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Suspect in Nazi trial proud of his SS service
AP ^ | Nov. 27, 2009 | DAVID RISING

Posted on 11/27/2009 3:34:31 PM PST by lizol

Suspect in Nazi trial proud of his SS service

By DAVID RISING (AP) – 9 hours ago

AACHEN, Germany — A man accused of murdering Dutch civilians as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad said at his trial Friday that he was proud about being chosen as a volunteer to fight for the Nazis.

Heinrich Boere, 88, made his first comments to the Aachen state court since his trial opened at the end of October. As part of that SS unit, he is charged with killing a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Boere said he remembered his mother waking him up the night in 1940 that Germany invaded his hometown in the Netherlands and seeing Stuka dive-bombers overhead. Instead of fearing the German bombs, Boere, whose father was Dutch and mother German, said his family was elated as the attack unfolded.

"(My mother) said 'they're coming' now things will be better," he told the court, speaking animatedly to the panel of judges.

"It was better," he added later.

Boere was born in Eschweiler, Germany, on the outskirts of Aachen where he lives today, but moved to the Netherlands when he was an infant.

After the Germans had overrun his hometown of Maastricht and the rest of the Netherlands, he remembers as an 18-year-old seeing a recruiting poster for the Waffen SS, signed by Heinrich Himmler. It offered German citizenship after two years of service and the possibility of becoming a policeman after that.

He showed up with 100 other Dutchmen at the recruitment office and was one of 15 chosen.

"I was very proud," Boere told the court in a statement read by his attorney before he answered questions from the presiding judge.

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nazi; ss; ww2
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To: SunkenCiv

The Nazis were just above hyenas and jackals. Worse than Communists, if such a thing is possible. He should get the justice he deserves.


21 posted on 11/27/2009 5:53:51 PM PST by liberlog
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

American soldiers don’t ‘’exterminate’’ anyone. As to this old bastard, f him. He served the Hitler and the Nazis. The SS, even the Waffen SS ‘’exterminated’’ people. Lots of them. One of their favorite tatics was to lock people in buildings and set it on fire. They ‘’exterminated’’ Allied prisoners too. None of these SS bastards deserve any respect or pity.


22 posted on 11/27/2009 6:33:33 PM PST by JoeMac (''Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more''. Popeye The Sailorman)
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To: lizol; SunkenCiv; ml/nj; ExTexasRedhead; rmlew; dennisw; firebrand; Optimist; exbrit; SoCalPol; ...

Now why did it take the postwar Germans all these years to apprehend this Nazi SOB and try him? It doesn’t seem as if he was living in the shadows during that time.


23 posted on 11/27/2009 7:00:13 PM PST by justiceseeker93
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To: rahbert
He’s proud of what? Offing civilians? I can see being proud of facing armed soldiers, but not this.

The civilians were resistance fighters. Today we call them "unlawful combatants". He was in a military unit, wearing a uniform, chasing down terrorists.

I imagine our soldiers will some day be accused of killing civilians in Iraq because, after all, they were not part of any army. Just "resistance fighters" out to kill American collaborators.

And believe me, I hate the Nazi's as much as anyone. I have many relatives who they killed. Still this prosecution seems a bit misguided.

24 posted on 11/27/2009 7:40:59 PM PST by Jack Black
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To: JoeMac

No respect or pity, just legal context.

“In the immediate post-war years, Boere spent two years in an Allied prisoner-of-war camp, where he was interrogated and admitted to the three slayings. After release from the POW camp, Boere initially went into hiding out of fear of being sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence, but managed to flee to Germany.

“In 1949, a Dutch court sentenced Boere to death in absentia for the three murders, for supporting the enemy, and for serving in the army of the enemy. According to Dutch law, the latter automatically leads to the loss of Dutch citizenship. Boere claimed German citizenship on the basis of a so-called “Führererlass”, a law promulgated by Hitler providing all SS-members with German citizenship, which remained in effect until the 1960s, when the EU demanded its repeal.”

To start with, though some Waffen-SS did commit crimes, those crimes are particular to individuals, not the entire organization, under the Geneva Conventions, and other members of the Waffen-SS come under the regulations for treatment of uniformed soldiers.

Importantly, in the occupied Netherlands of the time, the killings he conducted were *not* illegal, either under occupation Dutch law *or* by the Geneva Conventions. They only became illegal *after* the war, and he was tried in absentia by the Dutch, though he was now a German citizen living in Germany.

Even in the 1960s, when the citizenship law was discarded and his citizenship revoked, though stateless, no longer a German citizen, he was allowed to live in Germany, and they refused to extradite him to the Netherlands.

Importantly, Germany did prosecute war crimes for about 25 years after the war, but neither found justification to prosecute him, and even protected him from prosecution, likely seeing the Dutch act as just vindictive.

