Why him and why now? Thousands of concentration camp guards have lived and died over the years and they weren’t prosecuted.
The Operation Paper Clip were some of the worse.
From what I can tell, there is little or no direct proof that Sgt. Groening killed anyone. They are having this “trial” to make an example out of him. Therefore it is a show trial. Sgt. Groening was 23 years old at the end of WWII in 1945. This is of course does not mean he did not commit any war crimes. He could have. The Nazis indoctrinated all of youth in Germany from 1933 on requiring the young to join the Hitler Youth, including the former pope. Sgt. Groening was only 11 years old when Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933. And no doubt for many years he was indoctrinated for many years and taught that Jews and Slavs were subhuman vermin. I would take all of this into account. Unless there is direct evidence against him, I would also take his advanced age under account as well. He is going to be judged anyways. Give it a rest and rest assured, he will be judged anyways. Dragging a 93 year old through a show trial like this makes no sense.
The "Nazi hunters" are running out of excuses to stay relevant and justify funding. The only former SS left alive at this point are in their 90's, and they were lowly privates or lieutenants in the war.
In five years, when the only people left to go after will be those who were children in the Hitler Youth, what will they do then?
Not only that, but there’s a retirement home for Nazi SS in Israel where they’re tended to by Jews until they die.
Not forgiven... you can’t forgive a criminal on the victim’s behalf; but understood.
I don’t feel good about this at all.