So, it seemed like as good a time as any to publish this, along with the links and articles for the latest news on the subject, below:
The fact of the matter is that the days of Hitler, Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust were a long time ago.
There were still reminders of that era during my lifetime. Hell, when I grew up in the early eighties as a child, my grandparents and people of that generation were still very much around, and shared stories about those days frequently. The world still was not as far removed, in many ways, to those days, as they are now. Back then, also, there was still an officially racist regime in place in South Africa, and a war had just ended that had effectively ended another white minority regime in what had formerly been Rhodesia, and was now Zimbabwe. The apartheid regime in South Africa had much to do with supporting the war effort for the white minority regime in Rhodesia, and it also had some distant ties to Nazism, as well. John Vorster had been opposed to South Africa's entry into World War II against Germany and the Axis, and in fact, was an openly Nazi sympathizer.
But more than that, there were prominent figures from that era, and who played a prominent role in the rise of Nazism in particularly. The third ranked Nazi, and the one who some believed could be Hitler's successor, Rudolf Hess, officially died in 1987. Leni Riefenstahl, who made a name for herself with the filming of "Triumph of the Will", the footage of the Nuremburg Party rallies, complete with some of the most iconic and infamous images of the Nazi regime, including the goose-stepping of soldiers and mass rallies with straight arm salutes, died in 2003. Her impact on the third Reich, particularly from a propaganda perspective, cannot be undermined. Hitler himself said that her film, "Triumph of the Will", for which she is known best, was "a totally unique and incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our movement". He was talking about Nazism, of course.
There are still reminders in a more subtle fashion. Kurt Waldheim, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as the former President of Austria, had fought for years with the German Wehrmacht, and apparently risen through the ranks. Although he denied knowing about some of the crimes committed in the name of the regime that he was fighting for, many expressed cynicism about his professed ignorance. He later said that he had known, and although horrified, could do nothing, really. His role as leader of Austria confirmed for many the strange role that Austria played in the post-war era, conveniently shirking responsibility for what happened and playing itself off as some kind of a victim, even though Hitler himself was Austrian, and Austria joined Nazi Germany willingly enough, with a very strong Nazi Party presence even prior to the Anschluss.
All in all, however, the efforts of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre should be praised. What happened during the Holocaust was a crime, and those responsible should indeed be held accountable. Making excuses is not acceptable. Ultimately, people had to be held accountable, and they went after the worst perpetrators. Yes, sometimes it was a little weird, seeing images of very old men and women, obviously well past their prime, being pursued for arrest and future trial for war crimes. But then again, if it took that long to bring them to justice, so be it. It is a statement to any who may entertain the notion of such genocide in the future that the price for being responsible for such criminal hatred is to constantly be hunted down until you are caught, and brought to trial. Hopefully, this would also mean conviction, and punishment.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has pursued it's all-important work throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, and on even to the early part of the new millennium. I applaud their efforts, and hope that they don't rest until the last Nazi responsible for the worst crimes known to humanity finally meets his fate.
Here is the article by Sarah Marsh of Reuters, with additional reporting by Holger Hansen and Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Louise Ireland. The link can be found below:
German police arrest alleged former Auschwitz guard Lipschis
Reuters
May 6, 2013
STUTTGART (Reuters) - German police on Monday arrested a suspected former guard at the Auschwitz death camp and Nazi-hunting group Simon Wiesenthal named him as Hans Lipschis.
Prosecutors in the southwestern city of Stuttgart did not name the man but said police had arrested a 93-year-old alleged former Auschwitz guard with the "strong suspicion" he was involved in murder there.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it welcomed the arrest of Lipschis - fourth on its list of most wanted Nazi criminals.
"The arrest of Lipschis is a welcome first step in what we hope will be a large number of successful legal measures taken by the German judicial authorities against death camp personnel and those who served in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units)," said Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in an emailed statement.
The arrest was made possible by the 2011 conviction in Munich of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk, the first Nazi war criminal convicted in Germany, without evidence of a specific crime or a specific victim, the Center's email said.
Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. mechanic, died in March last year aged 91. A Munich court convicted him in 2011 for his role in the killing of 28,000 Jews as a Nazi death camp guard.
Lipschis, interviewed in German newspaper Die Welt last month, said he had been a cook in the camp and had left the camp to fight on the Eastern Front, although he could not remember which unit he was in.
Stuttgart prosecutors said the man arrested on Monday had worked at the extermination camp during World War Two, from 1941 until its liberation in 1945. Authorities had searched his flat, taken him into custody and were preparing charges against him.
The Nazis killed some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, at Auschwitz, near the Polish village of Oswiecim.
News of the arrest came on the same day the surviving member of a German neo-Nazi cell went on trial for a series of racist murders that have scandalized Germany and exposed the security services' inability or reluctance to recognize far-right crime.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional reporting by Holger Hansen and Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Louise Ireland)
http://news.yahoo.com/german-police-arrest-alleged-former-auschwitz-guard-lipschis-181725506.html
Here is another article that I found informative, this one from ABC News by David Rising of the Associated Press:
Alleged Auschwitz Death Camp Guard Arrested
By DAVID RISING
Associated Press BERLIN May 6, 2013
(AP) A 93-year-old man who was deported from the U.S. for lying about his Nazi past was arrested by German authorities Monday on allegations he served as an Auschwitz death camp guard, Stuttgart prosecutors said.
Hans Lipschis was taken into custody after authorities concluded there was "compelling evidence" he was involved in crimes at Auschwitz while there from 1941 to 1945, prosecutor Claudia Krauth said.
Lipschis has acknowledged being assigned to an SS guard unit at Auschwitz but maintains he only served as a cook and was not involved in any war crimes.
Krauth said, however, that a judge upheld her office's request for an arrest warrant after concluding there was enough evidence to hold him before charges on accessory to murder are brought. Bringing formal charges, a process similar to a U.S. grand jury indictment, would take another two months, she said.
In the meantime, Krauth said a doctor has confirmed Lipschis' health remains good enough for him to be kept in detention.
Lipschis does not currently have an attorney, and a public defender has not yet been appointed, she said.
Lipschis was deported from the U.S. in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s after the war.
With no evidence linking him to specific war crimes, however, it was impossible under previous German law to bring charges against him in Germany.
But the case is now being pursued on the same legal theory used to prosecute former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died last year while appealing his 2011 conviction in Germany for accessory to murder on the grounds that he served as a guard at the Sobibor death camp.
Under the new line of thinking, even without proof of participation in a specific crime, a person who served at a death camp can be charged with accessory to murder because the camp's sole function was to kill people.
Even though the Demjanjuk conviction is not considered legally binding because he died before his appeals were exhausted, the special German prosecutors' office that deals with Nazi crimes has said that about 50 other people in the same category are being investigated.
Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the arrest of Lipschis — who is No. 4 on his current list of "most wanted Nazi war criminals" — a good start.
"This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest," he said in a telephone interview from Israel. "I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards."
In an interview last month with Die Welt newspaper at his home in southwestern Germany, Lipschis said he spent his entire time as a cook and had witnessed none of the atrocities. He did say, however, that he "heard about" what was going on.
About 1.5 million people, primarily Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-man-worked-auschwitz-arrested-19117546#.UYi99bVORic
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