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Old 07-05-13, 03:27   #1
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Movies American Neo-NAZI Hate Network Grooming Children For Race War

BBC, 6 May 2013

Germany Arrests 'Gormer Auschwitz Guard' -Hans Lipschis




Hans Lipschis says he was only a cook in Auschwitz

A 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp has been arrested in southern Germany.

Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was "compelling evidence" that he had been complicit in murder.
Mr Lipschis acknowledges he served with the Waffen SS at the camp in occupied Poland, but claims he was only a cook.

Last month, the Simon Wiesenthal Center named him as number four on its list of most-wanted Nazis.

The organisation accused him of participating in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, at Auschwitz between October 1941 and 1945.

"This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest, I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards," the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Efraim Zuroff told AFP news agency.

Mr Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive.

His house was searched by police and he was then brought before a judge and remanded in custody.

An indictment against him is currently being prepared, according to the Stuttgart prosecutor's office.


Demjanjuk Precedent

Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi extermination camp, where more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered.

Prosecutors have pointed to a re-interpretation of criminal law after the conviction of John Demjanjuk in May 2011.

Demjanjuk was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews while he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland.

His case means that potential defendants might no longer be able to hide behind the argument, in court, that they were simply following orders.

Mr Lipschis' wartime identification papers prove he belonged to an SS company deployed as guards in Auschwitz. He was reportedly granted "ethnic German" status by the Nazis.

He has told neighbours and reporters he worked only as a cook and saw nothing of the gas chambers and crematoria.

One German newspaper has previously reported that Mr Lipschis, who was born in what is now Lithuania in 1919, finished World War II fighting for Germany on the eastern front.

He moved to Chicago in the US in 1956, where he lived until 1983, when he was expelled for having concealed his Nazi past.

At the time it could not be proved that he was personally responsible for any killings.

He returned to Germany and his whereabouts, in Aalen, have apparently always been known to the authorities.


PREVIOUS REPORTS

'Auschwitz camp guard': Germany investigates ex-SS man

BBC, 22 August 2012



Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi death camp

German prosecutors are examining the case of an 87-year-old Nazi suspect accused of involvement in mass murder at the Auschwitz death camp.
The former SS man is not German, nor is he living in Germany.
He was allegedly a camp guard in 1944, when about 344,000 Jews from Hungary were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers in occupied Poland.
Prosecutors in Weiden, Bavaria, are to decide whether to charge him and try to bring him to Germany to face trial.
The man is believed to have lived in the Weiden area before going abroad after World War II.
German officials have not named him, but the Sueddeutsche Zeitung news website says the suspect is believed to be a Slovak now living in Philadelphia, in the US.
The chief prosecutor at Germany's office investigating Nazi war crimes, Kurt Schrimm, said details on the suspect came to light during the high-profile Demjanjuk investigation.
In March this year Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk, found guilty for his role as a Nazi guard at the Sobibor death camp, died aged 91. He had been sentenced to five years in prison by a German court in May 2011.
Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi death camp where more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered.


Former Auschwitz Nazi guard Hans Lipschis found in Germany

BBC, 25 April, 2013



Hans Lipschis


Prosecutors in the German city of Stuttgart have confirmed they are investigating a former Nazi SS man for crimes at the Auschwitz death camp.
Hans Lipschis, 93, worked at the camp in German-occupied Poland from 1941 - he says as a cook, German media report.
His name appears as number four on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted Nazis.
German media have identified him as living in Aalen in southern Germany. He has not yet been charged.


Demjanjuk Precedent

Lipschis is among 50 former Auschwitz staff, still alive, who are being newly investigated by the German authorities.

“Start Quote
We owe it to the survivors”
Kurt Schrimm Chief Official Investigator


Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi death camp, where more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered.

Prosecutors point to a re-interpretation of criminal law after the conviction of John Demjanjuk, in May 2011.
Demjanjuk was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews while he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland.
His case means that potential defendants such as Hans Lipschis might no longer be able to hide behind the argument, in court, that they were simply following orders.

Sense of Justice

"Simply being where the killing took place would be enough for a conviction," according to Kurt Schrimm, head of Germany's Central Judicial Office for the Investigation of Nazi crimes.
He says the purpose of pursuing suspects now is to create a sense that justice is being done and to shed light on historical events.
"We owe it to the survivors not simply to say that a certain time has passed and that it should be swept under the carpet," he says.

Hans Lipschis' wartime identification papers prove he belonged to an SS-company deployed as guards in Auschwitz.
It is not clear what role, if any, he had in the mass murder of inmates. He has told neighbours and reporters he worked only as a cook and saw nothing of the gas chambers and crematoria.
One German newspaper says Lipschis, who was born in what is now Lithuania in 1919, finished World War II fighting for Germany on the eastern front.

He moved to Chicago in the US in 1956, where he lived until 1983, when he was expelled for having concealed his Nazi past.

Accessory to murder At the time it could not be proved that he was personally responsible for any killings.
He returned to Germany and his whereabouts, in Aalen, has apparently always been known to the authorities.
He may now be charged with being an accessory to murder.
It is not yet clear if and when his case will come to trial.


PHOTOS/VIDEO of Auschwitz Death Camp


The former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than a million people were killed in World War II, faces an uncertain future.


Pawel Sawicki of the Auschwitz Museum explains the problems of preserving the ageing and crumbling 191-hectare site, with limited funds.
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