(And it's not Michelle Bachman.) 94 years old and people are going after him for what he did 70 years ago? Good. These guys weren't soldiers. They were patsies used by the Nazis to kill Jews and deal with non-supporters behind the lines. If you can stomach it (and I seriously mean that because this is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read), pick up the Richard Rhodes (Pulitzer Prize winner for The Making of the Atomic Bomb) book Masters of Death. The most frightening thing about the book is it makes you acknowledge how human the killers were... it makes you realize we have a very thin line between civilization and massacre.
I read a similar book titled, "Ordinary Men" (or something close to that). Chilling. Guys had regular jobs...regular guys...and what they became was monstrous.
He should be prosecuted, even now. Age is no excuse. Can't believe he got in though, but I'm sure immigration was overwhelmed with people.
To play Devil's Advocate, suppose that he knew what he was ordered to do was wrong; what is he supposed to do? Refuse the orders at great personal risk? I don't know how the Nazi's prosecuted insubordination, but I doubt it would be an option anybody would like to take. Whenever I hear about the injustices of the Nazi's and how they're scorned today, I wonder why we act so smug about our position in the world when our system of government is setup along the same lines as the Nazi government was back then. No, we aren't in the midst of committing genocide, but the pieces are in place for a radical faction to act in the manner of the Nazis and be completely justified by law.
Geez, what a pain in the butt. Since we found him, we need to deport him so he can be tried. But, at this point these war crimes trials seem like a lot of work on a guy who will be dead in a couple of years anyway.
That's an area of a lot or historical (and sociological and psychological) research. The aforementioned Ordinary Men explores how it is that people not generally disposed to killing ended up doing these massacres. In these units the Nazis ran, they allowed people who didn't have the stomach for it to recuse themselves from killings and a couple people did with no serious blowback. But, mostly people did not. The Nazis did not need physical coercion to make people do things they didn't really want to do. I think the same thing could easily happen with Americans. How many insiders do you suppose see and object to violations of civil rights in the name of the war on terror and say nothing? You get one guy who is driven by conscience to speak up and half the country says he's a traitor for not playing the go-along-get-along game. Whether he was right or wrong in doing that, not many people in his position would have had the courage to object.
I always wondered why Nazis are being hunted down but Japanese war criminals can serve in Japanese government to this day.
Hell exists on earth for those remorseful of their actions. If you are the religious type, you should know that that sending our own kind to hell is not an act in the domain of man, but rather one in the domain of a higher power. Who are you to judge that man?
I think it was part of the treaty Japan signed. Germany was invaded and basically had no choice but to bend to the Allies' will. The Japanese surrendered and made terms.
What the heck are you talking about? Anyone who would be a war criminal under Imperial Japan would be at least 90 years old today.
Considering this guy wrote a memoir in 1995 admitting to being a member of the Nazi backed Ukranian militia I am surprised he wasn't caught sooner.
Yeah, they were completely brainwashed. Especially the SS. You couldn't really be in the SS to begin with unless you shared their belief that you were the master race and everyone else was literally sub-human. Hitler spent a decade instilling this belief into the SS along with all branches of the military. Then he unleashed them on the rest of Europe and told them he would "ask no questions." No one in the SS is innocent. No one in the Wehrmacht either, as far as I'm concerned. But that's debatable, I suppose.
True on the higher power thought, but as long as he's here, I'm happy to make his life hell and make him think he has no chance to avoid eternal hell. Oh, and I judge him as a member of the human race. That he had decades where he was living worry-free pisses me off.