Concentration camp guard Josef S. (101) has been sentenced to five years in prison. It has to be, says BZ editor Katharina Metag Photo: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | Michele Tantussi / BZ Montage
By Catherine Metag
Concentration camp guard Josef S. (101) has been sentenced to five years in prison. A comment from BZ editor Katharina Metag.
“Do you still have to put such an old man in prison?” A friend of mine asked me when the verdict against 101-year-old Josef S. was pronounced on Tuesday.
Does it have to be now? A question I keep hearing and reading about Nazi crimes. A question to which, in my opinion, there can only be one answer.
Yes, it must! It has to be and it can also hurt. The at least 3,516 people who died with Josef S. as a young guard in Sachsenhausen concentration camp did not have the chance to live as old as he did. And no chance of the sympathy that the aged defendant is unfortunately often bestowed with.
Despite written evidence: Josef S. denied his actions to the last, showing neither remorse nor sympathy. He will be one of the last Nazi criminals to be brought to justice.
It must be! I mean, we all are and Josef S. undoubtedly owes it to the victims and their families.
