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Germany Investigating Alleged Nazi War Criminal Living in Philadelphia

Sep. 23, 2012 4:00pm Erica Ritz

Germans Investigating Johann Breyer, Former Nazi Auschwitz Guard Living in Philadelphia

In this Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 photo, the home of Johann "Hans" Breyer, center, is seen in Philadelphia. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

(TheBlaze/AP) — Germany has launched a war crimes investigation against an 87-year-old Philadelphia man it accuses of serving as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp, The Associated Press has learned, following years of failed U.S. Justice Department efforts to have the man stripped of his American citizenship and deported.

Johann “Hans” Breyer, a retired toolmaker, admits he was a guard at Auschwitz during World War II, but told the AP he was stationed outside the facility and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter of some 1.5 million Jews and others behind the gates.

The special German office that investigates Nazi war crimes has recommended that prosecutors charge him with accessory to murder and extradite him to Germany for trial on suspicion of involvement in the killing of at least 344,000 Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in occupied Poland.

The AP also has obtained documents that raise doubts about Breyer’s testimony about the timing of his departure from Auschwitz.

The case is being pursued on the same legal theory used to prosecute late Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died in March while appealing his conviction in Germany. Essentially, even without proof of participation in any specific crime, a person who served as a death camp guard can be charged with accessory to murder because the camp’s sole function was to kill people.

Experts estimate that at least 80 former camp guards or others who would fall into the same category are likely still alive today, almost 70 years after the end of the war.

Breyer acknowledged in an interview in his modest row house in northeastern Philadelphia that he was in the Waffen SS at Auschwitz, but said he never served at the part of the camp responsible for the extermination of Jews.

“I didn’t kill anybody, I didn’t rape anybody – and I don’t even have a traffic ticket here,” he told the AP. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

This undated image obtained by The Associated Press from the National Archives through a Freedom of Information Act request shows an U.S. Army intelligence card on Johann "Hans" Breyer, indicating he served in Auschwitz as of Dec. 29, 1944, four months after he said he deserted.

He said he was aware of what was going on inside the death camp, but did not witness it himself. “We could only see the outside, the gates,” he said.

Breyer said he had recently suffered three “mini-strokes.” But he was cogent and clear as he talked about his past for more than an hour, sitting in his living room.

For more than a decade, the Justice Department waged court battles to try to have Breyer deported. They largely revolved around whether Breyer had lied about his Nazi past in applying for immigration or whether he could have citizenship through his American-born mother. That legal saga ended in 2003, with a ruling that allowed him to stay in the United States, mainly on the grounds that he had joined the SS as a minor and could therefore not be held legally responsible for participation in it.

Breyer testified in U.S. court that he served as a perimeter guard at Auschwitz I, which was largely for prisoners used as slave laborers, though it also had a makeshift gas chamber used early in the war; it was also the camp where SS “doctor” Josef Mengele carried out sadistic experiments on inmates.

But he denied ever serving in Auschwitz II, better known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp area where the bulk of the people were killed. He also said he deserted in August, 1944 and never returned to the camp, though eventually rejoined his unit fighting outside Berlin in the final weeks of the war.

A U.S. Army intelligence file on Breyer, obtained by the AP, calls that statement into question.

In this Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 photo, Shirley Breyer, wife of Johann "Hans" Breyer speaks to The Associated Press outside her home in Philadelphia. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

In 1951, American military authorities in Germany carried out a background check on Breyer when he first applied for a visa to the U.S. The file from that investigation lists him as being with a SS Totenkopf, or “Death’s Head,” battalion in Auschwitz as late as Dec. 29, 1944 – four months after he said he deserted. The Army Investigative Records Repository file was obtained by the AP from the National Archives through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The document is significant because judges in 2003 said Breyer’s testimony on desertion was part of what convinced them that his service with the Waffen SS after turning 18 might not have been voluntary, further mitigating his wartime responsibility.

