Current Events > 100-year-old ex-Nazi death camp guard goes on trial in Germany

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1281029

NEURUPPIN, Germany A former SS guard, now 100 years old, hobbled into a German courtroom on a walking frame on Thursday to face charges of helping to send more than 3,000 people to their deaths in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

Prosecutors say Josef S., a member of the Nazi party's paramilitary SS, contributed to the deaths of 3,518 people at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by regularly standing guard in the watchtower between 1942 and 1945.

Doctors have said that the man, whose full name was not disclosed due to German trial reporting rules, is only partially fit to stand trial: sessions will be limited to just two-and-a-half hours each day.

As the trial began, his lawyer held up a blue folder to conceal his client's face as he was brought into the court in Neuruppin, near Berlin.

Some people interned in Sachsenhausen were murdered with Zyklon-B, the poison gas also used in other extermination camps where millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Sachsenhausen housed predominantly political prisoners from all over Europe, along with Soviet prisoners of war and some Jews.

"It's a lot of emotion... I can't really speak," said Antoine Grumbach, 79, before turning abruptly away as he was overcome by tears. His father, a French resistance fighter, died in the camp.

Leon Schwarzbaum, who is 100 years old, sat quietly waiting for the trial to start in the courtroom, showing reporters a photo of him with his parents and uncle, who all died in Auschwitz.

Prosecutors accuse Josef S. of "contributing to cruel and insidious murders" by aiding in "creating and maintaining life-threatening conditions in the camp."

There has been a spate of charges brought against former concentration camp guards in recent years for World War II crimes against humanity. Last week, a 96-year-old former camp secretary went on the run the day her trial was to begin, but was caught by police a few hours later.

A 2011 court ruling paved the way for these final prosecutions, stating that even those who contributed indirectly to wartime murders, without pulling a trigger or giving an order, could bear criminal responsibility.

Sachsenhausen, opened in 1936 as one of the earliest Nazi concentration camps, acted as a training camp for SS guards who then went to serve elsewhere, including in Auschwitz and Treblinka. Others killed at Sachsenhausen included Dutch resistance fighters and the Nazis' domestic political opponents.

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Good

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This will probably be the last nazi prosecuted. Can't be many others still alive

Scorsese2002 posted...

hobbled into a German courtroom on a walking frame

The fuck is NBC trying to do by attempting to generate sympathy for a Nazi
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fuck him

Good

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Good.

This piece of human waste lived far too long.
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I wonder if he even feels remorse

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Good. Not that it matters one way the other but that camp was a particularly fucking awful one.

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Thus always to fascists.

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eston posted...

I wonder if he even feels remorse

Dude probably cant remember what century he is in.

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Good, but like... dude's 100. This should have been done decades ago, instead of when he's on his way out.

Doctors have said that the man, whose full name was not disclosed due to German trial reporting rules, is only partially fit to stand trial

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This dude has lived a full life, even if found guilty and sentenced it probably won't bring closure to the families of people affected by him.

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he Could have changed over the several decades, but he still deserves prison time.

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Garioshi posted...

Good

Good!

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NoxObscuras posted...

Good, but like... dude's 100. This should have been done decades ago, instead of when he's on his way out.

at least its being done. japans ww2 war criminals not only escaped trial thanks to USA, they get buried as heroes.

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Age shouldn't be literally a 'get out of jail free' card, unless it makes a fair trial unachievable.

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NoxObscuras posted...

Good, but like... dude's 100. This should have been done decades ago, instead of when he's on his way out.

The best time to lock him away was decades ago. The second best time is now.

ModLogic posted...

at least its being done. japans ww2 war criminals not only escaped trial thanks to USA, they get buried as heroes.

as if the US didnt also rescue Nazi leaders and place them in prominent roles within its own government

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

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TreyFlowers posted...

This dude has lived a full life, even if found guilty and sentenced it probably won't bring closure to the families of people affected by him.

Doesn't matter. The man was party to one of the worst crimes in human history. Justice should still be done.

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