Statement at trial by Auschwitz death camp guard

[rooster59]

Statement at trial by Auschwitz death camp guard

DETMOLD, Germany (AP) — Excerpts from a 22-page typed statement by defendant Reinhold Hanning, a guard at the Auschwitz death camp, which was read out at his trial in Detmold state court on Friday:

Recovering from wounds suffered in combat in 1941:

"In this time I thought frequently about my comrades with whom I'd fought at the front... I always got along well with my comrades at the front; one helped the other out there. That really appealed to me as a young man."

On being sent to Auschwitz:

"I didn't give it any thought. I didn't know what Auschwitz was. I only knew I was being assigned to some kind of internal duty."

Working in Auschwitz:

"Nobody talked to us about it in the first days there, but if someone, like me, was there for a long time then one learned what was going on. People were shot, gassed and burned. I could see how corpses were taken back and forth or moved out. I could smell the burning bodies; I knew corpses were being burned."

"An atmosphere prevailed there that I can't describe today. One saw what was going on, but couldn't really talk with one's comrades about it. The situation was totally different than at the front. There you could talk with your comrades about anything. One never had to worry that if you told a comrade something he'd pass it along. In Auschwitz it was different. I didn't ever trust anyone there."

"I'm of the opinion that every member of the guard battalion knew what was going on. This didn't depend upon one's own particular service. Naturally some comrades were closer to it and others less close. With close to it, I mean close to the killing."

On manning a guard tower:

"During my service in the interior cordon area, I never experienced a prisoner trying to flee from the camp. In my opinion that would have been impossible because of the electric fence. The prisoners were also told that they shouldn't touch the fence. They were told that they'd immediately go up in flames."

On keeping silent about his past to his wife, children and grandchildren:

"Nobody in my family knew I'd served in Auschwitz. I just couldn't talk about it. I was ashamed. I always said I was involved in the Russian campaign and ended up as a prisoner of war."

On guilt:

"I want to say that it disturbs me deeply that I was part of such a criminal organization. I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it and I apologize for my actions. I am very, very sorry."

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-04-30

[ezzra]

Has the world learned anything from this tragedy and anthracites? not by far, people still killing other

people in wholesale numbers, under the guise of religions, race, color and creed differences,

such is the universe we live in, and such it will remain.....

[Andaman Al]

This guy, as a young man was sent on military duty to a concentration camp. Had he voiced any objection or protest he would have been shot on the spot and that is a fact. The trial of this man as a war criminal is a complete farce. If Germany would have won, some of our heroes in the UK such as AVM 'Bomber' Harris would have been hung as war criminals along with all the pilots who flew his missions. We need to learn and prevent re-occurrences - yet we have shown in the last 60 years we cannot do that.

The circus surrounding the incarceration of a 90 year old and the trial of someone who had no option but to comply with what he was told to do is an example that we have learned nothing justice despite the world - wide deaths of 25-35 million people in a bid to establish it. The organization that hunts down alleged war criminals from Germany must be terrified of the fact that within 5 years, anyone involved will be dead and they will have no one else to 'burn at the stake'.

[soalbundy]

This guy, as a young man was sent on military duty to a concentration camp. Had he voiced any objection or protest he would have been shot on the spot and that is a fact. The trial of this man as a war criminal is a complete farce. If Germany would have won, some of our heroes in the UK such as AVM 'Bomber' Harris would have been hung as war criminals along with all the pilots who flew his missions. We need to learn and prevent re-occurrences - yet we have shown in the last 60 years we cannot do that.

The circus surrounding the incarceration of a 90 year old and the trial of someone who had no option but to comply with what he was told to do is an example that we have learned nothing justice despite the world - wide deaths of 25-35 million people in a bid to establish it. The organization that hunts down alleged war criminals from Germany must be terrified of the fact that within 5 years, anyone involved will be dead and they will have no one else to 'burn at the stake'.

It is my understanding that you wouldn't be shot for asking for a transfer back to the front. It was a different time under a harsh regime where the young men were indoctrinated for years. What happened there was disgusting,beyond disgusting but i say,there but for the grace of God.... Who can truly say what they would have done during those times,it is easy to simply say, not me,never, without having lived under such a regime nobody knows for sure. Today, replace the Jews with Muslims, there would be enough takers i'm sure.

[peebee2]

The idea that service, in any capacity, at a Concentration camp was compulsory, has been long disproved. There is no recorded case of any guard suffering in any way as a result of seeking a different role within the Army. They did not have to volunteer for the "Front."

