Ex-Nazi Auschwitz guard charged in 300,000 murder accessories? Fair?

[diddle]

BERLIN (AP) — A 93-year-old man has been charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving as an SS guard at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp, prosecutors said Monday.

Oskar Groening is accused of helping operate the death camp in occupied Poland between May and June 1944, when some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought there and at least 300,000 almost immediately gassed to death.

Groening, 93, has spoken openly about his experiences at the Nazi death camp. In 2005, he recalled to Der Spiegel, “I saw another SS soldier grab the baby by the legs. He smashed the baby’s head against the iron side of a truck until it was silent.”

In his job dealing with the belongings stolen from camp victims, prosecutors said among other things he was charged with helping collect and tally money that was found.

"He helped the Nazi regime benefit economically, and supported the systematic killings," state prosecutors in the city of Hannover said in a statement.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/93-ye...-guard-charged

Does anyone else feel like we pursue the underlings too aggressively? This guy was a guard. Of course he should have not been apart of this, but honestly how many people would have the courage and principles defying self-preservation to defy an order in the case it would get you killed?

I'd like to think I would, but hell I've never been put in a position like that so who knows, realistically it's just me thinking higher of myself.

Sure there are a few heroic people in every lot but I guarantee you the majority of the people condemning them would have done the same thing and just rolled with it. Not to mention, this would have made sense decades ago but hell this guy is now 93.

[InDecisive]

Yeah, I agree, going after geriatric ex-grunts is just dumb.

[Deleted]

Claims of rising Anti-Semitism in Germany.

Now they're prosecuting old guards who've openly discussed the horrors they witnessed and were forced to participate in.

Fucking christ.

[Zvinny]

I don't understand the point of prosecuting a 93 year old man, especially one who tried to transfer out of the concentration camp system when he didn't like what he saw.

[Deleted]

The world feels guilty about what happened to jews. If the guilt can go away at the expense of some random dying old men, the world will happily pay that price.

[Pull My Finger]

Yeah, it would make much more sense just letting it pass.

[Rucati]

I mean, using this logic everyone involved in the Manhattan Project should be charged as well for all the innocent people they got killed.

I think this is kind of a stretch, he had very little choice, if he disobeyed he'd have been killed.

[Deleted]

A little late to the party, and it can't even be to make a scapegoat. I honestly can't see the point, the man is likely soon to be dead, and he has likely lived his life after the war in extreme guilt for what he did.

Maybe as a symbolic thing, I could see a tad of reason in this case.

[Deleted]

I mean, using this logic everyone involved in the Manhattan Project should be charged as well for all the innocent people they got killed.

I think this is kind of a stretch, he had very little choice, if he disobeyed he'd have been killed.

Explanations pale in the face of raging vengeance.

[Deleted]

On one hand people like that should be punished, but on the other hand why waste millions of dollars/euros prosecuting a man that will be dead soon anyway?

[MerinPally]

Fair yes, but probably rather pointless. Really not worth the money or the effort.

[Deleted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Gr%C3%B6ning

This guy denounces holocaust deniers, and only spoke about his experiences when people claimed it didn't happen.

I'm sorry but he was a fucking soldier, who even tried to leave Auschwitz once he saw what was going on. The war crime trials at the time didn't treat him as a criminal, he just has the misfortune of still being alive.

[Dracodraco]

This would be like sentencing a storm trooper for the crimes of darth vader. It just doesn't make sense <.<.

[Zvinny]

Fair yes, but probably rather pointless. Really not worth the money or the effort.

How is it fair? He was a random grunt, not some mass murderer. After he saw the violence going on, he requested a transfer to a different base not once but twice and manipulated his schedule so he would not need to see the violence around him. He even eventually settled for a post on a front line unit.

[Rixis]

A grunt does as he's told. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

[diddle]

This would be like sentencing a storm trooper for the crimes of darth vader. It just doesn't make sense <.<.

Pretty much this.

[Deleted]

This would be like sentencing a storm trooper for the crimes of darth vader. It just doesn't make sense <.<.

Germany is again appeasing international accusations of anti Semitism.

Because fuck it if Germany shouldn't pay until the end of time for crimes committed over 70 years ago.

[diddle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Gr%C3%B6ning

This guy denounces holocaust deniers, and only spoke about his experiences when people claimed it didn't happen.

I'm sorry but he was a fucking soldier, who even tried to leave Auschwitz once he saw what was going on. The war crime trials at the time didn't treat him as a criminal, he just has the misfortune of still being alive.

Ugh, this makes it even worse.

[Deleted]

A grunt does as he's told. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

No, there is always a choice. This guy requested a transfer and seemed to be against it, but he could always say no.

[Pull My Finger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Gr%C3%B6ning

This guy denounces holocaust deniers, and only spoke about his experiences when people claimed it didn't happen.

I'm sorry but he was a fucking soldier, who even tried to leave Auschwitz once he saw what was going on. The war crime trials at the time didn't treat him as a criminal, he just has the misfortune of still being alive.

Let's see how the thread goes, perhaps we can have the guy on hero status by page 3.