would be going on there? I doubt that it was anyone other than soldiers who were operating death houses, and that didn't begin until the camps had been open for awhile.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Hypothetically, if Hitler had fled to South America and escaped justice until he was 90, would you guys not want him prosecuted because he is old?

Oh, for fuck's sake, the bedpan specialists were only grunts who did what they were told because they like to eat and sleep indoors! I believe that non-sequitor really shows your bias.

[abaris]

Oh, for fuck's sake, the bedpan specialists were only grunts who did what they were told because they like to eat and sleep indoors! I believe that non-sequitor really shows your bias.

You have to know what some of these grunts did under their own steam to fully appreciate, noone working there, should get a pass. For that you'd have to look at the trials. Some were aquitted, because there wasn't any evidence of them doing anything wrong. Even doctors, like Hans Münch, who even went through a polish trial in 1946. But some of them got life because of what they did. Such as the earlier mentioned Josef Klehr administering lethal injections whenever he felt like it.

They all were instrumental in keeping an obvious killing machine running. A fact that even a SS judge, a certain Konrad Morgen, pointed out in his testimonial at the first Auschwitz trial between 1963 and 1965. He had been sent there to investigate allegations of corruption and found more than he had bargained for.

[Jenny A]

Hypothetically, if Hitler had fled to South America and escaped justice until he was 90, would you guys not want him prosecuted because he is old?

Depends.  Are we assuming he's lucid?  Then certainly. Mad  as a hatter and unable to remember who Eva was? Why  bother?  There's nothing to be learned.  No closure to be gained. And all vengeance hollow he wouldn't know why he was being punished.

[account_inactive]

Hypothetically, if Hitler had fled to South America and escaped justice until he was 90, would you guys not want him prosecuted because he is old?

Depends.  Are we assuming he's lucid?  Then certainly. Mad  as a hatter and unable to remember who Eva was? Why  bother?  There's nothing to be learned.  No closure to be gained. And all vengeance hollow he wouldn't know why he was being punished.

This.