So Germany is putting a 93yr old man on trial for his role during the war at Auschwitz. His job was to collect money from the arriving Jews, most of whom were killed within hours of arrival.
My question is, is this really worthwhile? They will spend large amounts of money to prosecute an elderly man because he was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong side. If he were complicit in raids that killed Jews or helped round them up, sure. Not much of an issue. But he has lived openly in Germany since the war and spoken about his role.
What will they punish him with? Life in prison? That's absurd for a 93yr old.
The best thing they could do is take a complete oral history from him of what exactly he did, why he did it, what the circumstances were, what he remembers from it and everything else they can think of. Then keep that oral history along with the other trillions of documents from that era to demonstrate to future generations that yes it really happened and here's why and here's why we cant let it happen again.
My question is, is this really worthwhile? They will spend large amounts of money to prosecute an elderly man because he was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong side. If he were complicit in raids that killed Jews or helped round them up, sure. Not much of an issue. But he has lived openly in Germany since the war and spoken about his role.
What will they punish him with? Life in prison? That's absurd for a 93yr old.
The best thing they could do is take a complete oral history from him of what exactly he did, why he did it, what the circumstances were, what he remembers from it and everything else they can think of. Then keep that oral history along with the other trillions of documents from that era to demonstrate to future generations that yes it really happened and here's why and here's why we cant let it happen again.