Holocaust victim 'avengers' reunite on television broadcast (thys hunted down the SS after WW2)

Haaretz ^ | Dec. 24, 2005 | Associated Press

[papertyger]

There is a difference between justice and revenge.

Yup...ceremony.

But make no mistake, they are one and the same. You can wrap yourself in the Constitution, but it makes no difference. If you don't understand the principles it represents, and what it's realpolitic purpose is, you are like a child that thinks "switches" are responsible for "lights."

[investigateworld]

Actually, Eisenhower re classed all German POWs following the end of the war. With that they (the holding authorities - US and allied armies, reduced the food rations to just above starvation level. Ike felt the people who caused the misery shouldn't be fed better than the average European.

[MarkL]

Spielberg will make a movie about them showing they're just as bad as the Nazis.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Maybe Spielberg to make TV episodes, and he could vilify Israel for hunting down and kidnapping Adolf Eichman, and sentancing him to death.

Mark

[Northern Alliance]

Actually, Eisenhower re classed all German POWs following the end of the war. With that they (the holding authorities - US and allied armies, reduced the food rations to just above starvation level. Ike felt the people who caused the misery shouldn't be fed better than the average European

I am not sure why your post was directed at me, not that it really matters.

I was reading about that a while ago - an interview with the doctor that was asked to set the minimum calorie intake, but I seem to recall it wasn't Ike, but a specific POW camp commander. I am not sure about that, though. There was also an interview or quotes from some prison guards that surreptitiously gave the POWs extra rations. Whoever made the decision, according to that doctor, it was in response to seeing what had happened in the concentration camps.

[Appalled but Not Surprised]

If you were a surviver of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, or Treblinka; where SIX MILLION of your people, including your ENTIRE family, were gassed to death and then incinerated you might be singin' a different tune...buddy.
>>

I daresay that even though it is New Testament, "Vengeance is mine, saieth the Lord" is applicable to all men at all times. It's still murder.... of a very understandable sort.

(OTOH I myself have a little list; they would never be missed...)

[taxesareforever]

Oh please. Give me a break. Revenge and justice are not one in the same. Justice is meted out according to law. Revenge is meted out on account of anger. Sorry, but your statement is pure divel.

[Lancer_N3502A]

The original Hebrew text of the Ten Commandments saith "Thou shall not murder". King Jimmy changed that in ye "improved" old English version.

[papertyger]

Oh please. Give me a break. Revenge and justice are not one in the same. Justice is meted out according to law. Revenge is meted out on account of anger. Sorry, but your statement is pure divel.

Sure they are. It's not my fault you never figured out the "manditory, unpaid, vacation" your boss is telling you to take means "you're laid off."

Oh, sure. The Powers That Be, in every society surround the Justice system with great pomp and circumstance to aid in the credibility they wish to impart to its decisions, and legitimate the actions and remedies that system imposes, but it all boils down to the social contract between individuals and the state. The individual surrenders a portion of sovereignty to the state, and in return the state promises to enforce a certain standard of conduct.

Long story short: the state promises to exact revenge for recognized offenses so the individual won't.

The disinction between "rule of law" and "rule of men" is the rule of law publishes the code of conduct beforehand there is any dispute, and the rule of men exacts revenge for conduct the rulers simply find inconvenient.

In either case, the base concept is the same: recompense for offense.

[taxesareforever]

In either case, the base concept is the same: recompense for offense.

I agree. However one is lawful and the other isn't. That is the big difference.

[rmlew]

Heroes? More like murderers, who killed indiscriminantly or attempted to do so without allowing their victims any sort of due process. You can't blanket 2,800 German POWs as death camp guards who oversaw the murder of innocent people, but that simply doesn't resemble the facts.
The prisoners targetted were not members of the Wermacht, Kriegsmarine or Luftwaffe. These were members of the Schutzstaffel, the SS. The SS was the armed protector and enforcer of Nazi policy. It included the Death Camp guards, the Special Operations (read extermination) squands, the Gestapo, and an independent military wing.
These were the Nazi elite and the worst of the worst. They were volunteers for whom human life was worthless. None were innocent, some just commited other crimes.