The Auschwitz Files: Why the Last SS Guards Will Go Unpunished

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-german-judiciary-failed-approach-to-auschwitz-and-holocaust-a-988082.html



In February, German prosecutors conducted a wave of raids targeting former SS concentration camp guards. It was hoped the proceedings could help make up for decades of inaction. Instead, they will likely mark the latest chapter in the German judiciary's shameful approach to the Holocaust.

The Auschwitz Files: Why the Last SS Guards Will Go Unpunished
By Klaus Wiegrefe
August 28, 2014 – 01:18 PM

It was a carefully coordinated campaign. Criminal investigators from the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg all struck at the same time, at 9 a.m. on Feb. 19 of this year. The investigators, driving civilian vehicles, drove up to residences in 12 locations and presented the suspects with search warrants. The officials had previously determined whether their targets had firearm or explosives licenses.

The suspects, of course, were not expected to put up any resistance. The youngest was 88 and the oldest almost 100. Nevertheless, three of the accused -- in Wiernsheim, Gerlingen and Freiburg -- were temporarily taken into custody.

The next day, prosecutors in each locality issued a press release titled: "Searches conducted of presumed former SS members at the Auschwitz concentration camp."

The sentence contained three key phrases: "search," "SS members" and "Auschwitz." The impact was immense. From the Los Angeles Times to Le Figaro and El País, media organizations worldwide reported on what the German newspaper Die Welt called the "biggest concerted campaign against presumed Nazi criminals in decades."

[3rdwaydem]

1. What took them so long to find these monsters?

[COLGATE4]

2. There was never much taste in Germany to actively

pursue these war criminals. The most obvious offenders were dealt with right after surrender and during the occupation. Once the occupation ended, the German State Prosecutors, kicking and screaming finally dragged some of the more major players into court, getting mixed results as to conviction. After that, the prevailing attitude was 'forget about the past, let's move on'. There was no real interest for any effort to go after the unmentionable slugs who made up the mass of the enlisted personnel who guarded the camps. Too small and too insignificant to be bothered with.