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February 10, 2012
Former Nazi SS hit man goes on trial in Aachen
Published: 28 Oct 09 12:30 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091028-22867.html
One of Germany’s last Nazi war crime trials began on Wednesday in Aachen against 88-year-old Heinrich Boere, a Dutch-born former SS hit man accused of killing three of his countrymen.
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Boere never served the sentence, fleeing to Germany in 1947. Authorities between the Netherlands and Germany have been bickering about his fate ever since.
In April 2008, Boere admitted to German news magazine Focus that he was guilty of the shootings. In a later interview with Der Spiegel he said he had been following orders which he thought to be correct at the time.
Thirteen hearings have been scheduled for the trial, but they will be interrupted by frequent breaks to accommodate the deteriorating health of the defendant, who lives in an assisted care facility. A doctor will also be present at all times.
A verdict is expected on December 18.
The case is being closely followed along with that of 89-year-old John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian-born former guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland whose trial begins in late November. He is accused of aiding in the gas chamber deaths of some 27,900 Jews in 1943.
AFP/DDP/DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
Your anti-semitism and lack of reasoning based on facts is noted. I assume you support committing war crimes.
He shot 3 unarmed people without trial. He is a criminal in my opinion.
However if he did not shoot them, the sentence in the German army was beheading with an axe for failing to carry out standing orders. I assume that will be taken into account in his trial.
What needs to be known is if they were actual combatants or just innocent civilians killed at random. Killers of innocent civilians is a clear cut case of war crimes. Killers of people who were involved in attacks is not clear cut, no matter what side they were on.
In that war all sides committed war crimes.
A LOT more nazi doctors who ran killing hospitals should have been tried and hung, but they were not. People in propaganda should not even have been tried.
If all was fair a lot of people on the allied side would have been tried as well, but were not, such as Bomber Harris. unfortunately it is the victor who decides who is tried after a war. The choice of who is tried is not independant.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8329652.stm
I think nit best to read the BBC page as well.
Dresden was an act of war and a response to the mass indiscriminate bombing of Britain by the Nazi's in the early part of WW2 when Britain was at its weakest. Churchill had stated that he would respond in kind and when the opportunity arose and he did. It was part of war.
The chap who stated that war crimes are determined by the victors is also correct, and this has been the case throughout history. If the Nazi's had succeeded in their ambitions then Heinrich would be a hero, thankfully it didn't come to pass.
I recently spent 4 years researching a book called Churchill's Secret Skills which I recently published in the USA. It identifies some of the techniques and talents Churchill employed in the war that few people know about.
Churchill despised the Nazi regime but you can tell from many comments throughout his memoirs that he had a lot of admiration for the German people and especially the fighting qualities of the German forces.
In my opinion I think they should let it rest and let Heinrich die of old age in the knowledge that his misdeeds have been exposed and that those around him now know the truth. The shame he will face as a free man will be equal to any prison sentence. Nothing is going to bring the poor heroic folks back that he killed, his punishment in my opinion achieves nothing. I would wager that Churchill would have been of the same view. He thoroughly disliked officiousness which is precisely what this is.
They are lucky to have anything left.