50 Alleged Auschwitz Guards Face Jail in Germany

[phdnm]

Soon ... 50 trials more in Germany!

50 Alleged Auschwitz Guards Face Jail in Germany

Fifty men in their 90s may face prison terms in Germany over allegations of their service as guards at Auschwitz, the biggest concentration camp in Nazi Germany, local media said.

The Zentrale Stelle, a federal law enforcement body investigating Nazi crimes, wants the suspects charged with accessory to murder, the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung said late Friday.

The crackdown – which comes 68 years after the end of World War II – was enabled by the precedent case of John Demjanjuk, convicted over similar charges in Germany in 2011.

Zentrale Stelle’s investigation lacks direct witnesses, but the agency hopes that available written records would suffice in court, as was the case with Demjanjuk, said the probe’s leader, Kurt Schrimm.

Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, was a guard at Sobibor concentration camp. He lived in the United States after the war, but was stripped of citizenship and deported to Germany, where he was convicted of accessory to murder of all 27,900 people who died at Sobibor, though his direct involvement in any of the deaths was never proven. He died last year before the ruling came into effect.

The 50 Auschwitz guards came from all over Germany, Schrimm said.

He did not specify their present whereabouts – or, indeed, whether any of them are alive – but said some possibly immigrated to South America with the help of the Catholic Church.

The Zentrale Stelle, or the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, has tracked down more than 7,000 Nazi criminals since its establishment in 1958.

At least 4.2 million people died in Nazi concentration camps, about 1.1 million of them in Auschwitz.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130406/1804814 ... rmany.html

[truth]

The judgments are already fixed in advance, after all, everything is obviously a clear proof of evidence, and hence, claims of innocence are therefore illegal. For ninety years old people each sentence will a life sentence, which is just as obvious and evident. And yes, that the FRG is a constitutional sovereign state, that too is evident ?

[TheBlackRabbitofInlé]

I wonder what Churchill would have thought of this news, considering that almost 67 years ago he criticised the endless trials of Germans:

The Nuremberg trials are over, and the guilty leaders of the Nazi regime have been hanged by the conquerors. We are told that thousands yet remain to be tried, and that vast categories of Germans are classed as potentially guilty because of their association with the Nazi regime. After all, in a country which is handled as Germany was, the ordinary people have very little choice about what to do. I think some consideration should always be given to ordinary people. Everyone is not a Pastor Niemoller or a martyr, and when ordinary people are hurled this way and that, when the cruel hands of tyrants are laid upon them and vile systems of regimentation are imposed and enforced by espionage and other forms of cruelty, there are great numbers of people who will succumb. I thank God that in this island home of ours, we have never been put to the test which many of the peoples of Europe have had to undergo. It is my hope that we shall presently reach the end of the executions, penalties, and punishments, and that without forgetting the hard lessons of the past, we shall turn our faces resolutely towards the future.

- House of Commons, Nov 12, 1946.
http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blog ... rials.html

[truth]

The HC Suppressing Witness
http://us.altermedia.info/news-of-inter ... more-10016

The Jews were obviously horrified that more Germans, who worked at these camps, might speak up against this Jewish fraud, so suddenly all the guards, nurses and doctors at the camps became “war criminals”. (There was a recent case where a guard stationed OUTSIDE the camp was charged with war crimes in case anyone doubts this theory.) The doctors at the camps were no longer there to keep inmates alive, but to “experiment” on the prisoners at a time when wounded German soldiers were dying due to a lack of doctors.

The Jews succeeded in what they wanted to do. They suppressed anymore testimony from Germans who worked at the concentration camps.

If the Holocaust were real, the Jews would benefit greatly if they could find nurses or guards, who would testify that mass exterminations were taking place, but the Jews at the high levels know that it would be counter-productive for them to interview guards and other camp workers.

In fact, Spielberg’s Holocaust project may have backfired to some extent because many inmates are giving descriptions of the concentration camps that sound much like the concentration camps that the Japanese in America were detained in.

I don't know the source but the points do make sense...

[phdnm]

93-year-old who served in Auschwitz under investigation in Germany

BERLIN — A 93-year-old man who acknowledges he served with the SS in the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp but claims he was only a cook is under investigation by German authorities as a possible accessory to murder, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Hans 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, said Thomas Will, a prosecutor with the German office that deals with Nazi war crimes.

But now the Lipschis case is 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, Will said that his office is investigating a total of about 50 people in the same category.

The initial investigation of the Lipschis case is now done, and the case has been handed to Stuttgart prosecutors to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring charges, Will said.

In an interview this month with Die Welt newspaper at his home in southwestern Germany, Lipschis said he spent his entire time as a cook for the other SS guards of the camp, 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://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eur ... story.html

[musair]

Was not the OSI and USHMM the main prosecutors and actors here in the "Nazi hunting" ? Is not a secondary tool the German http://www.zentrale-stelle.de/ ?

[Hannover]

At least 4.2 million people died in Nazi concentration camps, about 1.1 million of them in Auschwitz.

