Is it too late to bring elderly Nazi criminals to justice?

Nope! Never too late!

I agree. If they can be found, they should be brought to justice. At their age, perhaps some sort of house arrest is in order if convicted.

This will probably piss people off.

Personally, I think a public apology and house arrest would be enough.

From this thread it seems quite a few people believe in “compassionate release” so I imagine they wouldn’t be hypocrites and would let the old guys off.

I on the other hand, feel that punishment is necessary. Do they live where the crimes took place? I guess they’d be extradited and tried there.

Well first of all age doesn’t matter, because legally they’re considered to be the same people that did these things almost 70 years ago. It’s an interersting point though, because the law in most countries has this time limit after which your crimes are forgotten (forgot the legal term now). But I don’t think it works for crimes against Humanity, so they could still be brought to justice. And should, because for every one of these likeable old men there are thousands of other likeable old men (and women) who suffered, not to mention those who never got to become either likeable or old.

There is also of course the moral side of the argument about whether they are guilty or innocent, and this has nothing to do with their age either. But again this is a legal issue. There is this policewoman that did great harm to my daughter, but at the time she thought she was doing the right thing, and yes, she was following orders. I saw her again just yesterday and explained that I had no hard feelings for her, since I know her heart was in the right place. This is not exactly the same as Nazi war criminals, but there is always the issue of them either not knowing what was going on (after all, this was a war) and also the belief that what they were doing was really good for their country. How many war crimes does the average GI commit in Iraq and Afghanistan before he goes back to being a likeable young boy back home?

Human nature is quite weird, and it’s the same people that will invite you in for tea and save your child from drowning (even if you’re a Jew) that turned on the switches in Dachau. It doesn’t make them Good or Evil. They’re just human.

But the legal argument remains. As long as there is no legal limit, they should still be tried, even if it is to get a life sentence that will only last a few months before they die of old age. I feel the law should be the same for everyone, though casheroo has a point about compassionate release, but again they should be found guilty and spend at least 1 day in jail before compassion kicks in.

Incidentally, I loved that manic character in Tarantino’s latest film. No, I guess it’s not an accurate historical portrayal of a typical Nazi, but if that actor doesn’t get an Oscar, I cannot imagine who else should. Simply amazing! And also shows my point about the absurdity of human nature.

@Jack79 “Inglourious Basterds” caught me by surprise. I thought it was his best movie since “Reservoir Dogs”

i think they should be left alone. it’s not like they are a danger to society anymore and no one is calling for arresting and trying the nuclear bomber pilots of hiroshima and nagasaki either.

I am a Jew, have skin in this game, am virulently anti-Nazi, would like to see all of them brought to justice, but I fear that too much time has passed to be certain that we have proper evidence for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not mean I am against trials, but the trials must be impeccably fair, and I think the majority of those who are left are no longer convictable.

It is lamentable that our post-war policies protected known Nazis from timely prosecution, but it is so, and we must accept at least partial blame. Not only did we allow some to escape, we lionized others, such as Werner von Braun, for policy reasons when it was clear at the time that he was responsible for the deaths of slave laborers.

@casheroo It is scary how many Nazi war criminals live freely in Europe (Germany and Austria especially). Yes, many escaped to South America straight after the war but slowly a fair few have made their way back. I wonder if this is because they are confident that there chances of being arrested are slim nowqadays or if they just don’t care anymore. They know that they don’t have much time left and so want to spend their final years in the country they consider home.

@ragingloli that’s another interesting issue which was actually discussed here on fluther when we were talking about the death penalty. Why exactly do we bring any criminal to justice?

1. revenge (to make the victim’s families feel better)
2. set an example so others don’t do the same
3. protect society from this dangerous person (this is ragingloli’s point here, and it’s true, this reason does not exist, as these men can no longer harm us).
4. a general feeling in society that justice is served (so we can sleep at night thinking all is well)

Even thought I agree that these people are no longer a threat, and I would even go as far as saying they’re probably not particularly evil, the second reason is still very important. By letting them go we are sending the message (most of all to people like Colin Powell and Madelaine Albright, not to mention all the Bushes and Milosevices out there) that this behaviour is acceptable.

Ask the children of the people who died that didn’t make it to 90 because of their dispicable acts.

@ragingloli . . .The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were meant to bring and end to the war. The nazis were attempting to exterminate an entire race of people.

A shitty distinction, considering the loss of life in both cases, but a distinction nonetheless.

If we put these guys on trial, and sent them to jail, that wouldn’t be justice. Justice would be their being in jail all these years.
They have been living in fear of being prosecuted all their lives. At least that seems fitting. How about we let Lt. Aldo Raine deal with it?

@filmfann. Is that the same type of fear that hundreds of thousands of Jewish people experienced when they were forced onto trains to Auschwitz or when they woke up in concentration camps every day wondering if this was the day they would be gassed or cremated or gunned down or tortured or experimented on by camp doctors?

@Bluefreedom Exactly my point, which I thought was made clear when I said it was fitting.

@filmfann. It’s not fitting. The fear of prosecution by Nazi war criminals is trivial compared to the fear that was endured by the victims in the concentration camps. That was the point I was trying to make.

It’s never too late.

I’m with dpworkin and Zen.