Should Nazi officers be put in jail even with old age?

699 Words2 Pages

Imagine when you were a little child, your whole family was taken from you by people who forced themselves into your country and took you to a concentration camp. While you were at this camp you watched your family members starve to skin and bone. As a young child you saw people shot on the spot, babies head’s bashed out and young mother’s separated from their young children. When the Americans finally came to liberate you you immediately want to celebrate with your family members but learn that they are all dead. You spend the rest of your life living with the thought that your whole family is dead and it is all the Nazis fault. How would you feel to know that some of the surviving Nazis are still out there living a free life and getting away with all of the crimes they help put in motion?

If you have been in a History class you have probably heard of an event that happened after World War Two called the Nuremberg Trials. These trials were conducted by the United States. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was appointed to lead the trials (Berenbaum). During these trials they charged with Crimes against the Peace, War crimes and Crimes against Humanity (Berenbaum). Many major Nazi leaders committed suicide before officials could hang them or before even being caught. The famous Doctor Goebbels killed his children then him and his wife committed suicide (Berenbaum). Only twelve out of the twenty-two who stood trial were hanged, twelve, while the rest just got prison time. Besides major Nazi officials, Physicians were put on trial, the people who were part of the mobile killing squads, Concentration camp officials, Judges and Executives who sold concentration camps Zyklon B. You can expect that they had many excuses, but m...

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...e job consists of looking at old files and records to find enough information to find someone guilty, even though now all you had to do was work at a camp to be guilty (Johnston). “Whoever worked in a concentration camp knew that he was part of the machinery of death,” Mr. Sander told the German news agency DPA. “No one could close their eyes on that.” (Eddy). People will say that just because they were following orders doesn’t mean they should be put on trial, but I will disagree. First off, they were probably beating the prisoners, and laughing at them, and innocently watching. Guilty? I think so.
Should it matter that these ex-Naszis are now ninety years old? No, they were there, they watched the whole Holocaust happen right before their eyes. I really don’t think it matters at all that they took orders, they agreed to do it when they signed up for the SS.

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