The argument falls into the same category as the contention that "Most Germans did not know of the Holocaust." Pretty much all of them knew of it. If authority for these statements is needed, I refer to Professor Timothy Snyder's last two books, "Black Earth" and "Bloodlands." There is much earlier research on the subject, notably by Ian Kershaw and others

[mumjokmok]

This guy, as a young man was sent on military duty to a concentration camp. Had he voiced any objection or protest he would have been shot on the spot and that is a fact. The trial of this man as a war criminal is a complete farce. If Germany would have won, some of our heroes in the UK such as AVM 'Bomber' Harris would have been hung as war criminals along with all the pilots who flew his missions. We need to learn and prevent re-occurrences - yet we have shown in the last 60 years we cannot do that.

The circus surrounding the incarceration of a 90 year old and the trial of someone who had no option but to comply with what he was told to do is an example that we have learned nothing justice despite the world - wide deaths of 25-35 million people in a bid to establish it. The organization that hunts down alleged war criminals from Germany must be terrified of the fact that within 5 years, anyone involved will be dead and they will have no one else to 'burn at the stake'.

It is my understanding that you wouldn't be shot for asking for a transfer back to the front. It was a different time under a harsh regime where the young men were indoctrinated for years. What happened there was disgusting,beyond disgusting but i say,there but for the grace of God.... Who can truly say what they would have done during those times,it is easy to simply say, not me,never, without having lived under such a regime nobody knows for sure. Today, replace the Jews with Muslims, there would be enough takers i'm sure.

The Cycles of Life. I find the similarities scary. It is so true that we have no concrete reference point as humans as to who are the victims, in as much, it is all of humanity in reality as we have such short term focus and are in essence driven by strings of tiny goals and achievements, we the people never hold onto our masterplan as a whole unit for very long. We can easily believe in threats to our way of life, but our way of life is quite commonly leased out to us by the same hands creating and promoting the threats. Jewish people really lost the right to openly talk about their religion with the world. It became taboo to be interested in them. It's sad because their belief system cannot have created any of this. What is happening in Syria is disgusting also. The level of barbarism has been reduced to the base level of animal man.

I think at the end of the day the motives in the indoctrinated are millennia-old. The short term focus is blindingly different. This poor 90 year old man is a reminder to us all. He's 90, he didn't die from the hell of WW2, he shouldn't be paraded like this, really I wish they just asked for his wisdom and asked a whole lot of different questions.

[Rancid]

Regardless of how dangerous it may have been to speak up, how can humanity give a pass to someone being a guard at a death camp?

Sadly though there have been other incidences of mass murder since then, however as the victors write history they go unpunished. At the least Bush, Blair and other neocon warmongers should be in prison.

[dick dasterdly]

Regardless of how dangerous it may have been to speak up, how can humanity give a pass to someone being a guard at a death camp?

Sadly though there have been other incidences of mass murder since then, however as the victors write history they go unpunished. At the least Bush, Blair and other neocon warmongers should be in prison.

I don't think anyone's saying that the guard should be given a 'pass' - just that the vast majority of people would do exactly the same as him, believe the propaganda and be too scared to back out.

[Suradit69]

Regardless of how dangerous it may have been to speak up, how can humanity give a pass to someone being a guard at a death camp?

Sadly though there have been other incidences of mass murder since then, however as the victors write history they go unpunished. At the least Bush, Blair and other neocon warmongers should be in prison.

"however as the victors write history they go unpunished"

That certainly spared the British and other European countries from any real accounting for their horrific treatment of native populations in the countries they considered colonies.

Hard to tell which was worse, the millions who died or all those who were forced into what amounted to an enormous concentration camp.

...in my eight-year search for any and all 20th Century genocide, I went through all the tables in my Statistics of Democide and tabulated cases of colonial democide I recorded there. For colonies by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, in Africa and Asia, 1900 and after, my grand democide total is 870,000 murdered. This measures a human tragedy by itself, but is nonetheless puny in comparison to just the many millions murdered by Leopold in his private Congo Free State. I have only a low of 25,000 for this. I recorded no democide for Belgium, although it may have been responsible for close to a million once it took over the Congo. And I get just 22,000 forced laborers murdered by the French in building a railroad in the French Congo.

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.1.03.HTM

[klauskunkel]

It is a fact that most ills plaguing the world were and are perpetrated by politicians and leaders of countries, but they get to go rarely to trial. So, to distract from that they give the world a 90year old camp guard. Good job.

