Poll: Would you harbor a nazi?

[Chamale]

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

There's no statute of limitations on genocide.

 

[WolfEdge]

Like hell he's sorry. I'd turn that fucker in, I have no sympathy for nazis.

EDIT: And what the hell people!? How can over 40% of you say you'd hide him? Unless you were a straight white racist male he wouldn't do a damn thing if YOU were in trouble.

Repentant nazi. As in, no longer follows their ways.

I'm sure the families of the hundreds of Jews he put six feet under (actually, scratch that. They're not six feet under because their bodies were used to fuel furnaces) will be gratified to here he repented :/

What would justice be if we could get away with crimes simply by dodging the law long enough and feeling bad about it? I'd understand if a robber go away with his crimes after several years in hiding and him turning over a new leaf, but there's no statute of limitations for genocide.

This is quite the difficult situation, and the answer all comes down to what defines "justice" to a given individual.

Here you have proven criminal, whose past actions have harmed and negatively influenced the lives of many, many people. However, decades later, the criminal has completely reformed himself. Mentally, he is not the same person. Moreover, he is constantly performing good deeds in order to benefit humanity, and to atone for his secret shames. Do we imprison or possibly even kill him, so as to provide a sense of closure to the survivors of his past, or do we allow him his freedom, on the grounds that his state of mind is now radically different from when he committed the acts?

Is justice about vengeance and revenge? Is justice about maintaining an eye for an eye? Is it about going out of one's way to assure a perceived criminal attains proper punishment for his actions, no matter the cost? Or is justice about the protection of the present innocent? Guilt before innocence? Or innocence before guilt?

History and philosophy have both proven time and time again that maintaining an equal preference for both to be an impossible task.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I'd turn him in. Look, you committed a crime. A horrible, horrible crime. That's something you have to face the facts on and deal with. To try and rope someone else into it by having them break the law [harboring a fugitive] and possibly end up in jail as well is irresponsible at best. I'm not putting my good name at risk so you can keep yours. Sorry folks.

 

[metal mustache]

Er, i wouldn't let him in my house, i would never harbor anyone for any reason. Call me selfish, but its just not my damn problem.

buuuuuuut...

if for some reason i wasn't thinking straight say, because i didn't have coffee that morning,
and i found myself in that situation with the cops on top of me, I would wish them luck finding him, cause i don't like to do anything for society. screw the police, screw the government.

but if i have to think about this reasonably, i wouldn't know what to do. You see, i've never been a nazi, and have never faced anything remotely like a nazi's personal dilemna. I would therfore never feel confident in any judgment i make about a nazi.
But i'll try. Now i don't ever see examples of nazi's not killing people, but i am confident that nazi's were also normal people like you or me. I mean, why wouldn't they be? they were soliders, and alot of people wanted to be soliders, or were conspricted. therefore murdering people is normal, and i shouldn't make an exception for the once-nazi for murdering for his bread and butter. And theres my logic. that doesn't look very solid, don't really care, just want to see it get destroyed, or better put, or whatever.

Edit: grrr my anger grows every time i see the word justice. Is this what it feels like to be a cartoon villian?

do you just not care enough about the morality involved that you leave it to the letter of the law every time? Saying justice must be served just seems a very lazy way to deal with the problem. After all whether or not you turn him in is going to affect the rest of his entire life. Are you not worried about what obeying the law says about you? What is your reason for turning him in, other then that's what you do in this society? don't you forgot, he'll be put away precisley because he obeyed the law, so what gives you the right to cast the first stone?

 

[WolfThomas]

No, I'd try to convince him to turn himself in and would offer to provide myself as a character witness. But I'm not hiding an fugitive from the law that is genuinely guilty, no matter how repentent, if he were truly sorry, he'd accept his fate. If he was concerned about his safety I'd perhaps negotiate for his surrender.

Now if I found out my neighbour was a former Nazi and not being wanted by the police, I'd probably not report him. He still has got to go through life knowing what he did.

 

[Gearran]

No. Next question!

 

[x-machina]

Honestly, the war was 70 years ago, anyone with any authority has probably died of natural causes. The guy I'm considering harbouring must have been under twenty years old at the time. Which means he was just following orders, he didn't have a choice.

So yeah, I probably would help the guy out.

