Nazi concentration camp guard found in Atlanta

[CaptainChewbacca]

Link

Suspected Nazi War Criminal Found In Metro Atlanta

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Nazi hunters have tracked a suspected World War II concentration camp guard to Lawrenceville.

Members of the Justice Department's elite Nazi tracking force said Paul Henss, 85, served as a prison guard and attack dog handler at the notorious Dachau and Buchenwald Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany.

"It is not 100% true, what they charge me," said Henss Monday afternoon. Henss appeared confused as he tried to answer a barrage of questions from reporters Monday afternoon.

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security have asked an immigration judge in Atlanta to deport Henss.

Officials said Henss entered the United States in 1955 after concealing his concentration camp service.

The document says Henss admitted on March 13 that he served as an SS guard at Dachau and Buchenwald for two to three months each as a dog handler.

When asked by a Channel 2 reporter, "Did you see dogs or did you train dogs to attack prisoners who tried to escape?" Henss paused for a while, appeared confused and then said, "Sure, we trained them in Berlin."

Paperwork filed by the Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Henss joined the Hitler Youth organization in Germany in 1934 as a 12 or 13-year-old boy and joined the Nazi Party in September 1940.

In early 1941, Henss volunteered to serve in the Waffen SS and became an SS dog handler in 1942 after serving in the elite Waffen SS combat unit “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.”

Investigators also said that Henss taught other concentration camp guards at Dachau and Buchwenwald how to use attack dogs to guard prisoners and prevent their escape.

Henss himself is also accused of personally guarding prisoners and labor details with an attack dog.

"When somebody run away, they supposed to catch them," Henss said. He then said he, "Didn't do anything, the dogs were just trained like that."

“Hundreds of thousands of persons were confined under horrific conditions at Dachau and Buchenwald on the basis of their race, religion, national origin or political opinion,” said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division in a release.

“By commencing these proceedings against a man who participated in the victimization of those who were interned there, the Justice Department continues to make good on its pledge to ensure that the United States does not become a sanctuary for human rights violators.”

“The SS committed mass murder at Dachau and Buchenwald and subjected thousands of inmates to slave labor, starvation, grotesque medical experimentation, and torture,” said OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum, whose office investigated the case.

Henss said he didn't know about the mass extermination of Jews and other prisoners. "This was in 1942, I didn't know nothing about what they were going to do, especially with the Jews, I didn't know nothing about it," Henss told reporters.

“The brutal concentration camp system could not have functioned without the determined efforts of SS men such as Paul Henss, who, with a vicious attack dog, stood between these victims and the possibility of freedom.”

The case against Henss is the first case in Georgia that the Office of Special Investigation has handled, said Jaclyn Lesch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

No court date has been set for Henss, she said.

He's 85 years old. I wonder if he's the last one.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

[Dominus Atheos]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

Especially one who joined at age 12 and was still a minor when the war ended? There's a reason age of consent is 16 and criminal records are sealed at 18.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

Especially one who joined at age 12 and was still a minor when the war ended? There's a reason age of consent is 16 and criminal records are sealed at 18.

...what?

He joined the Hitler youth at age 12 in 1934, and joined the Nazi party six years later. He was 20 when he worked as a dog handler for the SS in 1942.

Did you read the article?

[Patrick Degan]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

You mean, the ones who herded human beings like cattle, turned vicious dogs on them when they failed to obey, shot anybody trying to escape the camp, routinely pistol-whipped or bayoneted prisoners who fell out of the marching lines, beat the weak, shot the dying? Who kept people imprisoned within the large death factory camps and helped oversee the wholly mechanical slaughter of thousands on a daily basis?

You bet we go after them. Even if the fuckers are in their 80s. The only suitable death for a Nazi war criminal is at the end of a rope.

[Ender]

Huh, I didn't know people were still hunting down Nazi's. And I'm certainly surprised the justice department is, if anything I would have expected it to be just the Israelis.

[Sea Skimmer]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard?

Those guards had the hands on job of brutalizing prisoners to work in conditions that could have only one result, death, and this guy has admitted to doing just that. Maybe he’s a slight step above the outright death camp guards, but that’s not saying anything. Anywhere from 75,000-100,000 people still died in those two camps this guy guarded

Nazis who simply guarded POW camps BTW, are not covered by the standing deportation order, even though millions of Russians where deliberately starved and murdered in German POW camps.

What, there were like hundreds of them?

Total numbers of concentration and death camp guards probably more then one hundred thousand, though a good many did not even survive the war, and that does not matter one bit. Barring them from immigrating to the US is hardly stern punishment to begin with.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

You mean, the ones who herded human beings like cattle, turned vicious dogs on them when they failed to obey, shot anybody trying to escape the camp, routinely pistol-whipped or bayoneted prisoners who fell out of the marching lines, beat the weak, shot the dying? Who kept people imprisoned within the large death factory camps and helped oversee the wholly mechanical slaughter of thousands on a daily basis?