Also weighing in Breyer’s favor with the judges was his testimony that he refused to have the SS tattoo; he does not have such a mark today or evidence that one was removed.

Kurt Schrimm, the head of the specials prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg, which carried out the Breyer probe before it was turned over to Weiden prosecutors, said he felt there was sufficient evidence to bring charges against Breyer, although he declined to discuss details.

“All of these guards were stationed at times on the ramps (where train transports of prisoners were unloaded), at times at the gas chambers and at times in the towers,” he said.

This January 1941 file photo shows entry to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, with snow-covered railtracks leading to the camp.

Weiden prosecutors, who were chosen because the office is nearest where Breyer last lived in Germany, say it could take several months before deciding whether to file charges.

A former prosecutor in Schrimm’s office, Thomas Walther, said he had known of the file on Breyer from his time there. He is now already representing, pro bono, a woman who lost her two siblings in Auschwitz at the time that Breyer is alleged to have been there. The woman will join any prosecution as a co-plaintiff as allowed under German law.

“Time is swiftly running out to bring Nazi criminals to justice,” Walther commented. “I hope that prosecutors in Weiden will act soon on this case.”

The Breyer case was handled in the U.S. by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations. Eli Rosenbaum, who previously headed the office, would not comment on any details of evidence that had been collected against him, nor say whether American agencies were involved in helping with the German probe. Rosenbaum is now with the Justice Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, into which the OSI was merged.

Breyer was born in 1925 in what was then Czechoslovakia to an ethnic German father and an American mother, Katharina, who was born in Philadelphia. Slovakia became a separate state in 1939 under the influence of Nazi Germany. In 1942, the Waffen SS embarked on a drive to recruit ethnic Germans there and Breyer joined at age 17. The fact he was a minor at the time was critical in the 2003 decision to allow him to stay in the United States.

Called up to duty in 1943, Breyer said he was shipped off the same day to Buchenwald – in Germany – where he was assigned to the Totenkopf.

By treaty, the U.S. can extradite its citizens to Germany. But Breyer said he will fight any attempts to take him away from the U.S. and his wife and family.

“I’m an American citizen, just as if I had been born here,” he said in his Philadelphia home. “They can’t deport me.”

—–

Herschaft reported from New York, Moore from Philadelphia

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Comments (69)

darkeningskies
Posted on September 24, 2012 at 3:37pm
and obungler has not made this nazi one of his czars?

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pennswoods
Posted on September 24, 2012 at 7:43am
If this man is guilty arrest him and put him on trial and fry him.. He will get justice which the thugs that ruled East Germany never got and many of them are still living in comfort in Germany today. The late Erich Honecker former leader of East Germany who gave shoot to kill orders at the Berlin Wall (they were carried out) and East German border fences died in comfort at his daughter’s home in Chile in 1993. In he USSR Lazar Kaganovich the “Butcher of The Ukraine” in the early 1930′s during Stalin’s forced famine there which killed between 5 and 8 million people managed to live until 97 dying in 1991 in the USSR also in comfort on his Communist party pension. No outraged genocide groups groups were looking for or demanding his arrest and trial for crimes against humanity while he lived.. Kaganovich killed more people than Heinrich Himmler (who was 6 years younger) and he is not even mentioned in the history books for his crimes. Pol Pot is another example of these Communist animals who got away with killing millions even when his hideout in the jungle was known. Only old Nazi’s are worthy of hunting down and not old Communist mass murderers.

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TIME_THE_AVENGER
Posted on September 24, 2012 at 7:34am
Too bad he wasn’t murdering blacks. Then, the problem would’ve already been taken care of. Fastly abd furiously.

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- Elena2010
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 1:04pm
  What’s with hating Blacks?
  
  It’s not the ethnicity; it is the ATTITUDE!
  