 

[dyre]

Like hell he's sorry. I'd turn that fucker in, I have no sympathy for nazis.

EDIT: And what the hell people!? How can over 40% of you say you'd hide him? Unless you were a straight white racist male he wouldn't do a damn thing if YOU were in trouble.

Repentant nazi. As in, no longer follows their ways.

I'm sure the families of the hundreds of Jews he put six feet under (actually, scratch that. They're not six feet under because their bodies were used to fuel furnaces) will be gratified to here he repented :/

What would justice be if we could get away with crimes simply by dodging the law long enough and feeling bad about it? I'd understand if a robber go away with his crimes after several years in hiding and him turning over a new leaf, but there's no statute of limitations for genocide.

This is quite the difficult situation, and the answer all comes down to what defines "justice" to a given individual.

Here you have proven criminal, whose past actions have harmed and negatively influenced the lives of many, many people. However, decades later, the criminal has completely reformed himself. Mentally, he is not the same person. Moreover, he is constantly performing good deeds in order to benefit humanity, and to atone for his secret shames. Do we imprison or possibly even kill him, so as to provide a sense of closure to the survivors of his past, or do we allow him his freedom, on the grounds that his state of mind is now radically different from when he committed the acts?

Is justice about vengeance and revenge? Is justice about maintaining an eye for an eye? Is it about going out of one's way to assure a perceived criminal attains proper punishment for his actions, no matter the cost? Or is justice about the protection of the present innocent? Guilt before innocence? Or innocence before guilt?

History and philosophy have both proven time and time again that maintaining an equal preference for both to be an impossible task.

I'm not talking about philosophical justice; I'm talking about societal justice. In order to have a society that protects its members, you have to prosecute wrongdoers. A justice system that lets this Nazi go is one that basically says, "ok, if you slaughter innocents, but dodge the cops for a long time and feel bad about it later, you're all clear."

Whether they genuinely feel bad about it or not is between them and their God/conscience, but a functioning society must hold its criminals accountable, and genocide is one hell of a crime.

 

[Moosh50]

I'd blackmail the shit out of him, then turn him in.

 

[000Ronald]

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.

This is a bad question. Not just the "Does old man Nazi deserve to die" thing, but the idea that AMERICAN JUSTICE! is in the right.

Another reason this whole scenario is wrong? It's too easy. "Send poor Nazi man to jail or don't, either way, you might have to go without sleep for a couple nights."

Here's the real question you have to ask yourself; would you have harbored The Jewish during WWII? The easy answer is yes, but it's not that simple. If you were found out, you were treated just the same as them; you and your whole family were stripped of your possessions, your home, marched off to a slave camp, fed the same rotten soup day in and day out, watching people die all around you...

And consider what was thought about these people then.

My great-great-grandmother did harbor The Jewish in her home. Her and all but one of her daughters were killed for it. My great-grandmother told her grandchildren in explicit detail what had happened. And my father told me, in explicit detail, what happened....

I don't know. I don't know if I would be willing to put everyone I cared about in that kind of risk. I would like to think I would, but I just...don't know.

 

[idodo35]

You want to know what I would do?

Absolute fucking nothing.

Even if he wasn't sorry for what he did...I refuse to turn in this man. Hollywood, Israel, and the Jewish people have villianized these people just for the sole sake that their ancestors were killed and it makes me sick.

Has the man apologized to God? Has he confessed his sins to Him alone? Has he said "God, Jesus...forgive me?". Even then, what right are you to judge in the midst of warfare?

Guess what world? The instance he does that...all the tears have been WIPED away...

We allow black people leniency on a sociological level towards crimes in the United States because of "historical discrimination and inequality", we allow the Mexicans to walk onto land which they take resources from because they are "starving" and "can't maintain anything in their own land", we make up excuses left and right for everyone to lay claim that Israel has a right to Palestinian land for a racial ideology that is insultingly masqueraded as a religion...but nooooo...the German people have absolutely no right whatsoever to ever lay the claim that they had their land usurped by foreign powers and that their country is in actuality BLAMELESS for what happened.

The man is innocent until death in my eyes.

It's only because we've been force-fed that image so many times in our lives, via movies, via war films, via Hollywood...that we actually believe this shit that we're often told. Was it bad? Yes. But it's been overstated as to how "horrible" it really was. I see their deaths as no different than the deaths of soldiers.