You bet we go after them. Even if the fuckers are in their 80s. The only suitable death for a Nazi war criminal is at the end of a rope.

Alright, but isn't this sort of brutality not limited to the SS but also to the Wehrmarcht?

[Dominus Atheos]

Is it really necessary to even go after even a prison guard? What, there were like hundreds of them?

Especially one who joined at age 12 and was still a minor when the war ended? There's a reason age of consent is 16 and criminal records are sealed at 18.

...what?

He joined the Hitler youth at age 12 in 1934, and joined the Nazi party six years later. He was 20 when he worked as a dog handler for the SS in 1942.

Did you read the article?

Whoops, I misread the line where it talks about his age. I thought he was 12 or 13 when he joined the Nazi party in 1940.

There's still a limited amount of blame I can place on someone who was being brainwashed at such a young age. Especially since I can't imagine he joined without his parents permission, or possibly even encouragement.

[Sea Skimmer]

Alright, but isn't this sort of brutality not limited to the SS but also to the Wehrmarcht?

In Russia the German high command actually had to order soldiers top stop shooing as recently captured POWs, because it was wasting ammunition! So yeah, the whole Wehrmarcht are involved in it all, especially on the Russian front which was simply fought without any rules at all and with orders to make maximum possible use of terror to control the population, but this hardly means this man shouldn’t be deported at the very utter least. Unfortunately the ‘soldiers like other soldiers’ defense has been used very successfully even by some parts of the Waffen SS.

As far as anyone should be concerned, Nazi guilty falls on the shoulders of all who where involved, which happens to be all of Germany. It should be obvious fact that Hitler’s genocide could not have happened, had the idea not already been popular and racist ideals already well established in German. We easily had justification to shoot tens of thousands of additional Nazis after the war, but since we committed to semi legalistic proceedings that couldn’t happen, collective punishment had to be left to the Russians.

[Darth Wong]

There's still a limited amount of blame I can place on someone who was being brainwashed at such a young age. Especially since I can't imagine he joined without his parents permission, or possibly even encouragement.

Why does brainwashing eliminate one's personal responsibility for one's actions? Where does responsibility come from?

[Andrew_Fireborn]

The level of impracticality and social repercussion in administering punishment.

Not to mention that punishing Germany had already lead to the situation they were cleaning up at the time.

[Dominus Atheos]

There's still a limited amount of blame I can place on someone who was being brainwashed at such a young age. Especially since I can't imagine he joined without his parents permission, or possibly even encouragement.

Why does brainwashing eliminate one's personal responsibility for one's actions? Where does responsibility come from?

For the same reason insanity eliminates someone's personal responsibility.

[Darth Wong]

There's still a limited amount of blame I can place on someone who was being brainwashed at such a young age. Especially since I can't imagine he joined without his parents permission, or possibly even encouragement.

Why does brainwashing eliminate one's personal responsibility for one's actions? Where does responsibility come from?

For the same reason insanity eliminates someone's personal responsibility.

Insanity limits someone's personal responsibility because he may be so delusional that he does not realize that he is committing an illegal action. I don't see how that applies to brainwashing. They know perfectly well what they're doing, but they are following an ideology. Would you say that Osama Bin Laden should get off too, as a result of religious brainwashing?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Insanity limits someone's personal responsibility because he may be so delusional that he does not realize that he is committing an illegal action. I don't see how that applies to brainwashing. They know perfectly well what they're doing, but they are following an ideology. Would you say that Osama Bin Laden should get off too, as a result of religious brainwashing?

Well, it didn't help that the ideology in question subverted the law, and made it lawful for them to do what they did.

Practically all of Germany was guilty for this, as they say.

[PeZook]

At first I thought "He's 85 years old, and he probably was drafted into it. Just let him die!"

Then I read the article. And somehow, my sympathy evaporated in an instant. Frankly, scum who willingly joined the SS deserve nothing more than a shallow grave in a forest somewhere, just like their victims.

[Dominus Atheos]

Why does brainwashing eliminate one's personal responsibility for one's actions? Where does responsibility come from?

For the same reason insanity eliminates someone's personal responsibility.

Insanity limits someone's personal responsibility because he may be so delusional that he does not realize that he is committing an illegal action. I don't see how that applies to brainwashing.

How do you not see how that applies? It's simple, in every human being, there exists an inherent, instinctual compulsion to not harm other humans. Anyone who can willing break this compulsion needs to be punished so they never break it again. (one way or another)

For the insane, they do not break it willingly, but simply lose it. For the brainwashed, they have that compulsion removed.

They know perfectly well what they're doing, but they are following an ideology. Would you say that Osama Bin Laden should get off too, as a result of religious brainwashing?

Of course not, Bin Laden is a leader of the terrorists. No one's disputing the punishment of the leadership or officers of the Nazi party, and were personally responsible for a great deal of more harm then one prison guard. If Bin Laden had chosen to become a shopkeep instead of a terrorist, would have 9/11 have happened, and all the things that happened as a direct consequence of it? Probably not. But if this man had been a shopkeep, would anything have changed? Probably not. The dogs would still have been trained, and the prison would still have been guarded.

