Ex-Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning, 95, dies before conviction binding

[webfact]

Ex-Auschwitz guard, 95, dies before conviction binding

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: Defendant Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former guard at Auschwitz death camp, sits in a courtroom before the continuation of his trial in Detmold, Germany, May 20, 2016. REUTERS/Bernd Thissen/Pool/File Photo

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 95-year-old former Auschwitz guard, who was sentenced to jail in Germany last year for being an accessory to murder of at least 170,000 people, has died before his conviction became legally binding, his lawyer said on Thursday.

 

In what is likely to be one of Germany's last trials for World War Two-era atrocities, Reinhold Hanning was convicted last June by a judge who branded him a "willing and efficient henchman" in the Holocaust.

 

His lawyer, Andreas Scharmer, said he had found out about Hanning's death on Tuesday evening, but declined to comment on the cause of death beyond pointing to the man's advanced age.

 

Scharmer said the verdict against Hanning is not legally binding as appeals were still pending at Germany's highest court.

 

Thomas Walther, a lawyer for more than 20 joint plaintiffs in the Hanning case, said he was disappointed that Hanning had died before the conviction was binding, especially as he had expected the higher court to rule in the next month or so.

 

"If the judiciary had not been silent for decades, then there would not have been this disappointment," he said, adding he had expected the conviction to be confirmed.

 

A precedent was set in a similar case in 2011, when camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk was convicted, but he also died before the German Federal Court of Justice could rule on his appeal.

 

However, Germany's highest court last November rejected an appeal by Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", to his conviction for being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people.

 

Hanning was silent and emotionless for much of his trial but at one point he did apologise to the victims and said that he regretted being part of a "criminal organisation" that had killed so many and caused so much suffering.

 

Hanning was not charged with direct involvement in any killings. But prosecutors and dozens of joint plaintiffs from Germany, Hungary, Israel, Canada, Britain and the United States said he had helpedAuschwitz function.

 

(Reporting by Elke Ahlswede; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Stephen Powell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-02

[the guest]

The trouble is even though millions died, humanity didn't really learn much from the past atrocities. There are still wars, murders all over the place. 

[metisdead]

Troll posts and replies have been removed.

 

A post containing moderation comments has been removed:

 

Quote

Mods, can we get rid of this offensive and out of line post please?

 

There is a Report at the top of every post in the forum, please use the Report button to report objectionable content rather than making requests such as the above.  Thank you. 

[Beats56]

I always wonder why the evil people seem to live so long. Maybe a chance to ask for forgiveness. I don't know.

 

[KarenBravo]

"Following orders" hasn't been a valid defense since WWII.

Yet, if you wound up in a regime where if you didn't "follow orders" you would lose your life, what would each of us do?

 

The capacity to do evil is in all of us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment

[hawker9000]

44 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

"Following orders" hasn't been a valid defense since WWII.

Yet, if you wound up in a regime where if you didn't "follow orders" you would lose your life, what would each of us do?

 

The capacity to do evil is in all of us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment

Deserted?  Joined the resistance?

[Andaman Al]

47 minutes ago, hawker9000 said:

Deserted?  Joined the resistance?

How great to be an armchair warrior and not a 19 yr old posted to a concentration camp in the middle of a war. Must make your decision making processes so much easier. Look on the bright side even when you start to wear glasses you will always have 20/20 hindsight. 

[Scott]

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[Elfin]

I think.................................................................................................and ................................................................................................ Thank you

[hawker9000]

22 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

How great to be an armchair warrior and not a 19 yr old posted to a concentration camp in the middle of a war. Must make your decision making processes so much easier. Look on the bright side even when you start to wear glasses you will always have 20/20 hindsight. 

How great to be a bleeding heart and not someone with a pulse who can distinguish between the greatest monsters of the age and someone caught in a rainstorm.  This particular creature got his start in the Hitler Youth,  and when the time came signed up for (as in "volunteered", "enrolled himself", "enlisted" ...) in the SS.  'Not exactly a delicate flower carried away by the winds of war.  How great to be a latter-day sympathizer and be able to take such a callous, uncaring, polyanna approach to the suffering and brutal murder of millions.  I'll take my armchair over your bloodsoaked one any day.