  Report this comment
mpierce
Posted on September 24, 2012 at 5:36am
Just think if the liberals have their way it soon will be ok to exterminate people again, oops it already is, its call abortion. These big government types will soon have us in death camps cleaning out of society the free speechers and the constitutionalist.

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dnaburns
Posted on September 24, 2012 at 1:03am
First I do not condone the l action of Germany in ww2 however this man was Inthe service of his country’s military he operated under orders from His commander and chief if he had questioned them he would’ve been shot or thrown in prison and then shot. As a solder he had no choice in where he did his service he merely followed orders. Further unlike here where we have a constitution that is supreme to all leaders and laws in this land Germany did not have such a basis to operate from. So unless he had participated inside of the camp, how can he be held liable for what occurred in side of it? If this is the standard, then every German solider and citizen older than 8 should be held responsible as they all helped the war machine of Germany work thereby contributing to the defense and operation of the death camps. For you fools and the world to sit back and look through your 20/20 vision analyzing the events is sickining. The truth is the world and mainly the US sat back and did not attempt to stop the Jewish slaughter until it was in our own interest, just as we have done since with Russia, china, Sudan, Rwanda, north Korea, and countless others. This man deserves no further punishment than to have his conscience suffer on a daily basis for the actions of his country and the inaction of him and his fellow countrymen failure to stop it.

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- MyAgendaIsTruth
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 4:15am
  It’s called crimes against humanity. Germany lost the war and that was the deal worked out. All Nazi’s involved with concentration camps would be hunted down and prosecuted. No matter how long it took as a deterrent to stop it from happening again. If they have proof he should be deported. If he lied which he did when he applied for citizenship in this country (they aren’t going to take a Nazi knowingly) he loses his US citizenship and he goes to Germany for trial.
  
  Report this comment
- Vegascelt
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 6:54am
  The “just following orders” defense didn’t work at Nuremberg either.
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 7:14am
  myagenda-
  sure hasn’t stopped worse atrocities from happening since. Communists purged over 30 million people. It is ridiculous to go after every peon when they should be trying to prevent current and future atrocity. It is all about vengeance and not about justice.
  
  Report this comment
- Saber87
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 1:39pm
  @DNABURNS I usually agree with you but not in this case, especially death camp guards were specifically selected and had the option to get transferred. They only wanted the cruelest people working at those camps, the once that had no remorse. There are plenty of former Wehrmacht soldiers who can verify that, there was no punishment for those who didn’t want to take part in the death camps and it was widely known too.
  
  And if the German government is trying that hard to get him back there must be mind blowing evidence against that guy.
  
  Report this comment
edrebber
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 11:42pm
The Germans have evidence that Breyer was a guard at Auschwitz and Breyer admits he was a guard at Auschwitz. That should be enough evidence to extradite Breyer regardless of his American citizenship. The level of Breyer’s complicity is a matter for the German court to determine. I think every guard at Auschwitz deserves to at least spend some time in prison, regardless of their role.

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- Gonzo
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 7:46am
  Then every German citizen still alive that supported the Reich should be culpable as well. They all saw what was happening to the Jews. Good luck finding any that admit it though.
  
  Report this comment
conservativewoman
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:51pm
Worked with a German girl in her 30′s who described her father as a typical Nazi. Another German girl I went to college with believed in euthanasia of (useless eaters.) They both had short, stern, almost angry ways of talking.
I also worked in insurance for a while, and delt with some German insurance agents that sounded like they were yelling when they would call me up for underwriting questions. What is up with the Germans?

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- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:08pm
  I dunno because all the German immigrants I know (quite a few) have been simply delightful people.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:14pm
  What’s up with you anecdotal evidence? They could have just as validly deduced that the real problem was you.
  
  Report this comment
- proliance
  Posted on September 24, 2012 at 9:10am
  Do you mean the sounded like Andrew Wilkow?
  
  Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:42pm
Wonder if he bought that house from the gold teeth fillings of the dead? These are like what the Democrats are voting for, as well as many Jewish people in Florida who do not realize that these people are of the same nature as the Obamaites waiting in the wings for their time to do his bidding. These people are wanting to steal what Americans have worked for just like they did the Jews in Nazi Germany. There is a chance that there will be a time that if those American Jews do not get Obama out they will suffer again at the hands of people who hate the Jews and Christians. This time it is Obama and his thugs and the Islamists who are re-creating these conditions.

What I cannot understand is why Jewish people are voting for Obama? Do they think they can suck up to this man who loves Islam? Do they not know that Islamists hate Jews?

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:18pm
  Fact is, the Federal Reserve is stealing everything that the American people have worked for. They steal your wealth by inflation, making your dollar worth less, worthless. The head of the Fed is Jewish, and the Chair has been Jewish your entire lifetime.
  
  Let’s just quote the god of the Jewish central bankers: Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863. “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws”
  
  Report this comment
christos
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:59pm
Charge him.

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- blackyb
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:36pm
  Someone may take a tobacco stick and turn him inside out like a tobacco worm. They are old now, but some people do not care. As for me. I really do not know if I would even mess with it because he is going to die from old age any minute and hell awaits if he has not repented. People like that may have a seared conscious and will not. So….I guess it is what it is.
  
  Report this comment
Individualism
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:28pm
shut up about the holocaust if your not willing to stop legislation that can lead to that such as the NDAA, Patriot Act, Fema Camps or allowing our president to assassinate citizens without trial. there is ignorant and as gullible today as they were back than before death sheesh. if you read some of the books that had to do with it, those idiots had the chance to escape but didn’t and saw obvious signs of something wrong and ignored it.

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Carlinpa
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:12pm
RE”Breyer had lied about his Nazi past in applying for immigration or whether he could have citizenship through his American-born mother” Wait what? We have millions of Illegal aliens here having babies who are completely ignored and they question his citizenship based on his America BORN mother?
If this guy knew anything about what was going on in the camp he should be charged, with something that’s plain and simple.

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:37pm
  then they should charge every ex-german soldier, every german citizen that knew. Also, then shouldn’t we be going after anybody who had any connection to the communist purges? The commies killed millions more than hitler did. How about US service men who bombed the civilian population without mercy? All the main players have been dealt with, why not move on to the atrocities that are going on currently?
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:59pm
  WarMunger_Al
  I believe the same thing.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:25pm
  Following that logic, they had better charge many of the Jewish Zionists too.
  http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/antisemitism/holocaust/gedalyaLiebermann.cfm
  
  Report this comment
thegreatcarnac
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:46pm
Leave the old man alone. If you cannot prove that he was actually killing people….then leave him alone. Come back with an old photo of him dragging some poor soul by the foot to a burning oven and you can have him. I am tired of the 70 year vengeance fest on people who may or may not have done something against anyone in an old war where there was atrocities enough to blame everyone.

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- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:14pm
  And did not those other Europeans care for themselves in the same way?
  
  Report this comment
- swamp_donkey
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:38pm
  maybe if your racist azz had of been in one of those camps you would be of a different opinion you ignoramous
  
  Report this comment
bikerdogred1
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:58pm
The government says Breyer, lied,isn’t that a hot one.The government lies to every one and here they are worried about this old man and a lie he told 66 years ago.this man was a union tool and die man,I think maybe the union should start sticking up for one of there own.The government was the one who got him because of his skills.

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- loriann12
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:06pm
  And the union tools of this present administration better take note. If you know something is going on that just ain’t right, that they’re currently or planning on killing masses of people and you stand by and do nothing, claiming you were just doing your job, you WILL be held accountable. If the watchman sees it coming and doesn’t warn the people, the Lord will demand he pay for those who fall.
  