I do not say that he is innocent, in that he did assassinate three individuals he had been directed to assassinate. But in the legal context, these assassinations, at the time, were not criminal, but fit in the Geneva Conventions as legal acts of counterintelligence. The Conventions give little protection to non-uniformed spies, saboteurs, and assassins. Generally speaking, they can be shot on the spot.


25 posted on 11/27/2009 7:46:09 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: Dogbert41

Thank you! Read the book Armegadon about the Soviets push into Germany.. And the aftermath of the war. The Russians were not the saviors but the rapers of the german People..


26 posted on 11/27/2009 8:25:59 PM PST by crazydad
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Thanks for your additional info on this case. It makes a lot more sense when the correct perspective is included.


27 posted on 11/27/2009 8:26:50 PM PST by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

The Geneva Convention is as much an absurdity as war is and with few exceptions(Britain,the US) no one ever paid much attention to it, least of all the Germans. The bottom line is the Germans started the damn war, the SS were no f’ing Boy Scouts and quite proudly conducted themselves in a vicious and brutal manner. I my opinion this old unrepentant Nazi bastard and everyone other SS trooper thinking his escaped his crimes should be hung. If the situation were reversed and Germany had prevailed do you suppose they’d be suffering pangs of conscience today?


28 posted on 11/27/2009 8:31:30 PM PST by JoeMac (''Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more''. Popeye The Sailorman)
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To: padre35

There was the ‘’General (”Allegemine’’_SS which ran the deathcamps and the Waffen(”Armed)SS which though fought in the field were still a ‘’political’’ army. They were the living embodiment of Nazism and Nazi terror. There isn’t anything to admire or respect in the way they conducted themselves. Read their history. They make Attila the Hun and The Mongol Horde look like Boy Scouts.


29 posted on 11/27/2009 8:34:54 PM PST by JoeMac (''Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more''. Popeye The Sailorman)
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To: justiceseeker93

Didn’t look this up, but I believe he was only recently identified (IOW, within the past ten years or so). There was a Waffen SS (Combat SS) division, or more than one, recruited from the Netherlands.


30 posted on 11/27/2009 9:01:01 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: liberlog

Thanks ll.


31 posted on 11/27/2009 9:02:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: justiceseeker93

They initially couldn’t find him. He had Waldheimer’s Disease and forgot he was a nazi..


32 posted on 11/28/2009 12:52:21 AM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: lizol
Boere said he remembered his mother waking him up the night in 1940 that Germany invaded his hometown in the Netherlands and seeing Stuka dive-bombers overhead. Instead of fearing the German bombs, Boere, whose father was Dutch and mother German, said his family was elated as the attack unfolded.

I know the feeling, HOPE and CHANGE...

33 posted on 11/28/2009 2:17:38 AM PST by danmar (Life is hard enough, even harder if you're stupid! John Wayne)
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To: Psalm 144
only that they had lost it.

Since you've mentioned it, it is true that the Germans never surrendered, they just layd down their arms, in "44. There was no armistice, just surrender plain and simple.

That's why, everybody was/is so afraid of a greater (unified) Germany. REVENGE, when the time comes...

34 posted on 11/28/2009 2:33:23 AM PST by danmar (Life is hard enough, even harder if you're stupid! John Wayne)
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To: JoeMac
You are right. I believe it is spelled M-A-L-M-E-D-Y as in Malmedy Massacre of surrendered American soldiers as in the Waffen SS were heavily involved. As they were in so many other killings of surrendered or captured uniformed soldier opponents.

Who are these fools posting stupid comments alluding to the nobility of the Waffen SS? I can hear someone someday alluding to the nobility of the frigging islimic jihadis....if we let them.

35 posted on 11/28/2009 2:45:16 AM PST by RushLake (Liberalism--Domestic terrorism financed by your tax dollars.)
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To: SunkenCiv; All

As you might know, there has been a considerable amount of criticism of the modern German regime down through the years, much of it valid, to the effect that they have been less than scrupulous in bringing Nazi war criminals in their midst to justice. This would be only the most recent of many such cases. I would venture an educated guess that quite a number of Nazi war criminals lived out their lives in Germany as “ordinary” German citizens, never having to pay for their heinous crimes.


36 posted on 11/28/2009 8:22:41 AM PST by justiceseeker93
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To: sheik yerbouty
He had Waldheimer's Disease and forgot he was a Nazi.

Apparently he got a miracle cure for his "Waldheimer's Disease" and remembered quite a bit at his trial.

Whatever the "treatment" is, perhaps they could use it to bring others like him to justice. I'd be sure that there are other surviving Nazi war criminals in Germany still at large.

37 posted on 11/28/2009 8:37:47 AM PST by justiceseeker93
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To: justiceseeker93

Thanks justiceseeker93. Pat Buchanan agrees with that policy.


38 posted on 11/28/2009 8:57:35 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: justiceseeker93

Disgusting POS; isn’t he?


39 posted on 11/28/2009 9:59:32 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: justiceseeker93

A medieval klyster comes to mind..


40 posted on 11/28/2009 12:04:37 PM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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