Auschwitz book-keeper Groening sentenced to four years - Page 4

Osem · 16-07-2015, 16:40

That's the trouble with despots like Hitler who create situations in which hatred can be bred and exploited in order to manipulate ordinary people into the tools of monsters before they ever realise it. With so much death and horror everywhere it effectively becomes 'normal' with people desensitised to and/or in denial of the carnage around them.

Ramrod · 16-07-2015, 16:54

My father was in the SS.......

**Hugh** · 16-07-2015, 17:06

My wife worked for the (DH)SS....

Ramrod · 16-07-2015, 17:10

Did she kill anyone?

**Hugh** · 16-07-2015, 17:10

Just my hopes and dreams.....

Ramrod · 16-07-2015, 17:15

I hope no-one she knows sees that post

TheDaddy · 16-07-2015, 18:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod

My father was in the SS.......

So was my grandma's first husband

**Hugh** · 16-07-2015, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod

I hope no-one she knows sees that post

Me too....

(Actually, she kept my hopes and dreams alive after my first marriage...)

**Paul** · 16-07-2015, 19:14

Hurray, we spent 70 years chasing an accountant, and finally we got him, and now this most evil of men has been sentanced to four years for his evil evil crimes (!).... what a fantastic use of money and resources .......

**Damien** · 16-07-2015, 19:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul M

Hurray, we spent 70 years chasing an accountant, and finally we got him, and now this most evil of men has been sentanced to four years for his evil evil crimes (!).... what a fantastic use of money and resources .......

They didn't spend 70 years chasing him. It's a combination of his public admissions of his involvement and a change in how these cases are seen.

Also as I mentioned before it would be wrong to see him as evil but that doesn't mean he couldn't do something wrong. The article I mentioned before has it right, calling them evil let's us dismiss them as inhuman and therefore we couldn't be capable of doing in the same thing if we found ourselves in the same circumstances.

As for the money and resources I think a lot of these investigations are funded and worked on by Holocaust campaign groups and the victims of it. They are currently trying to find remaining living concentration camp guards and workers before they all die. To them it is a fantastic use of money and resources. There isn't a time expiry other than the lifetime of those accused.

Hom3r · 16-07-2015, 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by adzii_nufc

This. This is the only point I'm getting at.

How is it that the actual war criminals went on to lead IG Farben, BASF, Siemens, Volkswagen, Krupp, Zeiss, Leica Messerschmitt.. and this guy gets 'Forgiven' by many after his speaking out against holocaust deniers and then gets hung for it.

Many Auschwitz survivors have actually forgiven this man, by do-gooders I mean the 20 year olds standing outside the court with banners demanding his head...

Don't forget BMW, another reason to boycott them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/w...Nazi-past.html

---------- Post added at 20:24 ---------- Previous post was at 20:18 ----------

How far do you go to hunt them down?

What about the cook, or the guy who delivered food?

16-07-2015, 20:44

It seems to me that the bloke only complained to his superior officers at the way the holocaust happened not that it was happening .After witnessing the murder of an infant he complained to his superior that if the extermination of the Jews must happen "then at least it should be done within a certain framework" .The question has to be asked ,would he have behaved any different if he had a choice

Osem · 16-07-2015, 20:50

Some questions have no answers sadly - some guilty folks go free and some innocent folks are punished.

adzii_nufc · 16-07-2015, 22:24

Quote:

The chef was also essential to the running of the camp.
Problem comes when being an "essential" book keeper, who repeatedly tried to be transferred to the front lines, doesn't magically make someone complicate in killing.
Nothing was presented at the trial to show his actions caused, led to or facilitated the killings. They declared him cataloguing items after they had been taken from prisoners as somehow facilitating deaths.
What they convicted him on was a broad declaration that simply being essential and knowing what was going on makes you complicit in unrelated war crimes. They didn't convict him of any actual war crimes, since nothing he did was a war crime. Which is why he was acquitted of war crimes during the 70's.
This sweeping generalization law means that the military chef is "complicit" in the murders of Jews.
Worse still, he tried to be reassigned to the front lines repeatedly, making the claim he knowingly took part in it redundant.
The entire trial is a mockery of the justice system. Broadly stretching laws so they can politically claim they prosecuted a Nazi. Even though he did not commit a single war crime.

This pretty much.

It appears they have in fact spent time and money chasing this guy.

**Damien** · 16-07-2015, 22:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyh

It seems to me that the bloke only complained to his superior officers at the way the holocaust happened not that it was happening .After witnessing the murder of an infant he complained to his superior that if the extermination of the Jews must happen "then at least it should be done within a certain framework" .The question has to be asked ,would he have behaved any different if he had a choice

Think how many people were fine with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht before the war had even started. It's horrific how, as Osem said above, desensitised people became.