Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-149 next last
To: re_tail20

While your at it, arrest George Soros too.


21 posted on 06/18/2014 7:06:50 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: re_tail20
He needs to be tried and hung before he dies of old age.
The message needs to be very clear for historians.
22 posted on 06/18/2014 7:06:55 PM PDT by MaxMax (Pay Attention and you'll be pissed off too! FIRE BOEHNER, NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: madison10

Leave him alone? Are you serious? So any murderer who avoids justice for a long time gets a free pass? Are you serious???


23 posted on 06/18/2014 7:07:45 PM PDT by stuck_in_new_orleans
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: re_tail20

too bad Pope Pius XII can not be put on trial too.


24 posted on 06/18/2014 7:08:00 PM PDT by llevrok (Straight. Since 1950.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Slump Tester

The opening sentence makes me want to puke. Attempting to garner sympathy for an “old man”. Awwwww. BS. He can make his own peace with God...I don’t claim to be making his final judgment. However, he can reap what he has sown, just like the rest of us. Mercy can come from God...not from me. Nor do I think he asked for it, anyway.


25 posted on 06/18/2014 7:08:12 PM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Steven Scharf
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.

Guess who I believe?

26 posted on 06/18/2014 7:09:56 PM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: madison10

I wonder what the average Joe in any country would have said to the psychopathic Gestapo in 1940? This when he was a 19 year old and told to become a guard.
Ah yes, got a machine gun and slaughtered the bloody lot, I suppose.


27 posted on 06/18/2014 7:10:08 PM PDT by Peter Libra
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ZinGirl

“He was 69 when he lied about it....”

He’s been living a lie since they lost the war. He hasn’t exactly blown his horn proudly about his service to the furor.


28 posted on 06/18/2014 7:13:23 PM PDT by Beowulf9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: madison10
Yeah, all he did was help murder a bunch of innocent women and kids.

Give him a break.

29 posted on 06/18/2014 7:14:05 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: madison10

I have felt the same way for the last ten years. I didn’t want to step on any toes, but my gosh, the man is almost 100 year old! At a certain point, it seems cruel to wrap twenty pounds of chains around his wrists and ankles. Of course it was horribly wrong what happened, but they are about all gone now. Let it go.

If he was the rare 90 y/o still preaching hate and ready to gun fight with the cops, that would be different. There are 90 y/o who fit that description, but not him. I would get no joy from watching him suffering today, no joy at all. He and his family line are already punished by being identified.


30 posted on 06/18/2014 7:15:38 PM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: re_tail20

Too bad he missed the Nuremberg trials, oversight?

I think not, he has made sure he missed them.


31 posted on 06/18/2014 7:15:38 PM PDT by Beowulf9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MaxMax

What if he’s tried and acquitted?

Hang him anyway?


32 posted on 06/18/2014 7:15:53 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: aMorePerfectUnion

you could never prove he did anything. you could prove that he was 19. You had 70 years to find him guilty while he lived as a law abiding US citizen in the open, never denying who he was, where he worked.

This is very likely two wrongs. Even if one was much larger than the other. You cannot punish him. He lived his life. And unfortunately there will be no one in this world to punish the sanctimonious Nazi hunters who don’t care about due process.


33 posted on 06/18/2014 7:16:03 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: llevrok

You’re an idiot. But useful for the left.


34 posted on 06/18/2014 7:16:10 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: madison10

MAD-ison10...

Consider your child was raped and murdered by a guy who got away with it for decades.

You gonna “just leave him alone”?

Are you a Tare?


35 posted on 06/18/2014 7:16:35 PM PDT by Mortrey (Impeach President Soros)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Peter Libra
Yes, this Breyer guy was the one unlucky guy who was drafted into the SS.

Funny how everyone else had to volunteer.

When you know nothing about a topic, you should probably keep your mouth shut.

36 posted on 06/18/2014 7:18:28 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: poinq

What was the statute of limitations on murder again?


37 posted on 06/18/2014 7:19:38 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: stuck_in_new_orleans
Germany iirr passed a law exonerating all Germans for war crimes, yet they go around finding others and prosecuting them.
38 posted on 06/18/2014 7:21:25 PM PDT by duckln
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: llevrok

You’re a loony. Go study history not written by the left.


39 posted on 06/18/2014 7:22:08 PM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: wideawake

The nazis did not let old Jews escape; they even rounded up 90-year-olds from old people’s homes.

So, let them have the same measure of mercy they meted out to others.


40 posted on 06/18/2014 7:23:07 PM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-149 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson