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Retiree, 89, Held for Trial as Auschwitz Guard
nyt ^ | June 18, 2014 | Jon Hurdle and Eric Lightblau

Posted on 06/18/2014 6:39:36 PM PDT by re_tail20

Johann Breyer, 89, shuffled unsteadily into a federal courtroom here on Wednesday morning, using a cane for support as he sunk slowly into a chair at the defense table.

The retired toolmaker from what was then Czechoslovakia, who immigrated to the United States in 1952, was thin and pale and dressed in a green jail uniform after a night spent in lockup following his arrest at his home in Philadelphia. He looked confused at times, too, but when the judge asked him if he understood why the German authorities wanted to put him on trial there, he answered simply, “Yes.”

Nothing about his demeanor suggested the long-ago secrets that the authorities in both Germany and the United States say Mr. Breyer has carried with him for 70 years. As an armed guard at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz and a member of the notorious SS “Death’s Head” battalion, the authorities charged Wednesday that Mr. Breyer was complicit in the gassing of 216,000 Jews brought there in 1944 from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

The Germans, seeking to have him extradited to the Wieden district to stand trial, have charged him with 158 counts of “aiding and abetting” in murder — one count for each of the 158 trainloads of Jews brought to the killing center at Auschwitz in a six-month span. Most of the so-called deportees, including many thousands of women, children and old people, were killed in gas chambers almost immediately after arriving at Auschwitz, then cremated.

Mr. Breyer acknowledged two decades ago, when first questioned by the American authorities, that he had worked as a guard at Auschwitz, but he said that he did so “involuntarily” and that he had nothing to do with the gassings....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: auschwitz; breyer; moralabsolutes; nazis
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1 posted on 06/18/2014 6:39:36 PM PDT by re_tail20
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To: re_tail20

Too bad he wasn’t a guard at Stalins Gulag, liberals would have ran him for POTUS.


2 posted on 06/18/2014 6:41:49 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: re_tail20

Yes, it happened. Yes, it was horrible. The guy is 89 years old. Just leave him alone. He cannot pay for the sins of a whole evil regime. Have him apologize for his part in the mess and be done with it.

There...I said it.


3 posted on 06/18/2014 6:42:26 PM PDT by madison10
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To: re_tail20

Eastern Europe in the 30’s and 40’s... every choice you had was a bad one.


4 posted on 06/18/2014 6:45:05 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: madison10

No statute of limitations on crimes like this


5 posted on 06/18/2014 6:45:21 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "I didn't leave the Central Oligarchy Party. It left me." - Ronaldus Maximus)
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To: madison10

Send his sorry a$$ back to Germany as soon as possible before he dies here and stains the soil.


6 posted on 06/18/2014 6:46:17 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Surgeon General Warning: Operation of Government Motors vehicles may be hazardous to your health)
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To: madison10

I think you are right.

I’m not saying that time has healed this wound... I’m saying that to me it seems wrong to prosecute a very old man for something he did so very long ago.

I’m from German Jewish stock on my father’s side of the family.... I say leave this alone. To put this old man through the legal system at this late date seems a bit Les Miserables to me.


7 posted on 06/18/2014 6:48:22 PM PDT by Bobalu (What cannot be programmed cannot be physics)
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To: Bobalu

Give him the “red pill” that Zero likes and let him get it over with.


8 posted on 06/18/2014 6:52:50 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: madison10

So? Why does living long enough make a difference in consequences? He was 69 when he lied about it....too much of a pansy to own up to it then. Karma is a b*tch....now he’s 89...so what?


9 posted on 06/18/2014 6:54:12 PM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: madison10
Yes, it happened. Yes, it was horrible. The guy is 89 years old. Just leave him alone. He cannot pay for the sins of a whole evil regime. Have him apologize for his part in the mess and be done with it.

Sorry, but Murder is Murder.

He's had 70 more years of life than the 100's of thousands that he helped to put to death.

He is a monster, period, and deserves to die.
10 posted on 06/18/2014 6:54:51 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: re_tail20

C’mon

The guy’s retired!

/s


11 posted on 06/18/2014 6:55:19 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Bobalu
If we were talking a loaf of bread, I could support it.

We aren't...and the guy was too much of a pansy to pony up the truth. Sucks to suck....he lived a helluva lot longer than anyone he shoved into an oven. Not crying a river at all. He can reap what he has sown.

12 posted on 06/18/2014 6:56:33 PM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: SoConPubbie

Verdict first, then trial?


13 posted on 06/18/2014 6:56:41 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: madison10
The Jews wandered the desert for 40 years until the last of the generation that defied God had died off. Only then did they reach the River Jordan and the promised land.

Nobody said, "Oh, it was so long ago. He's 89 years old. What's the harm now?"

Crimes against humanity require the whole generation who participated to pay.

-PJ

14 posted on 06/18/2014 6:59:35 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: re_tail20

When does George Soros go to jail?


15 posted on 06/18/2014 7:01:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2Million for ANY 2016 pro-2nd Amendment candidate.)
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To: re_tail20

Dude, that was like 70 years ago!


16 posted on 06/18/2014 7:02:04 PM PDT by kevao (Biblical Jesus: Give your money to the poor. Socialist Jesus: Give your neighbor's money to the poor)
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To: ZinGirl

Damn right! I’ll never understand these folks who think old nazis should get a pass. We should have executed everyone who ever wore an SS uniform.


17 posted on 06/18/2014 7:03:28 PM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: ZinGirl

You are wrong. “Mr. Breyer acknowledged two decades ago, when first questioned by the American authorities, that he had worked as a guard at Auschwitz, but he said that he did so “involuntarily” and that he had nothing to do with the gassings.”


18 posted on 06/18/2014 7:04:33 PM PDT by Steven Scharf
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To: madison10

In other words, “what difference does it make”?

Thank you for appearing for jury duty.

You’re dismissed.


19 posted on 06/18/2014 7:05:35 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

AMEN !! I ask the same question.


20 posted on 06/18/2014 7:06:30 PM PDT by Patriot Babe
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