Edited June 4, 2017 by hawker9000
Typo

[ilostmypassword]

I remember during the Vietnam War there were very few people who risked their freedom, much less their lives, to stop the massive bombing that took the lives of millions of Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian people. I'm referring to activities like derailing trains carrying weapons, attacking munitions plants, etc. Imagine if million of Americans had done that.  So let's not be too quick  to condemn Germans for not risking their lives to oppose Hitler. It's easy to be self-righteous when you're sitting in your armchair, be it blood-soaked or not.

[ilostmypassword]

12 minutes ago, hawker9000 said:

How great to be a bleeding heart and not someone with a pulse who can distinguish between the greatest monsters of the age and someone caught in a rainstorm.  This particular creature got his start in the Hitler Youth,  and when the time came signed up for (as in "volunteered", "enrolled himself", "enlisted" ...) in the SS.  'Not exactly a delicate flower carried away by the winds of war.  How great to be a latter-day sympathizer and be able to take such a callous, uncaring, polyanna approach to the suffering and brutal murder of millions.  I'll take my armchair over your bloodsoaked one any day.

By December 1936, Hitler Youth membership had reached over five million. That same month, membership became mandatory for Aryans, under the Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth Law).^[19] This legal obligation was reaffirmed in March 1939 with the Jugenddienstpflicht (Youth Service Duty), which conscripted all German youths into the Hitler Youth—even if the parents objected.

[Andaman Al]

1 hour ago, hawker9000 said:

How great to be a bleeding heart and not someone with a pulse who can distinguish between the greatest monsters of the age and someone caught in a rainstorm.  This particular creature got his start in the Hitler Youth,  and when the time came signed up for (as in "volunteered", "enrolled himself", "enlisted" ...) in the SS.  'Not exactly a delicate flower carried away by the winds of war.  How great to be a latter-day sympathizer and be able to take such a callous, uncaring, polyanna approach to the suffering and brutal murder of millions.  I'll take my armchair over your bloodsoaked one any day.

Emotional runaway BS. Where have I intimated that I am a sympathiser? Just because I stay that it is impossible from your armchair to determine the involvement of someone in an event 80 years ago, and that I disagree that a 19 year old in the army had any choice at all when given an order. You obeyed or you were shot on the spot (and many British soldiers faced that end). Your diatribe is just that, it is inaccurate and your comments are a personal attack. The war was wrong on both sides. If Germany would have won, AVM Harris would have been hung for war crimes for the bombing of Dresden and members of the SAS and US Special forces would have been awarded the same status as we awarded the SS. As I remember when I went for my interview to join the Air Force for Pilot training and I spoke the absolute truth to the old guy doing the interview, I said I had been a bad boy in my younger days and he smiled and said 'believe me son, the Battle of Britain was not won by angels'. 

 

As ilostmypassword has educated you in the post above, membership of the Hitler Youth was mandatory, and why would a young man not volunteer to fight for his country in the most elite fighting arm he was qualified to join? How many sons of America and Britain 'volunteered' to fight, how many dreamed of being in the SAS or SBS, the marines etc etc. You are talking with hindsight bias. I am not arguing about the inhumanity of the holocaust that has been argued a million times over, I am arguing at the sweeping judgmental decisions made by people like you for things that allegedly occurred before you or even the prosecutors were even born, think about how ridiculous that is. 

 

Our generation must learn and remember and if we are to progress as an intelligent species then we are the ones that must forgive and move on. Just round up every single German in their 90's and hang them, is that your solution? Because by your default they were ALL there so they must be complicit! My old Uncle was a bomber pilot in WW2 and he used to cry at night - the reason was he could not eradicate from his mind the suffering of the women and children that died in the firestorms of Dresden, Stuttgart, Kassel, Hamburg, had Germany won HE would have been hanged as a war criminal - he said that. When he was 20 years old he didn't give a hoot he just did as he was told.  Both sides did TERRIBLE things and my Uncle suffered a life time of torment and guilt for his part. I am quite sure that if the 95 year old from Germany was involved directly in murder and torture in the concentration camps he too would have suffered a life time of torment that people like you would not have the strength to endure.

 

So quit the emotional arguments, don't you think the world lost enough people in WW2 without the pack wanting to kill more of that generation. The judgement that comes to them all will be/has been a lot more accurate and final than anything you want to whine about.

Edited June 4, 2017 by Andaman Al