  Report this comment
TOPOFTHEGAME
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:05pm
This administration and ”’Government””’ is more interested in spying on you and me than catch a World War II Nazi criminal.. Sad, very sad that you and I are the enemy in this United States…………….Hey check this web site out, very interesting blogger .paulcraigroberts.org

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:14pm
  Who cares? Fix this problem first. Time to set the chosen straight:http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/molest_fiend_who_got_away_iOmYpBK7UEiNSdHacbnNUO
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:25pm
  Can’t do this in 1933 and expect not to be killed: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/jewishwar.cfm
  
  The people in Dresden were killed. As were the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Always seeking to be the exception, and when they are not, it’s antisemitic.
  
  Report this comment
G.E.R
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:53pm
They all say the same thing. I was just a guard walking a fenceline with a dog and a machine gun. I had nothing to do with that! When they’re done with him they should prosecute that nazi posing as a pope.

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- piper60
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:11pm
  We need to enjoy these fairy tales while they last. Some day we’ll run out of unpopular old menmit Cherman ecsentz and have to go back to proof instead of accusations infinitely repeated.
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:18pm
  why don’t they prosecute George Soros? He helped gather up people for the death camps. he is just as guilty, if not more so.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:26pm
  Because Soros is Jewish, he’s special.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:43pm
  I wonder if we should prosecute German Boy Scouts. All German Boy Scouts were enrolled into the Hitler Youth. Enrollment in the Hitler youth was mandatory.
  
  Just think of all the German teens from 1934 thru 1945 that we could prosecute. We could keep this up for another generation. If they hadn’t enrolled what would have happened to their ration cards or those of their families?
  
  Time Magazine did make Hitler man of the year after he got rid of the Boy Scouts. Maybe they approved of wiping out the Boy scouts. They do today!
  
  Should a 16 year olds in 1940s have fled Germany to where ever to avoid service?
  
  They were already putting non-Jewish Germans in concentration camps before 1939 & the world community was where? MIA
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:00pm
  Samuel Untermyer in 1933: http://www.whale.to/c/new_york_times.html
  
  Report this comment
- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:04pm
  There is a moral difference betw being forced into the Hitler Youth and volunteering for the SS and then volunteering for a Death Head unit.
  
  The Hitler Youth typically did not commit war crimes — until the very end. Those militarized HJ units fought to the death w/virtually no survivors.
  
  Death Head units were camp guards as well as “special units” (Einsatzgruppen) that went in right after the army cleared the opposing army. Their job was to round up and murder all Jews, Gypsies, Kommissars, etc., on Hitler’s list of enemies.
  
  Report this comment
- G.E.R
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:13pm
  George Soros was born in 1930 and at the height of German power he was 11. Exactly what could he have done at that age.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:08pm
  Elena2010, a whole lot of people were killed. Jews aren’t special, except that they made it an industry… not per me, but them.
  
  Can’t do this and expect anything else: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/jewishwar.cfm
  
  That was 1933.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:33pm
  G.E.R
  Soros could of done & did what a Hitler youth did run errands, perform manual labor or act as a child soldier.
  
  Soros ran messages.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:36pm
  Jews were special. They were all going to be wiped out. Northern & Western European were not in general going to be wiped out
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:43pm
  GER-
  By his own admission George Soros helped point out fellow Jews to send them on their way. Of cousre he had to do it or be discovered himself, but that is no excuse, hang him anyway. That is what these BS trials and minor nazi hunts are all about.
  
  Report this comment
- G.E.R
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:58pm
  @Walkabout
  
  I didn’t think it was possible but you’re dumber than Glenn Beck
  
  Report this comment
- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:18pm
  Jerk — yes, Jews were special. They were singled out along w/Gypsies to be killed off. “Judenrein” – cleansed of Jews was bragging rights for a town or province. You did not see signs that said “Pole free.” They were targeted for their ethnicity not for their beliefs as were communists. Yes, the Jews were special.
  
  Furthermore, they remain special. God loves them; they are His Chosen.
  
