Why have it taken so long to prosecute former Nazi’s, that we still see cases popping up today?

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Why have it taken so long to prosecute former Nazi’s, that we still see cases popping up today?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Allied powers prosecuted top-level German officials. It was rather aimed to solidify post-war order and eliminate the possibility of regaining strength by them than serving justice (like in the case of Karl Dönitz).

In the case of lower-level war criminals and officials, the situation had been different in the east and west (and even between occupants). Most of the responsibility was on post-war Germany itself. In the western part, there was no strong determination to prosecute vast elites who were vital to Nazi rule and were seen as important to develop the post-war Federal Republic, its institutions, and its economy. There are some quite disturbing cases like Heinz Reinefarth ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Reinefarth ) who was responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths in occupied Poland but was protected from prosecution and extradition by German courts (with shocking argumentation that genocide was not in Nazi-Germany criminal code). In 1951 had become a major in a small town.

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