[_hilro]

FTA

> "The defendant knowingly and willingly aided and abetted this at least by conscientiously performing guard duty

In what world is this a case to charge someone with abetting thousands of deaths by performing guard duty...>50 years after the event..and that person is now 100 years old.

It's ludicrous nonsense.

No prosecutor in any other civilised part of the world would entertain this for more than 5 seconds.

[toofy]

> In what world…

In this world. Where he was the person who stopped the prisoners from escaping their death. His purpose, that he presumably performed, was to ensure those people could not escape. His purpose was not to keep the prisoners alive-his purpose was to ensure they could not escape to freedom, for them to be in a cage before being systematically killed.

He’s going to trial in this world. As he absolutely should.

[pvaldes]

I assume that the goal is not so much sending him to jail for a week before he dies of natural causes as to obtaining any valuable historical information that he could hide still. The only way to force him to talk can be a trial.

Probably also about disclosing and linking other people with the same crimes.

[Jaruzel]

> conscientiously performing guard duty

His alternative was what?

  "Hey Nazi bosses, I'm not going do this, it's wrong!"  

  "Then we will shot you on the spot, and replace you with another guard who will."

  "Err OK then, please forget I objected."

People think ALL Nazis had a choice, but a large majority of them were just trying to stay alive by keeping their heads down and doing a good job.

EDIT: I'm getting seriously downvoted for this, with replies stating that he had a 'choice' ... OK you try living in a totalitarian state, and see what 'choice' you have.

[hef19898]

The Einsatzgruppen, and other kill squads, were purely voluntary affairs. Not sure about "local" guards, maybe some of those were drafted. Nobody of these guys can hide behind "we just followed orders". It is just sad that the little guys, like a secretary and lowly prison guard, are prosecuted now, when a lot of the mid-level organizers, incl. Doctors and officers in charge, were left alone in Western Germany while they were still alive.

EDIT: You didn't have a choice going to war (talking about the male population), you had a choice in volunteering for counter partisan warfare, Einsatzgruppen, concentration camp duty,... And that choice is the crucial one here.

[sofixa]

That's just flat out wrong. The majority of SS personnel ( outside of the Waffen-SS) were volunteers.

Furthermore, even draftees often had at least some choice, and could ask for a reassignment.

[swayvil]

You obviously do not live in the black-and-white, propaganda-generated cartoon that some of these other fellows enjoy. Things are much simpler there.

[cygx]

In many cases, it was entirely possible to ask for reassignment without getting shot by a superior officer, so your accusation of cartoonish oversimplification cuts both ways...

[swayvil]

It serves to garner eyeballs

It distracts. Entertains. Delivers yummy rage.

But justice, no.