Comment Re:Original Messages (Score 2) 213
Being a German, I would like to elaborate on this.
First of all, pension systems do not take criminal activity in account. A person
might commit most heineous crimes and serve a life sentence. However, if s/he
has acquired pension payment benefit rights, s/he will keep them. It's property,
and you just cannot take it away. Even if it is most offending to see a murderer
receive monthly payments while some victims will see nothing. That's how pension
systems work.
The pension system for ex army and Waffen SS members we have now dates back to
the fifties. It was part of a political deal. Germans were needed in the Cold War.
The young democratic republic could need anything but opposition from former members
of the armed forces, who counted by the millions. So prosecution of war
crimes ceased in the beginning of the
fifties (never totally, though). Jewish organisations received
"compensation" (I know one cannot compensate mass murder). That was possible
because the public coffers were full. Other victims were mostly
behind the Iron Curtain. Nobody wanted to be remembered of the sordid past.
This includes the Allies because they were busy with the Cold War, and, a fact
which is nowadays mostly forgotten, the rule most in command played 33-45 was much less
splendid than depicted nowadays.
However, the hope of ex Nazis that there will never be any prosecution never
materialized. It re-started in 59 and goes on till then. But all participants
are really old now. No smart SS officers but octogenarians limping
along. Although today's judges are not no longer biased in favour of Nazi criminals
(that was not the case in, for example, 1970), it is really hard to find the
truth about events which took place 60 years back.
The ex Nazi problem will thus very soon cease to exist. Just do some calculations.
Hitler came to power in 1933. At that time, age of consent was 21. So the youngest
person who is still alive and might have voted for him was born in 1912 and is 92.
Then, to be in command in 33-45 a soldier was to be in his twenties. Having been 20 in
'45 means being 84 now. Higher ranks were in their thirties or forties, usually.
Which means they must be a hundred years old or more.
20-30 years ago, the generation which took part in 33-45 went into retirement. A few
years later, the so-called flak generation: those who were drafted 43-45 at the age
of 15-16 for flak duty. That's my father's generation. Even these guys are gradually passing
away now.
Thus, you will find very few oldtimers in German pensioneer's homes who receive pensions
as Waffen SS members. Not because justice has been done, but because they are almost
all dead now. That's what our government is hoping for: when offenders die
of old age, their victims will pass away, too.
First of all, pension systems do not take criminal activity in account. A person
might commit most heineous crimes and serve a life sentence. However, if s/he
has acquired pension payment benefit rights, s/he will keep them. It's property,
and you just cannot take it away. Even if it is most offending to see a murderer
receive monthly payments while some victims will see nothing. That's how pension
systems work.
The pension system for ex army and Waffen SS members we have now dates back to
the fifties. It was part of a political deal. Germans were needed in the Cold War.
The young democratic republic could need anything but opposition from former members
of the armed forces, who counted by the millions. So prosecution of war
crimes ceased in the beginning of the
fifties (never totally, though). Jewish organisations received
"compensation" (I know one cannot compensate mass murder). That was possible
because the public coffers were full. Other victims were mostly
behind the Iron Curtain. Nobody wanted to be remembered of the sordid past.
This includes the Allies because they were busy with the Cold War, and, a fact
which is nowadays mostly forgotten, the rule most in command played 33-45 was much less
splendid than depicted nowadays.
However, the hope of ex Nazis that there will never be any prosecution never
materialized. It re-started in 59 and goes on till then. But all participants
are really old now. No smart SS officers but octogenarians limping
along. Although today's judges are not no longer biased in favour of Nazi criminals
(that was not the case in, for example, 1970), it is really hard to find the
truth about events which took place 60 years back.
The ex Nazi problem will thus very soon cease to exist. Just do some calculations.
Hitler came to power in 1933. At that time, age of consent was 21. So the youngest
person who is still alive and might have voted for him was born in 1912 and is 92.
Then, to be in command in 33-45 a soldier was to be in his twenties. Having been 20 in
'45 means being 84 now. Higher ranks were in their thirties or forties, usually.
Which means they must be a hundred years old or more.
20-30 years ago, the generation which took part in 33-45 went into retirement. A few
years later, the so-called flak generation: those who were drafted 43-45 at the age
of 15-16 for flak duty. That's my father's generation. Even these guys are gradually passing
away now.
Thus, you will find very few oldtimers in German pensioneer's homes who receive pensions
as Waffen SS members. Not because justice has been done, but because they are almost
all dead now. That's what our government is hoping for: when offenders die
of old age, their victims will pass away, too.
