AP Interview: Germany still untangling Nazis' legal legacy

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By FRANK JORDANS

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's justice ministry is embarked on a wide-ranging effort to examine the influence that the Nazis had on the country's legal system, including the role some German officials played in preventing former Nazis from being prosecuted after the war.

The project, 70 years after the end of World War II, comes amid a fresh push to bring surviving Nazi war criminals to justice.

Two trials of alleged death camp guards would have been impossible until recently due to legal hurdles and the existence of a network of former Nazis who worked as lawyers, prosecutors and judges after the war.

"Too many who bore guilt covered for each other," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told The Associated Press in an interview. "Even at the start of the 1960s, 80 percent of the judges at the Federal Court of Justice had been judges under the Nazis. That illustrates the extent to which the German justice system failed."

FULL story at link.


In this Oct. 5, 2015 photo German Minister of Justice, Heiko Maas, looks on after an interview with the news agency 'The Associated Press' at the ministry in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/63ea12fb9b3744d8827d1de2915c0def/ap-interview-germany-still-untangling-nazis-legal-legacy

[geomon666]

1. Whatever it takes.

The stink of National Socialism must be wiped off the face of the Earth.

[forest444]

4. Hear, hear.

http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Companies_That_Surprisingly_Collaborated_With_the_Nazis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

[forest444]

6. Good point. The British role in propping up Nazi Germany has been largely whitewashed by the media.

It would surprise most Americans, given the way textbooks and the media lionize certain people; but World War II itself was unnecessarily prolonged by Churchill, who pressured the U.S. into invading Italy and North Africa - the two most pointless campaigns in the war. Most WWII historians concur that these two very costly and time-consuming offensives delayed Hitler's surrender by well over a year.

The worst part is that Churchill did this in total bad faith, hoping that Hitler could hold on long enough to defeat the Soviet Union. There's definitely more to Winston Churchill than the pudgy, eloquent hero so often portrayed in popular culture. There was also that scheming, duplicitous Churchill that besides being an incorrigly bigoted and elitist man, was also a real problem during our last good war.

[tblue37]

2. KnR. The BFEE and Cheney plants in our DoJ and civil service and on the federal bench

work similarly, especially since Obama's federal judge nominations are always blocked by GOP senators.

[GoneFishin]

8. I was thinking the same thing.

[Demeter]

3. It's far too late for that, and there are no clean hands