[GovernmentShrinker]

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.

[kevkrom]

My understanding is that any concentration camp guards that were present when the US liberated the camps were summarily executed. I see no reason why someone who managed to avoid capture then is any less culpable.

[orionblamblam]

> Depends whether the "involvement" was truly voluntary or not.

Was the guy SS (I think he'd have to be to be a death camp guard)? I believe the SS was a voluntary organization.

> 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

I *believe* I've read about such guards, and how they were mroe or less just re-assigned somewhere else.