German court says not enough evidence to try alleged Nazi camp guard - Sensationalist Headlines

my question is what is the practical purpose of imprisoning this guy

He is on record as one, but what punishment is going to convey anything to the society here? What message is sent by harshly punishing a 95 year old who has admitted guilt? I’m just not sure I see the utility or purpose of it, and off satisfying emotional desires to see him punished Ian the totality of why he must Ben punishes, I’m not sold.

Dude participated in genocide and as such should be formally sentenced. He will not truly be "on record" as one until that happens. That way when his great-great-grandkids or whoever else look him up, it'll be in government records that yes, he participated willingly in one of the greatest crimes against humanity in history. Like making sure that he is officially sentenced for willing participating in genocide is not with weird "emotional desire". It's to make sure no one forgets who was involved. No one said anything about throwing him into some sort of Super-Max or Gitmo. But he needs to face consequences for participation in the Holocaust.

Okay. I don’t disagree he should face consequences. What are those? Do you know or are you being nebulous? He has admitted his guilt and his role in the atrocity, he hasn’t denied it, so what is the point you’re making?

He may have admitted it but that's far from a formal sentencing. And that point is that you shouldn't be able to escape from being branded a war criminal just because you're old. He needs to at the very least be formally sentenced for his crimes, even if the punishment ends up being lighter due to his age.

Okay. I don’t thibk he has escaped that at all but okay.

I'd never buy the "common german army soldier who just followed orders" defense. Historical record proves that's false and almost all german soldiers who survived the war had either blood on their hands or were completely radicalised and eager to kill "subhumans". The letters and correspondance of common Wehrmacht soldiers say almost all of them were extremely radicalised and faithful to Hitler. Most german army soldiers by the end of the war and who end up surviving it had been part of the of Hitler youth from 1933 to 1945 - by 1936 membership was mandatory for "aryans". That's around a decade of radicalisation, even ignoring the rise in popularity of nazi ideologies before that. The german army commited atrocities everywhere they went on civilian populations, and fanatical german soldiers were typicaly feeling no remorse and actively participating in them. Don't know if you studied that @IlluminatiRex my source is mostly the lectures of Dr. Robert Citino and Jonathan House on the Wehrmacht and the german campains on the eastern front.

I agree with many posters here that one shouldn't fall for the clean wehrmacht and death sentence punishments for denying to serve in role's where you're helping carry out genocide myths. Evidence says that this really isn't the case. I do understand the sentiment about rehabilitation vs punishment though, but I would suggest everyone actually look into the whitewashing of the wehrmacht and nazis that occured after world war 2. It has been too effective and it's important that people understand that, the wehrmacht as clean soldiers just carrying out orders, isn't the real picture.

I haven't seen anything by those individuals in particular but that's pretty much where the Historiographical Orthodox is from what I understand, that the vast, vast majority of members of the Werhmacht (and SS) were invested in the Nazis in someway and were complicit or active in crimes against humanity. Specific reasons for participation may have varied, but they still participated.