Zero proof for this, and none has or can be presented.

About 1.5 million people, primarily Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945.

Zero proof for this, and none has or can be presented.
Note the addition of 400,000 more from nowhere.

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.

Laughable. Thousands upon thousands of Jews and other were released and transported out of Auschwitz/Birkenau. British intercepted messages prove this.
see:
Concentration Camp Vital Statistics

The tide is turning.

- Hannover

[Enlightened Student]

To me this seems like an opportunity for the defense attorney to bring evidence into the light questioning the Holocaust. He should be able to ask for records, witnesses, forensic evidence, etc and it can be shown that he is defending this innocent man but at the same time exposing the myth. Unfortunately for him the defense attorney that he choose or was given wont see it this way and will only negotiate his sentence.

I wonder if Stille Hilfe is helping this innocent guard out in any way.

[phdnm]

German police arrest 93-year-old 'Auschwitz guard'

Hans Lipschis who was deported from US in 1983 over his Nazi past claims he was a cook not a death camp guard


A 93-year-old man who was deported from the US for lying about his Nazi past was arrested by German authorities on 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 posted 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 would take a further 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 a lawyer, and a public defender has not yet been appointed, she said.

Lipschis was deported from the US in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he emigrated to Chicago in the 1950s. 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 carworker John Demjanjuk, who died last year while appealing against his 2011 conviction in Germany for accessory to murder on the grounds that he was 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 about 50 other people in the same category are being investigated.

Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the Lipschis arrest 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 south-west 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://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ma ... witz-guard

[ClaudiaRothenbach]

All those "Sonderkommando" guys that admitted their help during the "gassing" and cremation process could also be charged with accessory to murder.

The problem: They are all Jewish!

[Kingfisher]

All those "Sonderkommando" guys that admitted their help during the "gassing" and cremation process could also be charged with accessory to murder.

The problem: They are all Jewish!

Absolutely spot on. A point I never tire of making. That Tomas Blatt, who actually claimed to have ben an accessory to murder was in the witness box against Demjanjuk was a parody!

From the Guardian:

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 by their own "facts" they can't get away with that one at Auschwitz.

[Hektor]

From German articles I take it Lipschis was a cook in Auschwitz. And that the accusation is as an accessory to murder by his "Mitwisserschaft" (having known of it).

[Kingfisher]

From German articles I take it Lipschis was a cook in Auschwitz. And that the accusation is as an accessory to murder by his "Mitwisserschaft" (having known of it).

So let's, for the sake of the argument, accept the Holocaust accusations. How was a cook guilty? What was he supposed to have done about it?

The sheer dishonesty, that can only be explained as lust for vengeance regardless of who it impacts, is sickening.

[phdnm]

Net tightens on six Nazi women suspected of death camp crimes


SIX female guards from the Auschwitz concentration camp are being investigated for war crimes in a race against time to bring them to trial.

The best chance for a prosecution is if they can be shown to have worked at the Birkenau site that was used for mass murder alongside the forced labour camp at the vast Auschwitz complex, German investigators say.

The women, all now at least 87 years old, are among 50 former Auschwitz guards being researched by Germany's Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.

It follows the conviction of John Demjanjuk in 2011 for aiding and abetting murder at the Sobibor camp. His case showed that a prosecution was possible solely on the basis of having been a guard at a death camp.

Detailed guard rosters from only two Nazi death camps - Auschwitz and Majdanek, both in German-occupied Poland - survived the Second World War.

These lists and other leads, including immigration records in South American countries, have provided almost 80 names of living Nazi war crime suspects being researched at the Central Office in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart.

Its archives contain 1.7 million index cards with information on 700,153 names, 628,093 places and 373,412 military units or actions. It has only six investigators.

"We are carrying our investigations on the grounds of aiding and abetting murder for those who were exercising the duty of a guard," said Thomas Will, an investigator.

"The same applies to women if they were guards."

Kurt Schrimm, head of the office, said that the female guards were assigned to women's barracks at Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz, and Ravensbruck in northern Germany.

"We do not know of any executions committed by a female guard but some treated prisoners very brutally and have been convicted of war crimes," Mr Schrimm said.

The Central Office would not name the female suspects. The identity of only one of the 50 Auschwitz suspects has been disclosed: Hans Lipschis, 93, was arrested in May for complicity in mass murder at Auschwitz. He said he was a cook.

The scale of the challenge is apparent in the small number of cases that reach a trial.

"Over the past 12 months, I have carried out pre-investigation proceedings in 600 cases," Mr Schrimm said.

"Our colleagues in South America have looked at about the same number. It is possible that five or ten will remain for further investigation, or nobody."

Of the 2000 guards at Madjenek, the fate of 200 remains unclear. "Several" have been identified as alive and could face trial.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6694088292

[Hannover]

Another blatant example of 'garbage in, garbage out'.

Gotta keep that funding going anyway possible.

The tide is turning.

- Hannover