More than six decades after World War Two and the Holocaust, and just when it is starting to take a more assertive role on the world stage, Germany has been confronted by its Nazi past - again.
Retired U.S. auto worker John Demjanjuk, 89, has been deported to Germany and prosecutors in Munich want to put him on trial for assisting to murder at least 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943. With most Nazi criminals dead, it is likely to be the last big Nazi war crime trial in Germany.
The case raises a number of questions which affect the way Germans look at themselves and relate to the world around them. The deafening silence from politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, says a lot about how intent Germans are on viewing the case as a purely legal matter.
Demjanjuk’s health poses one problem. While his family says he is is too frail to stand trial, some Germans argue it will not do their justice system any good to have a sick old man in the dock and that he could even end up winning sympathy - a potentially embarrassing outcome.
Others simply ask what purpose his trial would serve. Born in Ukraine, Demjanjuk was a prisoner of war who, his defenders say, was forced to become a death camp guard. He played his part in the enormous horror of the Holocaust but many Germans are all too aware that other major war criminals have escaped justice. Some fled to live in exile and others received light sentences.
It is surprisingly difficult to pin down figures of the number of Germans tried or convicted of war crimes since 1945 but most experts agree with the Simon Wiesenthal Center that the number of criminals brought to justice is way below the total of those involved in the Holocaust.
Some reports say that of an estimated 200,000 Germans and Austrians involved in the Holocaust, about 106,000 were investigated by German prosecutors and of those, only 6,500 were convicted.
Although a series of war crimes did take place, thousands of war criminals either escaped prosecution or got away with light sentences and a 1968 law made it easier for defendants to argue that they had only been following orders.
Nazi hunters in Ludwigsburg are still looking for war criminals and Germans have done a good deal more than other countries, especially Austria, to confront its past but many experts say it is the knowledge of the failure to punish Nazis soon after 1945 that has led to cases like Demjanjuk drawing so much attention now.
To survivors and their families, it is a matter of principle that people like Demjanjuk are brought to justice, however old they are. Germany’s Central Council of Jews spelled this out, saying all living Nazi war criminals can have no mercy, regardless of their age.
In many ways, Germany has moved on from its past. It has sent soldiers on combat missions abroad and is getting more involved in world diplomacy. Young people here want to be part of a more self-confident state at the heart of Europe. There is relatively little public debate about the Demjanjuk case, just a weary resignation that it is happening.
But while people like Demjanjuk live, there will be no escape from the past for Germans.
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John Demjanjuk is innocent of all crimes. I think it’s absolutely wrong to prosecute people who were in the Nazi Regime. They had no choice other than to follow orders. Otherwise, they would put their families and themselves in jeopardy of being killed.
- Posted by anthony@Peter, ben: More than 2000 years ago, the Jews entered the Palestinian land and annihilated people there (even children) without provocations. That “victory” was enhanced as the proof that God was on the Jews’ side, if you read the Old Testament. To me, it is just the proof of the no-justice tendency of the Jewish people as a whole. The great Law of Karma held good in the Holocaust, unfortunately. Then the Lord offered the same chance for the Jews to correct their behaviour : they were brought back to the Palestinian land again to face the similar ancient situations. If they are not going to change their no-justice habit, they might invoke another Holocaust which no one wants.
- Posted by nguyenI thought so, no proof, but I hope you can find that kind of sequence throughout world’s history.
Matt, assisting 29000 murders is not justification enough for this man tos tand trial?
- Posted by DamianWhat is the purpose of punishment? Is it purely revenge or is there some higher goal for the judicial system? I can’t be certain that there is any justifiable reason for the punishment of this man. I believe this man deserves to be punished if guilty, but not for revenge; motive is important. He should be imprisoned (if guilty) because he is the same man who performed those actions years ago, and, as a person, his rational choice must be respected. To ‘forgive and forget’ is not just, but neither is ‘eye for an eye’. This man made a free choice, and justice demands that his choice be honored, even if that mean he be punished for its immorality.
- Posted by MattI have always been sympathetic to the holocaust survivors and the pain that was inflicted on the entire race. What I can’t understand is the many individuals out for blood with this man. You want to talk justice? Where was his justice when he was wrongly convicted and wrongly held for a period of time. He will never get that time back. Now you want to condemn him and hang him even before the trial starts. You already had your chance and screwed it up at the trial in Israel. You get one chance and if you blow it, you blow it, I say leave the man alone. He isn’t even German, but Ukrainian who even at worst wasn’t a party member but just surviving, as I hardly believe that he was a nazi. So where is Mr. Demjanjuk’s justice going to be when it shows he is innocent, or even worse, wrongfully convicted again like he was in Israel. He has no more time left to recover from this charade. To all you people throwing stones, GO SUCK A LEMON! You rotten bitter people!
