Squeezing The Last Drop?

[douglas9401]

Is this really neccessary, an admin teenager tried nearly eighty years on?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64036465

[Meaghan27]

She was a teenage short-hand typist. She did what she was told to do probably on pain of death herself. Typing up death warrants and being witness to atrocities totally out of ones control has never, and should never, be a crime. It is squeezing the last drop, scraping the last barrel from a soft target. The things she saw and had to do will have remained with her all her life and I think that is enough punishment.

[Canary42]

I'm with Naomi on this one - she had little choice. Had she protested/resigned she would have been inside the gas oven before you could say Heil Hitler .

And she's lived with it all her life - surely compassion should be at the forefront, not cold-blooded revenge on a fading nonagenarian.

[zebo]

I recall a converation with a German friend when we lived there, some old Nazi had been found in South America and I wondered if it was worth it, 40 years after the end of WW2. He was totally adament, his generation had gone through school learning of the shame of the Nazis, being taught that they bore the guilt and it was essential that these people were hounded forever.

[Meaghan27]

This woman was not a nazi! she was a teenage office worker.

[lady-janine]

As I said it is closure for those who had family who suffered and not revenge on her. Is the lady really relenting for what she did?

I think a lot of you do not have family or friends to ask.

[Khandro]

// Is the lady really relenting for what she did?//

What did she do ? - she was a young girl in an office. What was she supposed to do? Go & learn some history; people were murdered for even saying the slightest thing critical of the authorities.

[Meaghan27]

If she had refused to type up reports, and made her feelings known, not only would she have potentially lost her life but her whole family as well.

[lady-janine]

Khandro - has she expressed any shame for what she was part of? She may have been forced into her job but since the war ended and until now how she said anything on how she feels/felt?

[lady-janine]

Maybe then Meaghan but sometime in the last 80 years?

[Zacs-Master]

From the article:
'It took 40 days for her to break her silence in the trial, when she told the court "I'm sorry about everything that happened".

"I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time - that's all I can say," she said.

She's probably lived with what she was forced to be part of for the last 70/80 years.

[Meaghan27]

Many people who were witness to atrocities in War never spoke about it afterwards. That does not make them compliant nor complacent.

[ZebuSanctuary]

// Furchner was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people and complicity in the attempted murder of five others. As she was only 18 or 19 //

From the excerpt above, these are pretty damning and heinous offences... on a grand scale.

To hazard a guess, there were perhaps thousands of Nazi soldiers who killed or were killed on the front line who may have been only 18 or 19 at the time.

// If you are alive, you can be brought to justice. //

During WW2, American troops claimed they had captured boys aged 12 and under manning German artillery units.

What would have been the right and measured response in dealing with those boys? So young, indoctrinated yet trained to kill.

[jourdain2]

Like others, I feel that this lady, when a girl, didn't really have a choice. She was a typist. Had she refused to work or protested - her life would probably have been forfeit. Other Germans who were not Nazis had to keep the country running - postmen, bus-drivers etc.. Are they also guilty of something in helping the regime to exist?
There was nothing in her power that she could do that would have eased the situation for others.
Whilst acknowledging that some feel that every last drop of reparation/repentance must be extracted; I don't feel that this is a fair 'witch-hunt'.
We lived not far from a burnt-out village in France, Oradour-sur-Glane. The S.A.S. fired it and slaughtered all inhabitants bar (I think) 2, just after the Normandy landings.
At the extensive, graphically horrific, visitor centre I several times saw young German families taking their children around and explaining and shouldering guilt.
The point has been made sufficiently i.m.o..

[jno]

she probably had zero choice in what she did if she wanted to live

the judge said otherwise: "she could have left at any time". That sounds more than likely to me. The SS didn't go round killing anyone who refused to take on a typing job.

[douglas9401]

You're right of course, jno, the SS were a much misunderstood organisation known for lively debate and tolerance.

[jno]

possibly. None the less, there was no death penalty for refusing to take on office jobs.

[Atheist]

Probably no-one here lived through times like that. Life was hard and people did bad stuff to survive and feed themselves and families. They didn't brag about it after the war. Most ABers have no experience of being invaded and occupied, or invading and occupying. We do though have one or two odd bods who have advocated machine-gunning unarmed humans in rubber boats in the Channel. I hope they don't get fingered in thirty years for expressing anti-human tendencies back in the day.
:-)

[granny grump]

How would we have acted in those circumstances and at that age??

[douglas9401]

We'd have done what we were told like any normal, fearful person, gg.

[granny grump]

I think so douglas9401 Obviously this cannot be a blanket excuse