donderdag 12 mei 2011

Ninety-one year old is convicted of crimes involving the holocaust

An elderly is recently convicted for five years imprisonment. He is found guilty for murdering thousands of jews in an concentration camp. The results of further research prove that the man was not a high-ranked nazi official, he even had the lowest status in the camp, according to the testimonies of guilty nazi officials. Consequently he had low and unimportant tasks, such as ushering the victims in the gas chambers and disposing of the bodies. Despite his low status, many people agreed with the sentence. These people were especially family members of the victims, and they thought the sentence was pertinent. They felt that every one who contributed to the unspeakable crimes at the concentration camps should be punished. However the convicted man disagrees, claiming he was a victim not a murderer. He states he was a victim because he was forced to work in the concentration camp, and that he was forced to do these tasks.

Words: 157
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/12/john-demjanjuk-guilty-nazi-war-crimes

Opinion
My opinion of this matter has not been determined. I am very keen that every person should be punished for the crimes they committed. However the man in question is far too old to be punished. The punishment has no use, he shall die soon anyway. Therefore imprisonment has no sense. Why did they not convict him earlier, when it could be much more effective? I have no idea what should be done, or what a proper punishment should be, since no punishment has use.

1 opmerking:

  1. I think this person should be locked up anyway. no matter how old he is, he has to suffer for everything he has done. If he dies earlier than all the time he has to be in prison, then at least they should get rid of his body when the time has past. If they bury the body inside the prison itself, then at least he's not really that free. It's quite hard, since this man is already at a age to die. But for the good feeling, I guess releasing his body in hundreds of years would be nice... like they do in America.

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