[ebonykap]

A guard at a concentration camp = murderer?? Not necessarily, and pretty hard to prove.

"I know NOTHING!!"

[Morch]

An Auschwitz survivor, Leon Schwarzbaum, who attended the trial, said he was happy Hanning apologized, but that it was not enough, the AP reported.

"I lost 35 family members, how can you apologize for that?" Schwarzbaum, 95, said. "I am not angry; I don't want him to go to prison, but he should say more for the sake of the young generation today because the historical truth is important."

http://www.ibtimes.com/who-reinhold-hanning-former-nazi-auschwitz-guard-breaks-silence-holocaust-german-2361689

[Ireland32]

A guard at a concentration camp = murderer?? Not necessarily, and pretty hard to prove.

"I know NOTHING!!"

. All SGT Shultzes

[Khon Kaen Dave]

This is absolute bull shit.Its the same excuse as all the other guards used.'i was only following orders'.i think this slime knew exactly what was going on and what he was there for. i have no sympathy for this crap.This piece of shit is a war criminal and Pierepoint should have hanged him a long time ago.It would be interesting to know if he shared in any of the loot that was taken from the inmates there.I say inmates because it wasnt just jews that suffered,it was gypsies,homosexuals,black's in fact anyone who didnt fit the fuehrers ideal of an Arian race,

i dont care what you say,or how you try to excuse yourself.May you burn in hell for eternity.

[Andaman Al]

The idea that service, in any capacity, at a Concentration camp was compulsory, has been long disproved. There is no recorded case of any guard suffering in any way as a result of seeking a different role within the Army. They did not have to volunteer for the "Front."

The argument falls into the same category as the contention that "Most Germans did not know of the Holocaust." Pretty much all of them knew of it. If authority for these statements is needed, I refer to Professor Timothy Snyder's last two books, "Black Earth" and "Bloodlands." There is much earlier research on the subject, notably by Ian Kershaw and others

My Bold. I am genuinely interested in this statement. Do you have links or references that show this 'disproval'. Thank you

[Andaman Al]

This is absolute bull shit.Its the same excuse as all the other guards used.'i was only following orders'.i think this slime knew exactly what was going on and what he was there for. i have no sympathy for this crap.This piece of shit is a war criminal and Pierepoint should have hanged him a long time ago.It would be interesting to know if he shared in any of the loot that was taken from the inmates there.I say inmates because it wasnt just jews that suffered,it was gypsies,homosexuals,black's in fact anyone who didnt fit the fuehrers ideal of an Arian race,

i dont care what you say,or how you try to excuse yourself.May you burn in hell for eternity.

This guy, as a young man was sent on military duty to a concentration camp. Had he voiced any objection or protest he would have been shot on the spot and that is a fact. The trial of this man as a war criminal is a complete farce. If Germany would have won, some of our heroes in the UK such as AVM 'Bomber' Harris would have been hung as war criminals along with all the pilots who flew his missions. We need to learn and prevent re-occurrences - yet we have shown in the last 60 years we cannot do that.

The circus surrounding the incarceration of a 90 year old and the trial of someone who had no option but to comply with what he was told to do is an example that we have learned nothing justice despite the world - wide deaths of 25-35 million people in a bid to establish it. The organization that hunts down alleged war criminals from Germany must be terrified of the fact that within 5 years, anyone involved will be dead and they will have no one else to 'burn at the stake'.

It is my understanding that you wouldn't be shot for asking for a transfer back to the front. It was a different time under a harsh regime where the young men were indoctrinated for years. What happened there was disgusting,beyond disgusting but i say,there but for the grace of God.... Who can truly say what they would have done during those times,it is easy to simply say, not me,never, without having lived under such a regime nobody knows for sure. Today, replace the Jews with Muslims, there would be enough takers i'm sure.

Khon Kaen Dave

Do me (in fact you) a favour and watch the video below until the END. Then come back and tell me if we should be jailing for war crimes tens of thousands of US soldiers. Watch what the US soldier has to say at the end, listen to what they were commanded to do. After a very traumatic event, he just asked to speak with someone, listen to what he was told. The camp guard who is 90 did not even have one iota of the direct contact that these guys did. In fact I would bet that if the guard in the tower asked for a transfer he would have found himself being the one to direct throwing of bodies in the furnaces. Your words are all well and good but display zero understanding of what it is to be a human in a conflict zone. You want the guy to burn in hell because you state 'he knew what he was doing', he could have asked for a transfer to the front line (almost certain death). Watch the video and then tell us if these guys deserve the same punishment as the 90 year old.