NAZI guard living in illinois

[RyanbabZ71]

Listening to the news tonight they had a story.  Involved the anti defemation league and a jewish group.  They recently found out this man has been living in illinois since the 40's.  He was detained after WW2 for being a nazi guard for hitler (he said he knew nothing of the killings) and they released him and he came here.  Been living peacefully ever since.  he is now like 78.  These people basically want him deported or dead.  

 

I have read many things about the holocaust and think it was a horrible thing.  But i have to ask this why cant they leave this man alone?  I mean so long after and now they wanna bother him.  I actually feel bad for him.  

 

I think people get into other peoples business to much.  Just live your life if he isnt bothering you leave him alone.

 

Ok im done venting

 

Does anyone agree with me or disagree?  

[96 Vortec]

Well, after watching Band Of Brothers last week, well...

 

Truthfully, I really don't know much of the Holocaust.  I know what it was but not many details.

 

I think that after 46 years that they need to leave the man alone.

 

I seriously think that some people play their constitutional rights to the very edge just because of the simple fact that they can. Not because anything is actually bothering them. I'm willing to bet this guy hasn't bothered anyone else the entire time he has lived there.  This kind of crap pisses me off.  :angry:

 

Kinda like Rodney King.  Oh...poor me. Can't we all just get along....ooh, is that crack, gimme some of dat!  And he thinks we should still feel sorry for him.  

 

Oops, sorry to rant.

[MadFish]

After this long they are now going after him. I say leave the man be.

[chevy4x4trucks]

This sounds like the movie "Apt Pupil" where Brad Renfro I believe tracks down a guy from Hittler's Army.  

 

But, I think that they have no right to request the man to be deported on the basis that he worked for an evil man.  As you said, he had nothing to do w/ the mass killings and at the time knew nothing of them.  

[RyanbabZ71]

What got me was he was out doing his yard minding his own business and this new station attacked him basically this lady wouldnt leave him alone.  We have to draw the line somewhere.

[chevy4x4trucks]

I don't like reporters, most are just obnoxious, and others are just full of themselves.  That in your face coverage is just annoying.  I would've just thrown the camera on the ground and went about raking.  They're tresspassing on private property and if they don't leave you can just call the cops.  You are right that the line needs to be drawn somewhere.  Like the news coverage of the war in afghanistan.  Is it a good idea to be broadcasting all of our strategies.  They do have TV's over there and that gives a good insight into what's going on and what our plans are.

[patrick]

This is not a matter of someone "working" for someone else, if he was indeed a member of the Nazi party, then he is as guilty as Hess, Goring, Goebbels, etc.

Guzulaitis was a guard at more than one concentration camp, and has been identified as being part of a security force that patrolled within and without the camps perimiters, killing people in cold blood.  

The only reason he was released in 1947 was because of a paperwork foul up.  Anyone working at a concentration camp would know what is going on there, even if you never set foot within the fence line, as the furnaces worked 24 hours a day in most of the camps.  

Records show that Guzulaitis worked at the Majdanek camp on 11-3-43, when in a single day 17,000 Jews were shot to death by... THE GUARDS.  That single camp alone was responsible for 360,000 people being put to death for no reason other than their race.  

The average life expectancy (from time of initial interrment until death) at that camp was 2 months.  Don't you think that anyone would notice this?

 

You say he shoud be left alone because it was so long ago.  What exactly is the statute of limitation on crime against humanity?  

 

All of this notwithstanding, what they are working on deportation hearings about is simply that he lied on his naturalization paperwork, which is a pretty cut and dried case.

 

<stepping off of my soapbox>

[silverado man]

I say let him be he's 78 and it was a long time ago.