- Posted by John[...] leave a comment » via Global News Blog » Blog Archive » Germans have to live with Nazi past a bit longer | Blogs |. [...]
- Posted by Germans have to live with Nazi past a bit longer « dokumentationsarchivAnd why SHOULD the Germans be allowed to forget their Nazi past? And why should anyone else in Europe WISH to forget.
Are its current ambitions markedly different than those that it had in the ’30s? It dominates Europe politically and economically now in the way that it previously sought to dominate militarily.
We forget Germany’s past at our peril. Forgiveness and reconciliation is one thing. Choosing to ignore the harsh lessons of history is quite another. That is the way of fools.
- Posted by JasonWho’s excusing anything? Is it worth spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a probable charade in order to send a harmless old man to jail?
You want your tax dollars to go to an ambulance/doctors/pilots/planes/personne l/lawyers etc for this or to your kids education? Or to repairing a road in your city? Or to the needy?
People are just incapable of removing emotion and dealing with reality
- Posted by Michael HamYou can run from history, but you can’t hide from it.
Whether this man is innocent or guilty of the charge, he will have his day in court. Justice demands no less.
- Posted by Anon“Some reports say that of an estimated 200,000 Germans and Austrians involved in the Holocaust, about 106,000 were investigated by German prosecutors and of those, only 6,500 were convicted.” I dont deny these numbers, german legal system is one of the best in the world but what do they mean ? 6,5 million poeple who died in the holocaust were killed by 6500 ?
- Posted by NepoThink about what your saying people. The holocaust was a sadistic period of mass torture and execution that killed 6 million innocent people. My father a WWII vet who lived through the event can attest to the atrocities he witnessed. These people need to be prosecuted with no regard to the amount of time that has passed. Mass murder is mass murder.
- Posted by GwraceJohn Demjanjuk is an expert on disception. Have you seen the recent videos of this apparently critically ill man up and about walking around getting in and out of an automobile and carrying on conversations with family members. He has been caught in numerous lies in various parts of his testimony that evidence has proved. These criminals need to be hunted down and brought to justice. Just because 60 years has passed in no way lessens the impact of the terrible crimes these people committed. Where were their conscious minds when committing these atrocities.
“A lot of you don’t understand why we JEWS,feel about bringing these people to justice. try to understand how we feel, we are the ones who lived and feel shame for being alive. Posted by american Israeli ”
- Posted by PeterTell me how you feel about doing the same thing to the Palestinians as Nazis did to the Jews. Just as the Nazis, Israel in 1948 forced the Palestinians from their land. For the past 61 years all the way till now, Palestinians have been forced to live in Gaza Strip, as the Jews did in 1940 in Warsaw Ghetto. You want to preach to the world that the Holocaust should not be forgotten and repeated but you do the same to others. Hypocrisy?
As to John Demjanjuk: Every Jewish person that has commented from Holocaust survivors, scholars, attorneys they all want to seek justices. However, they talk as if was already convicted What about Demjanjuk? The trail in Munchen did not start yet and he has already spent seven years in Israeli prison and now he got what is equal to a life sentence. If he is found not guilty, he will not be allowed to return to his Ohio home where he lived and paid taxes for 50+ years. I would not call that justice. it’s revenge.
Peter
unfortunately age has nothing to do with truth. It is necessary to remind everyone that severely mistreating one another has strong penalties. I’m of the opinion he must be tried and given some result… for all that believe truth, fairness and the standard of law. Time delay has just been unfortunate.
- Posted by rbJustice delayed is justice denied. For an innocent man, he sure has not been inclined - all these years - to face his accusers. I don’t know if he is guilty or not but there are those who believe him to be a person in need of prosecution. A wrongly accused person should have his day in court to clear his name.
- Posted by Mike ArnoldI don’t understand how people are so willing to excuse this man’s extraordinary crimes.
Hitler’s plan was the killing of an entire people–why would anyone lessen or make excuses for such Evil? It is not different from the several attempts at genocide
in the 20th Century–including most recently in Rwanda, but as a crime, what could be more heinous?
I also don’t get the sympathy people feel for him because of his age and condition.
How would you honestly feel finding out the nice old man next door who waves and smiles as you go to work admittedly participated in such youthful shenanigans as
participating in the mass murder of 20,000 people? I believe in giving deference and being polite to older people, and taking age into account for lesser victim-
less crimes, but age as an excuse for murder? This is morally absurd.
As to his medical condition, has anyone seen this link to a news report and surveillance video that he appears to be faking?
http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-englis h/world-news/2009/04/24/john-demjanjuk-v ideo-is-extradition-back-on/is-former-na zi-camp-guard-really-too-ill-to-face-cou rt.html
- Posted by ben