AIBU to believe that WW2 War Criminals should still be bought to Justice

[daisychain01]

This is a hot topic but (I believe) important - there is a Reuters report via Yahoo news.yahoo.com/last-chance-hunt-nazi-war-criminals-start-germany-151837838.html which talks about the Last Chance Hunt. I have not used the word Nazi in the title, I really don't want this AIBU to be inflammatory.

My AIBU is that I believe, even if there is only 2-3 more years for these suspected war criminals to be alive, given that they are in their 90's, they should still bought to justice in a court. Even if they only have a month to live. They should be tried and sentenced to the same standards as anyone, but they should be held to account and shamed, even in their twilight years?

The other perspective, which I have heard argued (and massively winds me up) is that they are now old and frail and that there is no point in doing that, because it is too difficult to prove and they aren't a danger to society any more.

Just because something is difficult and they aren't a danger, doesn't surely mean they should not answer to the henous crimes committed? Or should we let it go, as we move through the generations?

arabesque unfortunately I don't think they ever felt guilt (unbelievable!) , they maintained their innocence, continued to live in relative comfort and obscurity after the war. It was as if, once the war was over, they could hide behind respectability and create a new life for themselves and forget the past. But their victims and families never had that luxury

Many escaped to South America where fascist regimes are the norm, and they could be protected. I think that is where the latest Last Chance project are focusing their attention.

squoosh thank you for highlighting The Reader, I will look it up.

There was a recent case in Bangladesh where a war criminal in his 90s who had committed war crimes during the civil war was brought to trial so it's not just Nazis.

Of course they should be brought to trial if the evidence is there. Why not? It doesn't negate other war crimes, does it? They're not going to dismantle the Hague war crimes tribunal because Nazis who mass-murdered babies in cold blood are brought to trial.

My FIL's extended family were all massacred, completely wiped out other than him, his siblings and parents who thankfully managed to escape. Just for the crime of being Jewish. They deserve justice. The enormity of the crime, with perhaps only Pol Pot's Cambodia or the Rwandan genocide coming close, mean that even 70 years later these people should still be prosecuted.

Filee77 - the UK doesn't fund Israel. It funds Palestine. But even it did fund Israel, that's not a war crime, is it???? Could you have come up with a more insensitive example? Or was that the point?