Three Suspected Auschwitz Guards Arrested

The importance of the John Demjanjuk trial of 2010-2011 cannot be overstated.  Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker from Ohio, was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 individuals while working as a guard at Sobibor “extermination” camp in 1943.  He was sentenced to a five year prison term, but died a free man in 2012 before his appeal could be heard.  The importance of the trial lies in the fact that he was the first low-level concentration camp guard convicted in Germany without evidence of any specific crime—since he worked at the camp, he is responsible for any murders that may have taken place there. Needless to say, this conviction sets a dangerous precedent.

Obviously, to properly defend one’s self from a charge like this, one would need to have the ability to question the historical facts surrounding these “death camps.”  However, in Germany (as in numerous other countries) the “official” holocaust story is taken as uncontestable fact; the defendant cannot present a defense that questions the official story.  The prosecution does not need to prove that a crime has taken place, nor do they need to establish how the supposed crime was perpetrated.  (See here for a case that could have been made by Demjanjuk’s defense team.)  Thus, the prosecution needs simply to establish that an individual actively worked at one of the concentration camps supposedly used as mass-murder facilities in order to convict someone as an accessory to murder.  No need to recreate the crime scene, bring witnesses, or give any scientific evidence of the crime.  (It is quite possible that Demjanjuk’s convection would have been overturned if he would have lived to have his appeal heard due to some questionable documentation)

Late last week, German police raided the homes of nine men who are suspected of serving as SS guards in Auschwitz, arresting three (aged 88, 92 and 94) on accessory to murder charges.  Dr. Efraim Zuroff, chief “Nazi-hunter” of the Simon Wiesenthal Center had the following to say after the arrests:  “"We congratulate the Zentrale Stelle [the German government’s war crimes investigation arm] and the German prosecutors involved and urge that these efforts be fully expedited so that as many as possible Holocaust perpetrators can be brought to justice."  However, can justice be brought in this case?  The obvious answer is no as long as the defendants are unable to question the historical events surrounding Auschwitz.  Because they will not receive a fair trial, it is likely that the men will breath their last breaths as convicts in their prison uniforms.  Shame on all of who are involved in these cases.