Reinhold Hanning, center, a former guard at Auschwitz, in court in Detmold, Germany, on Thursday.Credit...Patrik Stollarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Modern Trials
“Little changed in the years that followed. While perhaps 1,000 camp personnel faced trials in other countries, a now-united Germany had convicted fewer than 50 of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 SS who served at Auschwitz and survived the war ”, Stated German historian Andreas Eichmüller. This confirms that many Nazis have never been put on trial and not charged at all. In the 2000s some trials continued but on the elderly. A 94-year-old named Reinhold Hanning, who was a former Nazi SS guard was put on trial in 2015. These new trials are considered symbolically important as a way to show that Nazis who participated in the Holocaust are finally put to justice and get what they deserve. However, these same trials should have happened 70 years ago but they never did.
"I'm ashamed that I knowingly let injustice happen and did nothing to oppose it."
~ Reinhold Hanning
Even though the Nuremberg trials were run by important judges there was still fraud involved. “Historians estimate that as many as 8 million people, about 10% of the total German population, were former members of the Nazi party, which meant the judiciary was filled with judges with Nazi connections”, mentioned Time magazine. This piece of text also shows that a tenth of Germany’s population could have participated in the Holocaust and more could have been captured. This can explain how some Nazis implemented fraud in these trials, certain Nazis could have had possible connections with the judges which could’ve helped them get out of being tried and charged.
There was even more injustice in the trials, “Rebecca Wittmann, a historian at the University of Toronto, believes the trials were flawed because the German courts should not be using the ordinary criminal code to prosecute the Holocaust, regardless of how they interpret the law.” A situation like the Holocaust is different than a regular act of crime. The German courts should have implemented and used a law to address genocide. Out of all of the people and the fraud involved in the Holocaust, there should have been many more people charged. Regardless of if one had a large role or a “smaller” role they still should have been brought to court.
"The Nuremberg Trial of the German war criminals was tacitly based on the recognition of the principle: criminal actions cannot be excused if committed on government orders; conscience supersedes the authority of the law of the state."
~ Albert Einstein