91-year-old woman charged over 260,000 Auschwitz deaths

Seriously? What possible good will come of charging this woman, who at the time of her alleged "complicity" was only a girl of 20 and worked as a radio operator for just 3 months?. They are even to try her in the Juvenile court as she was only 16 at the time of the alleged offences. What on earth choice did she have? She was probably conscripted in the first place and I hardly think 3 months as a radio operator makes her public enemy number 1 !!

Telegraph Article

This I think is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I'm all for "lest we forget" and all that but this is just stupid

Shame that the same energy and committment can't be put into bringing the many many other genocidal maniacs to justice like Khmer Rouge or Pol Pot or how about the CIA?

Of course shes not guilty of all those deaths. Maybe of hiding her role there, though. Maybe of hiding that complicity, all this time.

Look at her pic in the article. Sitting there, arms crossed, jaw set in defiance, even now.

Thats why they are tasking her.

Yah, I'd like the whole US government brought up on war crimes trials, too.

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
Seriously? What possible good will come of charging this woman, who at the time of her alleged "complicity" was only a child of 16 and worked as a radio operator for just 3 months?. They are even to try her in the Juvenile court as she was only 16 at the time of the alleged offences. What on earth choice did she have? She was probably conscripted in the first place and I hardly think 3 months as a radio operator makes her public enemy number 1 !!

Telegraph Article

This I think is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I'm all for "lest we forget" and all that but this is just stupid

Shame that the same energy and committment can't be put into bringing the many many other genocidal maniacs to justice like Khmer Rouge or Pol Pot or how about the CIA?

Not sure where you are getting that she was 16. Your source doesn't say that. It says she operated as an SS operator in 1944....that would have made her 20 years old.

Either way....I see no harm in trying her for her crimes. She is likely going to die soon anyways...let her spend the rest of her time in misery for what she did....she was a willing participant.

Yes, lets charge her for a quarter million deaths and give asylum to all the German Scientists who had a consistent active role in the genocide.

Thing is that the court has adapted to a "new" view on crimes commited following orders - supporting a system dedicated to killing people is now an element of offence and liable for trial in a court of justice.

Gröning, who is also named in the article was known at least from the 70s up, but as he just followed his orders there were no finely defined laws to convict him of supporting that system. This has changed, and so even 91 year olds are brought to trial.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

My apologies the 16yr old came from an erroneous article it seems.

You say try her for what she did???? What exactly did she do? Like I said not as if she will have had a choice at 20. She just happened to be a radio operator for 3 months at the time people were being gassed? Seems a trifle convenient to me. She wasn't exactly flicking the switch and quite probably wasn't even aware of it in the short time she was there, unlike the many scientists and doctors who the USA spirited away to safety

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

This certainly does seem unnecessarily vindictive. They are probably running out of living people to make an example of so she was simply convenient.

a reply to: Metallicus

I wonder what they are going to do when everyone is dead to keep reminding us

I appreciate those families who suffered in the cruel and savage camps want justice but I don't recall anything near this scale for any other war crimes

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
Thing is that the court has adapted to a "new" view on crimes commited following orders - supporting a system dedicated to killing people is now an element of offence and liable for trial in a court of justice.

Gröning, who is also named in the article was known at least from the 70s up, but as he just followed his orders there were no finely defined laws to convict him of supporting that system. This has changed, and so even 91 year olds are brought to trial.

I am not sure this is a good thing. If someone puts a gun to your head and tells you that you can operate a radio or die I think I can understand someone making the choice to survive. I am not saying that happened, but you can't always know WHY people did what they did 70 years later.

in the immortal words of Paris Hilton....."thats hot!!"

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
a reply to: Vasa Croe

My apologies the 16yr old came from an erroneous article it seems.

