When ALL of these small-fry can live knowing every guilty murder is dead or locked up.
Posted on 08/17/2004 11:04:34 AM PDT by Willie Green
In the sleepy Mercer County town of Sharon, the most trouble locals have to contend with are the thousands of noisy bikers who roll into town for weekly parties at the massive Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant. A few of the less enlightened Harley riders might wear swastikas or iron crosses on their leather vests, but that's about it for evidence of fascist sympathies.
Which explains why neighbors of retired steelworker Anton Geiser, 79, were shocked to learn the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to throw the quiet old guy out of the country.
Geiser, government officials say, worked as a guard at two Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Those are places where millions of people were tortured, starved and murdered.
As a result of his alleged involvement, Geiser could be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported. He isn't commenting on the Justice Department's civil lawsuit.
Now I'm in no way defending Nazis or Adolf Hitler, but check this out: In the years immediately following World War II, the U.S. government cozied up to lots of known Nazis -- many of whom were recruited to run our young ballistic missile, jet aircraft and space programs. During the opening of the Cold War, the United States was so preoccupied with the Soviet Union that all but the worst former followers of Hitler could move here with few questions.
Geiser, if the allegations are true, was only one of many.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Nazi war criminals should still be hunted down and prosecuted,
but at what point do you stop and let the small-fry go?
When the last small-fry has died, I think.
When you can't get any headlines out of it.
Camp guards aren't small fry, IMNHO.
Do you think the Nazis released a few unimportant people, because they "let the small fry go"?
Everyone they rounded up, disappeared into the camps. There were few exceptions - maybe the ones who died en route, or jumped the trains when they were strafed by Allied fighters.
They've evaded capture for too long.
When ALL of these small-fry can live knowing every guilty murder is dead or locked up.
True. And he certainly wouldn't have been able to put a stop to the genocide.
But again, this brings us back to the old question: at what point does "just following orders" stop being an excuse?
If Geiser tried to transfer out of death camp guard duty, I'd say he did about as much as he could. But if he didn't attempt to transfer out, then he's culpable.
If this man did what is alleged, then why isn't he tried for "war crimes"? Is there a statute of limitations on mass murder? If he only was in a flunky position, like a lowly lieutenant and did not realize what he was doing was against the Geneva Convention until after the war, then I think he should have the opportunity to run for president of the United States. (/sarcasm)
I don't see the consistency problem here -- membership in the Nazi party alone does not make anyone a war criminal. But anyone involved with the concentration/extermination camps is a different matter entirely.
As long as he did not put panties on any of the inmates head, I think he should be forgiven.
I think the difficulty is in defining "small fry".
> In the years immediately following World War II, the U.S. government cozied up to lots of known Nazis -- many of whom were recruited to run our young ballistic missile, jet aircraft and space programs. During the opening of the Cold War, the United States was so preoccupied with the Soviet Union that all but the worst former followers of Hitler could move here with few questions.
Wow. This guy is *STUPID*. He's actually morally equating people who took notes at a wind tunnel or sat at drafting tables with someone who guarded death camps?
Well said.
Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant?
I doubt the guy had much of a choice back then. Think about it - what would have happened to him had he developed some sort of moral dilemma and decided "Hey, this Nazi thing just ain't for me"?
I suspect we wouldn't be worrying about what to do with him today, now would we?
Depends whether the "involvement" was truly voluntary or not. We're going to be facing this issue in a big way whenever we finally get rid of "Dear Leader", and the new Iraqi government is already facing it. How guilty is someone who "follows orders" knowing that the alternative is to have his parents/spouse/children raped and tortured and then executed? How many of us could really stand up to such orders under those circumstances?
I don't believe the Nazi tactics for gaining compliance were that extreme, but I'd really like to know what the consequences were for low-level Nazi soldiers who refused to carry out their assigned duties as concentration camp guards, before I support hounding these old geezers 'til the day the die.
A very popular joint in Sharon - a former Quaker State gas station. It has expanded into other areas of southwestern Pa.
Watch Schindler's List. Read "The Hiding Place." Then decided how small is too small. Ain't no such thing.
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