Nazi War Crimes; Is now spending money on a trial and possible incarceration a good thing?

2015-02-02T11:21:58-05:00

Just say the following article http://www.newsnet5.com/news/national/man-93-to-face-300000-nazi-death-charges-in-german-court

Basically Germany is prosecuting a 93 year old in his role at Auschwitz. I do not condone what occurred at Auschwitz but from reading disposed of luggage of new arrived prisoners. Do you think spending money on a trial and possible incarceration a good thing?

Man, 93, to face 300,000 Nazi death charges in German court

A 93-year-old man is to appear before a German court on charges of assisting in the murders of at least 300,000 people.

Response by COL Jason Smallfield, PMP, CFM, CM made Feb 2 at 2015 11:30 AM

2015-02-02T11:30:58-05:00

Is spending money on a trial and incarceration for Nazi War Crimes a good thing? Some perspectives:
- Some crimes such as tax evasion, theft, rape, etc have a statute of limitations. The reason for this is that witnesses memories fade, evidence becomes lost, hard to prosecute, etc. Basically society has decided that these crimes are not serious enough and have these considerations that merit having a statute of limitations.
- Other crimes, however, such as murder do not have a statute of limitations. Society has decided that these crimes should be prosecuted regardless of the above considerations because of the seriousness of the crime. Having a statute of limitation would mean that murderers might never receive justice even if new technology such as DNA or fingerprints become available that were not there when the crime occurred.
- I would argue that war crimes falls into the latter category (no statute of limitations). If not, war criminals can and would merely hide out until they could no longer be prosecuted. In addition, bringing war crimes charges against a 93 year old helps to re educate and re inform a younger generation about half of whom have no clue what the Holocaust was. Failing to know about history dooms future generations to repeating history.