Poll: Would you harbor a nazi?

[Drake_Dercon]

READ BEFORE VOTING!

You live in a small town. In it, there is a man.

He is a generous man, kind to all and very into philanthropy. He is by any definition a good neighbour and friend.

One day he asks you to house him for a while. He tells you he was an officer in a concentration camp. He cries for a long time. He is very sorry for what he's done (which happens to be a lot). He knows he will never be able to fix what he has done, but is afraid of what will happen to him if he is incarcerated.

Police soon come to your door asking for him. What do you do?

I was talking about something similar with my english teacher. We are both very convinced that rehabilitation is the best solution to crime, but for very severe crimes there is an instant desire to make someone pay. Usually harshly. This is that internal debate at its logical extreme.

Edit: Crimes against humanity, in case you were wondering.

 

[Bravo 21]

Not sure if i could hide them from the police, mostly because I still have some faith in the justice system, and I hope that they would be treated fairly, befor ean impartial judge and all that.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'd turn him in. He's committed crimes against humanity, and you cant just say you're sorry and think to get away with it. Even if he's sincere, the message needs to me sent.

This happened to me before anyways, and I did the same thing (though not a nazi, but same principle). A guy volunteered at the Salvation army. And he was the nicest guy. he did all our fundraisings, did any jobs they needed, never asked payment.

Turned out he was stealing part of what he raised, and he had just raised so much no one bothered to ask him about it. I shipped his ass to jail, and didnt lose a wink of sleep.


There's never an excuse to skip punishment for what you did wrong.

 

[Biosophilogical]

but for very severe crimes there is an instant desire to make someone pay. Usually harshly.

That's the thing though, just because you feel like causing someone pain, does it actually make it right? What does hurting a repentant ex-monster do? Cause more pain, that's what.

Frankly, if someone is rehabilitated, then ther eis no further reason for 'justice', and if they aren't, then your focus should either be on keeping them out of society (for others' safety), or on rehabilitating them (both courses of action should be done with minimal harm and the harm that is caused should eb less than the harm of not 'imprisoning/rehabilitating them).

So yeah, nice guy, ex-nazi, repenting altruist. I'd protect him/her more than I would an 'average Joe, non ex-nazi', because it is the quality of the person they are, not the quality of what they were that matters.

 

[madwarper]

Where's the "Other (not bad stuff)" option?

Would I hide him? No. I'd tell him to man up, face the consequences for his actions.
And, I'd be a character witness for as long as I've known him.

 

[MisterGobbles]

Are any Nazis alive that weren't like, 12 when WWII was going on?

Anyway, I would probably hide the poor guy. It's not like he would pull a knife on me or anything, and his mental torture for doing the things he's done is probably enough punishment if he's gone this long without being incarcerated. And it's not like the guy would have long to live, being in his 80s or 90s or whatever.

But this situation is highly unrealistic anyway. Like, so-batshit-insane-that-my-suspension-of-disbelief-generators-have-shut-down unrealistic.

 

[Evidencebased]

If this person is truly sorry for what they've done, shouldn't they turn themselves in? I'd be pretty dubious that someone was actually "sorry" if they were still hiding out from the police. I'd turn him or her in. They can put their money where their mouth is ... and do it in court.

 

[Drake_Dercon]

Where's the "Other (not bad stuff)" option?

Would I hide him? No. I'd tell him to man up, face the consequences for his actions.
And, I'd be a character witness for as long as I've known him.

Apologies, I just corrected that. Other was supposed to be a catch-all.

but for very severe crimes there is an instant desire to make someone pay. Usually harshly.

That's the thing though, just because you feel like causing someone pain, does it actually make it right? What does hurting a repentant ex-monster do? Cause more pain, that's what.

Frankly, if someone is rehabilitated, then ther eis no further reason for 'justice', and if they aren't, then your focus should either be on keeping them out of society (for others' safety), or on rehabilitating them (both courses of action should be done with minimal harm and the harm that is caused should eb less than the harm of not 'imprisoning/rehabilitating them).

So yeah, nice guy, ex-nazi, repenting altruist. I'd protect him/her more than I would an 'average Joe, non ex-nazi', because it is the quality of the person they are, not the quality of what they were that matters.

Then there's the fact that they were at least partially responsible for the events of the holocaust. Rehabilitation is one thing, but there are probably many that are worse off than he is now as a result of his actions. I'd tell him he should turn himself in. Capital punishment is illegal where I am, so he will be given some shot and continuing his life.

 

[Fidelias]

Where's the "Other (not bad stuff)" option?

Would I hide him? No. I'd tell him to man up, face the consequences for his actions.
And, I'd be a character witness for as long as I've known him.

This. If the man is truly rehabilitated, then he would not hide from the crimes he has committed.

 

[thylasos]

Hand him into international justice, see what they decide. They decide he's a war criminal, they can still decide term served or he's too old to put in prison... whatever.

Generally I consider the justice system simply a measure to ensure that the public at large are kept safe, but... to be honest I can't really apply that to war criminals.

Thousands of victims, their families and so on, deserve something more. Not the death penalty. That's a sell-out of the idea of sanctity of human life. A jail-term, if it's practical and not basically torture of an old man, just simple deprivation of freedom, fine.

 

[Rayne870]

I voted to turn him in, based on the assumption that it would be recently after the events and not current day.

I also would think that if he is sorry he would be ready to atone for his crimes. Besides it seems that he is only sorry now when he knows someone is coming for him, there's a difference between sorry and trying to escape punishment.

If it were me in his situation I would have either defected to the Allies, and given them whatever information I had, or if there was no way out of it I would have taken my life and probably the lives of as many Nazis as I could.

 

[emeraldrafael]

The ends can justify the means. He helped more than he hurt. In the end, his good outweighed his bad.

No they dont. And I'm sure the Jewish families would agree. Helping one life does not make up for consciously ending another.

 

[Visulth]

They couldn't do anything about it. They were fools, and have changed. One exception. If the words or phrase "I was just following orders." come out of their mouth, I'm turning them in. To quote The 9th Doctor: "And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me."

In the example, "he was an officer".

This isn't a grunt, he has responsibilty.

And to my mind you can't be reabilitated until you have paid for your crimes. After that we can talk.

And let me say I'm disgusted by the 10 people so far that would protect him. You obviously have never talked to someone with a number tattoed on their arm.

Right, but I don't think its as simple as that. For the record, I voted saying I'd protect him. I'm not Jewish, so I can't say I understand, but I am Indian so I'd still be on Hitler's shit list, albeit lower than Jewish people.

With Nazi Germany the air of oppression was great. People were forced into this machine and they either rebelled--as I'm sure many did at the start, before being dealt with--or did their best to survive, and that meant keeping their heads low and doing the absolute minimum they were told to.

Human history is bloody. Humans prey and kill each other. I don't think I could truly blame someone for doing what they have to do to survive because that instinct has been beaten into their DNA for 4 million years. Sure, this is all no excuse, but I feel given how much time has passed there'd be nothing to gain for feeding him to the prison system.

 

[Drake_Dercon]

If it were me in his situation I would have either defected to the Allies, and given them whatever information I had, or if there was no way out of it I would have taken my life and probably the lives of as many Nazis as I could.

Would you really? Most people didn't and even fewer before it was all over. It was all facilitated by the dehumanization of prisoners. It actually became harder emotionally (studies have shown) to kill a prisoner during an uprising because they displayed humanity rather than the standard mindless hopelessness that dominated their lives during their "stay".

It would have been incredibly difficult to do anything other than go along with it.