  I’m not Jewish, but I love God and have no problem w/His loving Jews as His Chosen. I’m going to let God be God.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:23pm
  Walkabout: “Jews were special. They were all going to be wiped out. Northern & Western European were not in general going to be wiped out”
  
  Did they not bring it upon themselves? http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/jewishwar.cfm
  
  When the Germans declared war on America, we killed Germans… lots of them… Dresden.
  When the Japanese declared war on America, we killed them… lots of them… Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
  Why should Jews be any different than any other peoples? My suggestion would have been not to declare war on Germany 6 years before the war actually started.
  
  Report this comment
- G.E.R
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 9:24pm
  @Warmunger
  
  That story was all Glenn Beck BULLSH@#T and it was proven to be BULLSH@#T in 2009. What he admitted to was going with his godfather(who was ordered) to inventory the art work at an estate that belonged to a jewish family who had the wealth, wisdom, and connections to be able to leave some of their belongings behind in exchange for permission to make their way to Lisbon.
  
  Report this comment
Walkabout
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:49pm
I am sick of the Weisenthal Center.

Did he volunteer to be a camp guard?

Those who say he should have refused to be a guard even if it meant death, what have they done to show us 30%, 50% or 90% of people would refuse to be a guard upon penalty of death.

Many of the people, who manned the Atlantic wall & built it, were not German. We they given a choice?

We are chasing octogenarians, while at the same time Al Qaeda are at the gates.

I just read that Dr Death died in Egypt after converting to Islam. The boys form Brasil? How about the Boys form Egypt?

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:19pm
  Hell, you sound like me. I’m tired of these perpetual whiners too.
  
  Report this comment
- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:58pm
  There is a huge difference betw the following German military units in the war:
  
  Wehrmacht/Das Heer – “regular” army who pledged to Hitler; these troops were often conscripts rather than volunteers
  
  Allegemeinen-SS – black uniformed political troops who took over fm the brown shirts as the bully boys, must be 6 feet tall and pure Aryan, all volunteers
  
  Waffen-SS – field soldiers, often better armed than the army in the latter days of the war, had to have “clean” Aryan roots, also could be recruited fm German-held territories, i.e. Ukraine, Bosnia, Netherlands, France, etc. Those troops had same ethnic officers and distinct ethnic patches to distinguish them fm other German Waffen-SS units. All volunteers until the very end when anyone was issued a weapon fm youth to aged.
  
  Totenkopf-SS – volunteers whose original duty was guarding internal prison camps, esp the death camps. All volunteers.
  
  Luftwaffe – Air Force but had commando units of paratroops plus a tank battalion. Ran anti-aircraft batteries. Volunteers and conscripts.
  
  Kriegsmarine – Navy, roughly 70 percent of the submarine forces perished in combat. Germany did have a blue water fleet composed of surface and subsurface combat ships. However, given the British and growing American prowess on the surface, the U-boot fleet took the brunt of combat w/the occasional sortie by the surface fleet. Volunteers and conscripts.
  
  Report this comment
- RepubliCorp
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 6:03pm
  if had knew a thing or two about rockets……. no problem , free pass, even if he shoved them into the oven
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 7:42pm
  Some camp guards were Ukrainians who had a choice. German prison camps for Russian where the survival rate was very low or a camp guard. Check out the survival rate for Russian POWs. It was not good.
  
  There were Jews after the war who had been victims that took out their frustration on German civilians & became War criminals. Not sure if all those were prosecuted.
  
  Report this comment
- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:23pm
  Walkabout — roughly 53 percent of Russian POWs did not survive the camps. Russian Jews were sorted out of the POWs, a violation of the Geneva Conventions which Germany signed. Those Russian Jews were sent to death camps.
  
  Slavic peoples were disregarded as fully human. Slavs did have a purpose to the Reich — slave labor. The grand plan of Hitler was for “Lebensraum” (living space) to the East. Part of that plan included killing about half of the Slavs to make room for German immigrant farmers on that wedge-shaped super-fertile soil that ran thru Prussia, Poland, Ukraine, etc.
  
