Why have it taken so long to prosecute former Nazi’s, that we still see cases popping up today?
In: 5554
Well, it can’t go on much longer, there aren’t many janitors and office workers left after 75+ years. The really odious ones either escaped to parts unknown or various governments have sheltered them.
Well by “nazi” you mean nazis who were in power and abused it to commit atrocities. Let us not forget that almost the entire country was full of nazis. It’s the same as saying “Democrats” or “Republicans”.
I wonder sometimes if some of those people are in a, “Kill these people or we’ll kill you” position.
Is that something that comes up during prosecution?
One of the main reasons was, that after the war, there were barely any people around who weren’t at least passive supporters of the nazis. That meant, any job (that included making and enforcing of law) was very, very likely to be done by a former active nazi or at least a supporter of nazis of some kind. These people were not very likely to prosecute their peers.
When those people slowly made way for a new generation, a lot of evidence had already been lost or largely obscured, which made it hard for those prosecuting.
All in all, it’s hard to right a wrong of those proportions.
Shouldn’t be many more. Even if you were conscripted in 1944 at age 16, you would be 94 by now. just not many of them left.
how can someone be convicted of a crime almost 80 years after the fact purely based on old records? surely any witnesses can’t be reliable. genuine question. surely there’s a statute of limitations. Also weren’t Germans effectively forced into working in these camps. No I don’t sympathize I’m just interested in a legal sense
Not a lot of surviving witnesses.
Historically we didnt prosecute the guards, just higher ups. Courts recently changed that and anyone who was assigned guard duty is now considered a murderer so there’s a backlog of people to be prosecuted now.
Because the CIA rescued thousands of them and helped them flee to the US, Canada, and various countries in South America, where many of them lived under assumed identities. You can read more about it in the books Blowback by Christopher Simpson, Quiet Neighbors by Allan Ryan, and The Nazis Next Door by Eric Lichtblau.
What I find amazing is the amount of people who believe every German soldier was in the Nazi party. Wtf is being taught in school on this subject?
Fun fact: quite a lot of former nazis were assigned as leading officers for the Bundeswehr, when Germany joined the NATO in 1955.
To put it in Germany’s first chancellor’s words:
What else do you want me to do? Do you want me to send 15 years old kids as generals to the NATO?
There were a LOT of posts in Germany that were filled with former Nazis. Army officers, lawyers, judges, police officers, etc.
All those posts were required, and Germany didn’t have any other options to fill those spots.
Latest Answers