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 ...
If I understand the case correctly, these are not the trials for these people, only the extradition hearings.
How far one goes is simply to determine whether to extradite.
-PJ
“Just leave him alone. He cannot pay for the sins of a whole evil regime. Have him apologize for his part in the mess and be done with it.”
“Sorry I murdered untold numbers of people. My bad.”
Really? THAT’S what you think is appropriate?
Figured the stress of extradition and trial would kill him.
Many conservative parents whose grown children presently work for the Fed must pray constantly that their sons or daughters will not be blackmailed to do something unconscionable (like for instance stand down when our one of our diplomatic posts is under attack because they were ordered to do so, or bear arms against Americans protesting their government).
It is hard to imagine how a 19-year-old under conscription to the Reich could have resisted doing what he was ordered to do. On the other hand, if he enjoyed it or did not repent, well...
He is not the first German I've met who had been in Hitler Youth, etc., but fled to America first chance they got, got a job, started a family and put it all behind them. I hope his conscience was clean by repentance before he died. That said, consequences here on earth are a separate matter. No winners in Satan's armies.
The war ended before this guy was 20. When he was 15 the war started for Germany. Likely, his father and any other male friend or relative was killed. I am not sure where this guy had choices. Did we arrest him now, 70 years after the war because we found new information. Or did we arrest him because we ran out of war criminals.
Remember this guy isn’t even German. His country was captured. The Germans too the males and used them when they ran short of Germans.
Here Here... I count that Hitachi owes our family and many others around $750,000 with interest accrued on the unpaid “wages” they would allegedly pay for my Grandfathers slave labor, and I’d say 3X that for the starvation, pain and suffering to boot...
I’m leaning to your view. However, he is now going to the Judge Who reads hearts, and Who rules justly. If he is due mercy, it will be granted.
I agree. That is the only judge with jurisdiction here. And he will be judging everyone else in time as well.
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