  FYI — the name Slav comes to us as a word for slave, courtesy of the muslim slave traders who raided into the belly of Eastern Europe.
  
  Report this comment
jkenn48105
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:38pm
I can think of any number of people that should be tried in a court of law before this guy, most of them are in the Democrat Party for crimes committed against this country. Then there are the Japanese that never went to trial for all the horrible things they did to American POW’s. Enough, leave this guy alone.

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- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:52pm
  Unit 731
  -Transfused horse blood into POWs & Chinese civilians to see if it would work.
  - Made biological bombs using bubonic plague & used them on civilians.
  etc, etc, etc,…
  
  & they were into human trafficking. Those would be your Comfort girls from several Asian countries.
  
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- G.E.R
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:09pm
  Many scientist involved with what went on at Unit 731 surrendered to US forces and were brought to this country. The reason they were not tried was that the information and experience gained in the studies of the biological warfare was of a great value for the United States biological weapons development program.
  
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- The_Jerk
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:27pm
  Time to end “the Jews are special” propaganda.
  
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- Elena2010
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 8:25pm
  Jerk — your arms are too short to box w/God. Let God be God and lavish love upon whom He wishes.
  
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Rufus.Cornpone
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:38pm
“Boys From Brazil” now comes to mind…

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- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:55pm
  How about the “Boys from Egypt”?
  
  “Dr. Death” or the “Butcher of Mauthausen”
  
  “The judges concluded that Heim died of cancer in Egypt in 1992.”
  
  http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/war-criminal-search-ends-court-rules-that-aribert-heim-is-dead-a-857220.html
  
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Baikonur
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:36pm
Extradite the bastard and let him stand trial in Germany!

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Edohiguma
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:34pm
Meanwhile mohammedan Hamas supporters and their left wing butt buddies can march through European cities (including German cities) and scream “Hamas! Hamas Gas the Jews!”

Hamas and Hezbollah can also hold conferences in Germany and plot how to kill Jews.

Germany is only interested in dead Jews, since they’re useful to indoctrinate people that any form of patriotism is bad, because, in the mind of the German left wing, flying black-red-gold (today’s German flag and also the flag of the 1848 revolution) is the same thing as flying Hitler’s flag, thus following the “culture of collective” guilt that is controlling Germany. Yes, the left wing there believes that Germans today are still responsible for the Holocaust. That has nothing to do with the left in Germany being angry over all the dead Jews, but rather with executing power over people. The living Jews are screwed if they count on Germany to stand with them. Today you can even “protest” against Israel in Germany with the old “Germans! Don’t buy Jewish!” Germany is back in the 1930s.

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lel2007
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:21pm
I certainly believe the Nazis and their killing of the Jews was a terrible heinous act of shear evil. But how much choice would a low ranking German soldier have in choosing his assignments. Unless it can be proved this particular guard inflicted harm on the prisoners, aside from his guard duties, he should be left alone. Otherwise, the entire Nazi military, from General to Private, should be hunted down and punished. Hell, hunt down the entire Nazi party and surviving German citizens from that period.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:36pm
  Low ranking soldiers often faced only one of three choices:
  
  Do as you are ordered to do and try to survive.
  Refuse to do so and face execution.
  Try to flee and hope for the best.
  
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- Walkabout
  Posted on September 23, 2012 at 5:35pm
  Snowleopard
  
  That encapsulates it succinctly.
  
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chips1
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:20pm
It’s tough trying to collect the evidence after 70 years. Maybe we should save the papers from Planned Parenthood now and avoid the same problem.

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Delores at CH WV
Posted on September 23, 2012 at 4:15pm
I imagine lots of war crimmals live in Philly; along with the rats and the skunks. Is this a Surprise Birthday party that isn’t a real surprise? Either this headline is lame or someone needs a new head line writer. Uninteresting!

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