[Elwood]

Ok, he did a terrible and very inhumane thing in the past.  Obviously he doesn't do those things now, or he would be making the news for that instead of this.  Has anyone stopped to think that maybe he now know what he did was wrong, even though he thought it was right then.  Maybe he regrets his actions during that time everyday of his life.  Maybe he wishes he could go back and change it, but he can't.  If a person kills someone in cold blood we are told that after they serve their time and pay for it, etc, etc we shold give them a chance.  If they get off from doing in the court we are told to give them a chance and let them live their lives.  Now this man (who probably pays for his crime daily inside his own head) who has lived peacfully in this country for years, and hasn't caused any harm during this time is being persecuted for his much distant past.

 

I don't know all the details, and I'm not familiar with this situation, so if I am wrong in my assumptions I apologize, and will gladly accept any information that proves me wrong.  But for now, I honestly beleive that those of us not involved in this man's life, or his past crimes have not business, or right, in this matter.  If nothing else accept it like this, He's old, he's not gonna make it much longer anyway.  So, leave alone and let it go.

 

Sorry if I offended anyone.  I am completely open to any arguments that will change my mind.

[pacodiablo]

i say leave him alone.  he is 78 and is not capeable of really hurting anyone.  

[jmhornz71]

We have never let people go unpunished in this country when we get evidence proving their crime. This man was involved in the worst mass murder in history. Just becuase he is old and has behaved since then still doesn't mean the crime wasn't comitted. He should be tried in court for this crime and if found innocent then he should be left alone. If he's found guilty take whatever action is recommended just as any other trial. To many people want to forget what happened or deny that it happened at all. We cannot forget or deny the Holocaust

[Elwood]

Quote from jmhornz71, posted on Nov. 07 2001,10:22

We have never let people go unpunished in this country when we get evidence proving their crime. This man was involved in the worst mass murder in history. Just becuase he is old and has behaved since then still doesn't mean the crime wasn't comitted. He should be tried in court for this crime and if found innocent then he should be left alone. If he's found guilty take whatever action is recommended just as any other trial. To many people want to forget what happened or deny that it happened at all. We cannot forget or deny the Holocaust

 

Ok.  Then after that we should go round up every American citizen still living that involved in the Japanese concentration camps in this country during the same time.  We can them all on trial and execute or imprison them too.

 

What's fair for one is fair for all.  So if you want him then you have to go after all the 70 and 80 and 90 year old Americans who did that too.

[Stepside Z]

Just a thought, it is amazing what someone might do if they feel there own life might be endangered. This is a very touchy subject and I am not qualified to pass judgement. I will leave that up to the Big Guy.

[jmhornz71]

There isn't much of a comparison of the two. The Japanese wre placed into camps but were not executed. The Nazis just killed Jews and other minorities under the guise to purify their race. What we did to the Japanese Americans was wrong. The US government has since paid reparations to the survivors or the families. This can in no way repay them for what was done but we didn't kill them or use them for medical experiments. If it should be discoverd that a gaurd did kill a prisoner then the guard if found should be prosecuted. My limited knowledge on the Japanese camps led me to believe they were treated like a human and not an animal as the Nazis did in thier camps

[Elwood]

What I do know about the camps, from studying history alot, and talking to friends who study it that attended a seminar on the camps, they were not treated as humans.  Maybe there were no mass executions, but their were murders by Americans guards.  And it was a crime against humanity the same as the Nazis and Jews.

And furthermore, Germany had to make monetary payments after the war as well, to compensate for all that they did.  The U.S. and other allied nations later let them stop paying, because the Allies were taking so much that Germany could never recooperate from their crumbling economy, and therefore would never become the country they are today, which is one of our biggest allies.  If you don't believe that read the book, "Economic Consequences of the Peace" By John M. Keynes.

Now, after all of this I'm going to try to stay out of this thread.  I tend to agree with Stepside Z, "I am not qualified to pass judgement".  As a matter of fact none of us really are.  And since the man has lived peacefully here for so long why can't we just leave him alone and let the Lord pass judgement on him when the time comes.  If he starts killing people between now and then we can get him then.