Signed.
A man with German ancestry and other "untermenscht" mixings.

two things
1. the two commits about afro americans and mexicans are realy out of place and racist
the one about israel thats a tough one im myself an israely and i dont like what our goverment and "rigt" (as in left and rigt not correct)pollititions do to the arabs lets just put that one a side for a moment

2. what are you talking about demonising? you dont have to demonise a demon those nazis of ww2 were monsters they butcherd 6 million jews just for not being part of the arian race (look it up if you dont know) theyr next targets were black people homosexuals everyone who wasnt part of the "supirior race" was pllaned to be wiped out eventualy the jews were just the first and easyest to kill!
you say that movies and hollywood and everyone are demonising the nazies and yes sometimes they are but the nazis of ww2 (not the old men they became who are sorry for theyr crimes like the one in question) were indeed demons and if you dont belive me search the net for a "josef mengele" also known as the angel of death and tell me this man is inossent and yes this is the worst this gets but belive me the nazis were all evil back then and no one is making that up...

 

[Custard_Angel]

I know for a fact that my great grandfather sheltered a Nazi soldier in WW2 because the soldier was barely 18 years old and frightened to death. Took the kids gun and stashed him in the roof of his barn and gave him food and some clothes.

I'm not sure what happened to the guy after that. I think he fled and... did something that a Nazi soldier incapable of speaking English does in the middle of WW2 behind enemy lines.

I respect my great grandfather for that. It couldn't have been an easy thing to do during wartime and was most certainly illegal, but it showed compassion and humanity.

I reckon I'd do the same thing if some frightened kid showed up in the same circumstances. Mind you, I'd slit his throat from ear to ear if I thought he posed a threat to my family.

Oh Compassion, Custard be thy name.

 

[Callate]

If he's truly repentant, he should turn himself in.

 

[Skoosh]

I see the point of prison as protecting society from future crimes, not punishment. If his crimes were because he was part of Nazi Germany--a nation with virtually no chance of coming back--and he has been a model citizen for decades since, he shouldn't be turned in. Now of course in most situations it's impossible to tell someone's true intentions, whether they are truly remorseful and will not repeat the crime. We can't be sure a murderer won't kill again or a thief won't break into another house. But in his case? His crimes were tied to the uniform he wore, and that part of him died long ago. Punishing him won't bring those people back or remove their scars. It doesn't protect the current society, it doesn't mend the past society, there's no point in it other than a sadistic sense of justice.

Now of course this assumes that I know the man very very well. Seen him daily for decades and been through his house and I can magically be absolutely certain he has been perfect since then and can read his mind to know he's sorry. This sort of situation only exists in a hypothetical though. Even in the hypothetical, I probably wouldn't actively hide him, I just wouldn't turn him in. Tell him to go back home and tell the police what they already know, that his house is next door.

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

I would relinquish him to the police.

If there were some controversy of his crimes (if the nature or guilt of the crime were questionable), then perhaps. In this case, I am simply housing a criminal. I would not accept punishment on his behalf.

 

[ultimateownage]

He was forced to do it, so I'd give him a chance. If he was a Neo Nazi and hated Jews, then hell no.
"I was only carrying out my orders."

 

[klakkat]

I would normally say it is a complicated problem, but I'm not exactly an altruistic or hospitable person. "Find other residence" is a phrase likely to come from my lips, though I would refuse to talk to the police if I believed the former nazi was not responsible for the crimes attributed to him. Hell, I would likely refuse anyway if I felt he was no longer a threat (which, coincidentally, would be the only way I could tolerate his acquaintance in the first place).

I'm not inclined to illegal acts, moral or not; I will usually only commit such if I feel the law is pointless and relatively unenforced. So, harboring a criminal of any kind is right out, though I may offer them what advice and connections I can, if I prefer they successfully evade the law.

 

[Psychedeliasmith]

It might help if the question was not as meaningless as "Would you harbor a conservative?"

Also lol, the answers in this thread are a bit scary. History as taught by computer games - there is no nazi that didn't wield a gun in a combat situation or have a personal hand in the holocaust.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe

"Rabe was elected as its leader, in part because of his status as a member of the Nazi party... It is said Rabe rescued between 200,000 ? 250,000 Chinese people."