Posted on 12/26/2012 4:55:04 PM PST by nickcarraway
Anton Geiser, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who fought deportation after settling in Pennsylvania, has died, his lawyer said. He was 88.
Geiser, a retired mill worker with three American-born children, was an armed guard for the Nazis at the Buchenwald concentration camp, federal prosecutors said. Geiser, who was originally born in Croatia but settled in Sharon, Pa., after the war, said he was forced into service by the Nazis as a teenager and never participated in the systematic slaughter of Jews and other prisoners inside the camp.
Federal prosecutors disagreed and were seeking his deportation to face a trial as a war criminal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Thursday.
"People need to look at him as an individual, and I think that he actually stood for something he believed in," said Adrian Roe, Geiser's attorney. "He hadn't believed in the Nazis. He had been forced into it. He didn't want to be kicked out. He wanted to stay with his family."
His death brings the government's case against Geiser to a close, Roe said.
“His death brings the government’s case against Geiser to a close, Roe said.”
Okay, even “Roe” is probably a name that had changed since when?
Although there is no moral or ethical excuse for a person choosing to serve as a concentration/death camp guard (nazi or stalinist), I’ve read several accounts where a lot of these men (boys?); young, naive and or ignorant (nothing like state generated propaganda to keep you stupid) weren’t given much if any choice (I suppose choosing what you want to do during a World War in totalitarian, police state dictatorships is pretty much non-existent). My point is, unless they were witnessed actually killing innocent people, I’d reserve some judgement given the nature of the situation. Having a gun to your head, or a threat to your family’s existent in the face of pure evil, is a truly a tough choice. Most people react “better them than me”, right? Selfish or survival mode, which is it? How many people would actually be willing to die or let members of their family die, in making a stand? Not many, I assure you. Look at history. Food for thought, I guess. One thing is for sure, if that guy had a conscience (if being the operative word), it most likely bothered him his entire life, possibly a just punishment in its own way. I’m still waiting for when the apparatus that created, controlled and executed millions of Russians during the communist rule comes to justice; I guess I’ll just keep waiting. Same for Red China. Peace.
“I’m still waiting for when the apparatus that created, controlled and executed millions of Russians during the communist rule comes to justice; I guess I’ll just keep waiting. Same for Red China.”
You will have a very long wait. An eternity? Perhaps.
How many Soviet gulag guards have been prosecuted? None?
This was truly a political persecution.
Just leave the man alone......and shut down this InJustce Department office that spends my tax dollars hunting down men in their late eighties who were forced to do low level tasks in their teens/twenties......meanwhile we brought Werner van Braun over here and paid him millions to send us to the moon.....the hypocrisy is incredible
What was George Soros up to at this point in history?
I have been reading on these women, Bothe was dispicable and had no remorse, in her own words in that video. Here is another site with more of these women guards. then a link to Elfriede Rinkel, 83, of San Francisco, sent back to Germany, a guard who married a Jew, how bout that gall? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_guards_in_Nazi_concentration_camps
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/sep/21/secondworldwar.germany
88 years old? He really was an old Geiser.
The really indisputable war criminals (on the losing side) are either dead, in prison, or were protected from prosecution by various governments so they can’t be touched. So, there is nothing left but these “small fry” to go after, and almost all of them can say they were forced into doing what they did. I wouldn’t doubt that a great many of them really were. However, they are the only ones left, so that is who the Nazi hunters are going to hunt.
Nobody wants to even risk being seen as sympathetic to a potential Nazi, so nobody is going to go out of their way to put a stop to the pointless exercise. I suppose it will continue until everyone from that era passes away, which should be pretty soon.
“Nobody wants to even risk being seen as sympathetic to a potential Nazi”
Except if they’re izlamic.
“Federal prosecutors disagree....”
There must be more to the story, as this report is shamefully brief. I’d imagine there were 10s of thousands of gaurds some more guilty than others. Forced conscription might explain WHY you were there, but not how you behaved once “on the job” so to speak. my 2 cents.
Yes, being PC is one thing they never seem to worry about.
There are four types of Germans from that period.
The ones who knew what was happening and did not think anything was wrong with it. This group certainly includes most of the concentration camp guards.
The second group are the true innocents. The Germans that had no idea that what was happening in their name. I suspect this group is rather small. There are just some things that can’t help but be noticed.
The third group is the one that always bothered me the most. This is the group that knew what was happening, knew it was wrong, and did nothing to stop it. This group is probably larger than we know. I can’t find a spot in the bible where God says protect the weak, but only when there is no danger to yourself.
The fourth, very small group, are the Germans who knew what was happening, knew it was wrong, and did whatever they could to stop it. The world needs people like these.
I am German through my mother, and it was only after she died and through genealogy that I found we are German Jews. Then it was that I found her family name were exterminated, as were cousins by another name.
For me, my brothers and cousins, finding that we were Jewish was the happiest day of our lives. We are of course Christians.
We don't know when the family became Christians, but it was before they came to America in 1846, and I suspect sometime before that due to all the persecutions, joining the Lutheran Church to avoid torture and save their children.
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