It's hard to believe that we're still going through this, but there's another trial of a Nazi concentration camp worker going on in Germany.
John Demnjanjuk is being charged with the murder of 27,900 Jews who were shipped to Sobibor between April and July of 1943 from the Netherlands.
If you read the story, you'll see many of the same issues that are brought up in The Reader, particularly how do you find evidence that this man was responsible for specific deaths, even if you're pretty sure that he was involved in lots of deaths. He was tried and convicted before, but able to get off on appeal.
But you'll also see that international law is working to the extent that people are being brought to justice and are having to take responsibility for their actions.
Here's the story.
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I question whether it is worth it to continue with these proceedings when there is very little incriminating evidence and there are virtually no witnesses left to testify in the 64 years since the holocaust. If convicted of such atrocity, is it ethical to sentence and 89 year-old man to a prison term when he's practically on his death bed? Too much time has passed on. Any amount of justice earned from this trial can not reconcile the horrific tragedies that occured for the victims and families of victims.
ReplyDelete“There is a special interest to pursue these Nazi crimes, in part as a kind of bad conscience that in the early years too little was done.”
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of pointless at this point. Putting an 89 year old man in jail for a crime he committed so long ago. He has lived a full lifetime since then. Germany is just doing this to relieve their guilty conscience. Having been to Germany, it is very clear that it is no longer a Nazi-supporting country in the least, they don't need to continue proving it. This man is old and feeble, he is in pain and confined to a wheelchair. He is already suffering, let it be.
To be a devil's advocate...this man committed atrocious crimes. For example: if someone killed my mother I would trace him down and prosecute him until he was in jail for good. I do not care if my mother had been dead for fifty years and the murderer was 95 years old- justice would be served.
ReplyDeleteThis man is being accused of 27,900 deaths. That is a lot of mothers.
In all honesty, the man is very, very old. The whole affair seems to be a little too late. If he is convicted, what type of punishment could he possibly have? If put in jail, it is just wasting government money since he will not be able to do physical labor, as most other inmates do. He will probably die within the year, anyway. But if giving him the death penalty is considered...well what's the point? Once again, a waste of money and he would probably be happy dying at this point. The question is, what is the government trying to get out of this? They just found the guy...many, many years later. They should concentrate on prevention at this point not targeting 89 year olds.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little torn over this. At first, I thought that maybe it would be a waste of time because he probably has suffered enough for his actions in his lifetime and it has just been too long since these crimes occurred. Yet at the same time, this man has committed atrocious deeds and should face the consequences.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this reminds me of what we were talking about in class. You can't just go around saying this person was a Nazi and therefore a human rights violator. In order to ensure justice is served, you must find specific evidence to charge him.