You say try her for what she did???? What exactly did she do? Like I said not as if she will have had a choice at 20. She just happened to be a radio operator for 3 months at the time people were being gassed? Seems a trifle convenient to me. She wasn't exactly flicking the switch and quite probably wasn't even aware of it in the short time she was there, unlike the many scientists and doctors who the USA spirited away to safety

Not likely she wasn't aware.....another source states:

Those three months correspond to a time when huge numbers of Hungarian Jews were murdered in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Source

You're talking about not long before the war ended and they were "cleaning up".

Apparently from further reading about this case, she is being charged on "moral" grounds. Well that could open a whole new can of worms if we are now going to charge people on moral grounds....so many names spring to mind!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Either way....I see no harm in trying her for her crimes. She is likely going to die soon anyways...let her spend the rest of her time in misery for what she did....she was a willing participant.

well, if it is proven that she did her job with enthusiasm and made damn sure that she dotted her i's and crossed her t's, then yes.

but there were many Germans that were forced to do jobs they didn't want to be doing. many had not only their lives threatened, also the lives of those they loved. if that's the case i say, she if doing it only for her own life she should face some consequences, but if doing to save the life of friends or family, no.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Either way, what was she supposed to do exactly? Refuse to follow her orders? Could you do that at aged 20? I'm pretty sure had she done that, she wouldn't be alive to stand trial today

a reply to: Metallicus

She will have the opportunity in court to tell her side of it.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: Metallicus

She will have the opportunity in court to tell her side of it.

who made the Jews jury judge jury and executioner? Oh yeah, they control the world now. Native Americans don't, so that's why there's no one brought to trial for their genocide. Or any other of the many genocide that has happened in the last 100 years. Only the Jews. The special Jews. The ones who control the world now. Used the holocaust as an excuse to take power.

In the highly unlikely event of the CIA ever being brought to task over their many atrocities and war mongering, how would you feel if you were a lowly receptionist say, and you were brought to trial on "moral" grounds and accused of being complicit simply because you worked there and followed orders? Think that fair? What would you have done differently exactly? Always presuming that in your bottom of the ladder position you had any knowledge of the many antics of your bosses

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

It appears it the Germans themselves prosecuting this woman, but one can make an educated guess as to whose driving them? Who overturned the fair view that only the top men were guilty of the holocaust.

How can anyone be sure she is who it is claimed she is after all these years. How can a tenuous link positively be evidence she is responsible and thereby guilty of murder its ludicrous. We treat murders with better justice than her.

The rest of the countries involved in WW2 have moved past this. This is sick going after a 92 year old - how do we know at her age she isn't suffering from dementia or altheimers? Is she going to be fairly defended or does she just have a appointed indifferent legal team whilst the rush to get a prosecution in in time is going on?

A sign of the hypocrisy involved in this matter is seen when one considers Lord Janner aged 87,who won't now suddenly be going to court as his mental health has greatly declined just before his trial. He is facing abuse of children charges spread out over 50 years. However he strongly advocated that all older people with mental illness themselves should stand trial and be prosecuted over the holocaust. I suspect many might see double standards amongst other things being employed here.

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
In the highly unlikely event of the CIA ever being brought to task over their many atrocities and war mongering, how would you feel if you were a lowly receptionist say, and you were brought to trial on "moral" grounds and accused of being complicit simply because you worked there and followed orders? Think that fair? What would you have done differently exactly? Always presuming that in your bottom of the ladder position you had any knowledge of the many antics of your bosses

if you knowingly and willingly join a organization that you know to be committing "atrocities and war mongering", and your work for that organization facilitates the "atrocities and war mongering". you deserve every thing that comes your way, if you participate in it wholeheartedly or without being under duress.

The actual figures for the camp intake and fatalities are known from Red cross and Soviet records taken from the Germans, it's ridiculous that the post-war propaganda version of events is still being perpetuated and that a woman responsible for none of them is charged with killing 87,000 more than were ever even in the camp...


Jewish prisoners entering the Auschwitz camp system 173,000
Jewish prisoners who died of typhus 58,240
Jewish prisoners who died of natural causes 2,064
Jewish prisoners executed 117
Jewish prisoners transferred to other camps 100,743


Hertical