Combine the brainwashing and the insignificance, which are probably related? No, I don't think he should be punished, except maybe a mental ward if he's still affected by the brainwashing.

[Edi]

How do you not see how that applies? It's simple, in every human being, there exists an inherent, instinctual compulsion to not harm other humans.

Evidence? Because I sure as fuck have not seen any evidence that there is some compulsion to not harm others and the whole of human history actually disagrees with this preposterous claim of yours. I personally do not suffer from anything like that if a situation warrants violence, but generally it does not.

Anyone who can willing break this compulsion needs to be punished so they never break it again. (one way or another)

So, self-defense is not justified on account it harms someone else? How fucking delusional were you again?

For the insane, they do not break it willingly, but simply lose it. For the brainwashed, they have that compulsion removed.

Evidence?

There is an evolutionary incentive to not harm those who belong to your own group, but that's about it. Once a person is far enough removed that they are a stranger, you actually need to fucking teach people ethics so that they behave in acivilized manner. Unlike most of history, when people killed otehrs just for belonging to another tribe or whatever social group other than theirs.

[Adrian Laguna]

While we're talking about evidence, is there any he did anything other than just train the dogs? On the whole scale of guilt, that's about the same as the arms manufacturers and the German Gold and Silver Metals Separating Works.

[PeZook]

While we're talking about evidence, is there any he did anything other than just train the dogs? On the whole scale of guilt, that's about the same as the arms manufacturers and the German Gold and Silver Metals Separating Works.

He's also accused of personally guarding prisoners with his attack dog, it's in the article.

And the fuckier he joined the goddamned SS out of his own will. While this may not be quite illegal, it still makes him scum of the lowest order.

[Adrian Laguna]

He's also accused of personally guarding prisoners with his attack dog, it's in the article.

Ah well, that's definitely worse.

And the fuckier he joined the goddamned SS out of his own will. While this may not be quite illegal, it still makes him scum of the lowest order.

Oh yes that's true. If he'd been drafted into guarding prisoners I'd be very sympathetic, there's not much you can do in that situation that doesn't carry the risk of being at the wrong end of a firing squad. But seeing as he joined the Nazis - and the SS of all things, the man's no filing clerk - that marks him very low in the sympath-o-metre.

[Big Orange]

Then I read the article. And somehow, my sympathy evaporated in an instant. Frankly, scum who willingly joined the SS deserve nothing more than a shallow grave in a forest somewhere, just like their victims.

A great many Waffen-SS soldiers did violently expire in muddy ditches and many of their leaders committed suicide (good riddence to bad rubbish). But do you think the later Hitler Youth levies still in their teens, transferred sailors or forced foreign conscripts in 1944-5 deserved to be violently killed as well?

But in this case, Paul Henss is far more implicit in the SS's worst crimes - he must've seen many bad things and helped to keep hundreds of thousands of innocent people where they were in imprisoned conditions, with no hope of freedom and no safety from unnatural death. Yes, I would say he was guilty if he had gotten his hands dirty.

- and the SS of all things, the man's no filing clerk

Some of the worst SS officers were literally filing clerks, far worse than most SS combat troops.

[PeZook]

A great many Waffen-SS soldiers did violently expire in muddy ditches and many of their leaders committed suicide (good riddence to bad rubbish). But do you think the later Hitler Youth levies still in their teens, transferred sailors or forced foreign conscripts in 1944-5 deserved to be violently killed as well?

Of course not. That's why I wrote "scum who willingly joined the SS". A conscript deserves sympathy, if for no other reason than because he was forced into service. This isn't to say all SS conscripts are innocent victims ; quite a few comitted war crimes out of their own volition, especially if they were told to murder people they hated (like the infamous Ukrainian SS unit)

But a volunteer in SS service just makes me twitch. It's not like their goals were a closely held secret.

Some of the worst SS officers were literally filing clerks, far worse than most SS combat troops.

You know, that's quite a good observation. SS administrators could kill people en masse with a few pen strokes, after all.

[That NOS Guy]

Of course not. That's why I wrote "scum who willingly joined the SS". A conscript deserves sympathy, if for no other reason than because he was forced into service. This isn't to say all SS conscripts are innocent victims ; quite a few comitted war crimes out of their own volition, especially if they were told to murder people they hated (like the infamous Ukrainian SS unit)

But a volunteer in SS service just makes me twitch. It's not like their goals were a closely held secret.

I know of the foreign SS divisions, but I was under the impression the SS was an all volunteer organization. Am I way offbase with this?

[PeZook]

I know of the foreign SS divisions, but I was under the impression the SS was an all volunteer organization. Am I way offbase with this?

They began taking conscripts and transfers from other branches (like the navy, which was completely broken by 1944) by the end of the war to bolster their numbers. Before the war and even halfway through, yeah, they were all-volunteer.

Probably because their main activity up to that point was murdering civilians, so they didn't get many casualties from frontline combat.