60 years too late
According to Nazi-hunters supreme the Simon Weisenthal Centre, they’ve found so-called Dr Death Aribert Heim alive and well and living in Patagonia.
I’m always a little conflicted when I hear about these sort of cases, whether they be Nazi’s from the Second World War, or Bosnian’s, or Romanian’s or any of dozens of other nations that have committed so-called war crimes over the last 60 years, and I can’t really properly explain where that confliction comes from.
Part of it is the phrase ‘war crimes’ which, to me, implies that there are rules to war in much the same way that there are in boxing. I’m sorry, it’s war and rules don’t exist. If rules existed, then the US would not have been able to use napalm in Vietnam to burn innocent villagers out of their homes. There are no rules to war; two sides fight for what they believe in with methods that they find acceptable. If they lose, history calls them all sorts of names. If they win, they get to carry on doing what they like.
The other thing that gets to me is the length of time that has passed. Heim was a public figure until 1962 - nearly 20 years after the end of WW2. Why could he have not been detained during that time? OK, so he did a runner when he heard they were closing in on him, but that’s the result of sloppy intelligence work. Properly organised, he could have been taken before he knew what was happening. Now, if it is him, what is really going to be achieved by putting him on trial? Even assuming he’s in charge of his mental faculties and so understands what’s happening to him, he’s 94. The man you really want to get to is 60 years in the past and can never be held accountable.
And if you do prosecute him and find him (surprise, surprise) guilty, what punishment will you give him? The electric chair? Lethal injection? Life imprisonment? The guy’s 94 and can expect to die any day now - what will it matter to him? Hell, he’ll probably die while you’re trying to extradite him. Whichever way, he wins and no-one is any better off; justice is not served.
What we really needed to do was to learn the lessons of WW2 and not let leaders and regimes like that ever arise again. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that and in the past 60 years we’ve seen - and are still seeing with the current situation in Zimbabwe - a succession of leaders that think they can do what they like to their citizens (or in their name, Mr Bush) just because they happen to be in the big chair. All the sacrifices of WW2 have, sadly, been in vain.
Thank you, News of the World
I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank the News of the World (a tawdry Sunday tabloid, for those of you who are lucky enough not to have heard of it) for bringing us so many lurid details of Max Moseley’s sex life.
Subsequent to the NOTW publishing details and video of Max’s not-Nazi-at-all BDSM session with five London-based ladies of a certain type, we’re now having to suffer blow-by-blow (ahem) accounts in Court of what did or did not happen. Max, president of the FIA - the governing body of world motorsport - is suing because the NOTW accused him of being a Nazi and he says he’s not. Either way, I could have done without hearing all the gory details, thanks very much.
Can’t wait to hear what comes up in Court tomorrow!
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