UN Former SS soldier will not face charges for participating in massacre, only for hate speech while talking about it. - Words are literal violence. Actual violence? Consequence free.

Former SS soldier is charged with hate speech for saying victims of the massacre he participated in deserved it.

Prosecutors in the German state of Lower Saxony said Wednesday that they have charged an ex-SS guard for questioning the extent of the Holocaust and offensive comments he made about the victims of a massacre of civilians in France during World War II.

Karl M. admitted last year in an interview with German TV broadcaster ARD to being part of an SS troop that massacred 86 villagers in the town of Ascq in northern France in April 1944. He denied shooting at the victims, some of whom were as young as 15.

But prosecutors charged him with hate speech and slandering the memory of the deceased by claiming that the Ascq victims were responsible for their own deaths and separately questioning whether the Nazis had killed six million Jews during the Holocaust.

Denying or belittling the Holocaust is a crime in Germany.




Karl M. was one of the SS soldiers involved in the massacre of 86 people in Villeneuve-d'Ascq in North France

Karl M. will not be charged for his participation in the massacre of Ascq villagers, after it was ruled he could not be found guilty of the same crime twice. The former soldier was sentenced to death in abstentia by a French court in 1949 for his role in the mass slaughter.

He could face five years in jail if convicted. Multiple ex-SS soldiers have faced trial in recent years over their actions during the Nazi era.

It’s illegal in Germany to deny or belittle the holocaust.

The really disturbing thing here is that he’s previously been tried for the actual massacre. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a court in France after the war and can’t be charged twice with the same crime. So for the actual crime and killings he won’t ever be punished.!

While I can see why they’re trying to lock him up any way they can, and he’s clearly a Very Bad Person, there seems to be something horribly wrong in a world where you can get off Scot free for killing a bunch of people, but jailed for words.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-former-ss-soldier-charged-with-hate-speech/a-49729998

http://archive.is/DhgwZ

Another case of using a horrible person to put in place laws which are actually rather sinister.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

...there seems to be something horribly wrong in a world where you can get off Scot free for killing a bunch of people, but jailed for words.

He was sentenced to death over his crimes, as you said yourself. The sentence can not be carried out and the previous sentence precludes the possibility to sentence him again, since it's really fucking undemocratic to be dragged to court multiple times over the same crime and be sentenced multiple times. That wouldn't be possible in the US either.
Still, what you said misses the point. He's not "getting off scot free for killing", he was sentenced, but the punishment was impossible to be carried out.

 

[The Last Stand]

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

Happy this SS solider is being punished now, but I don't get why they ONLY charge him for saying racist stuff. Focus on his war crimes towards humanity FIRST, then add whatever else. But hey, if this will expose more SS then ... sure?

 

[Computer Boy]

Hurt feelings are way more important than actual war crimes, says Germany

More news at 11

 

[The Woman Without Nerves]

Little side note: He was assaulted in february 2019 by two unknown persons who had masqueraded themselves as postmen. They shackled him to his kitchenette, stole documents, files and other articles of value. He was later found by a nurse but refused to go to hospital.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Germany needs to get the fuck over the Second World War, episode ∞ .

 

[Bessie]

Wasn't able to flee to South America, eh? Has he been speaking his mind all throughout his post-war life, and this law is just catching up to him now? Or does he just not give a fuck, having lived this long?

 

[Clop]

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

Happy this SS solider is being punished now, but I don't get why they ONLY charge him for saying racist stuff. Focus on his war crimes towards humanity FIRST, then add whatever else. But hey, if this will expose more SS then ... sure?

Because he was already sentenced for his war crimes, he can't be tried for them a second time.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Only in Germany...

Seriously though, as much as I hate the fact that he was an actual Nazi who took part in an actual war crime, charging him with hate speech just seems like overkill and typical post-modernist German bullshit.

I mean, he's already old as fuck and nearing the end of his life, no need to virtue signal.

If Russia is the Florida of Europe, would that make Germany the California of Europe? Or does that title go to Sweden?

 

[Aumis Graham]

Thank goodness they are charging this person, but funnily enough, for the wrong reasons. Can democracy be a worse form of government?

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

Happy this SS solider is being punished now, but I don't get why they ONLY charge him for saying racist stuff. Focus on his war crimes towards humanity FIRST, then add whatever else. But hey, if this will expose more SS then ... sure?

And

Hurt feelings are way more important than actual war crimes, says Germany

More news at 11

Way to miss the point. He was sentenced for his war crimes. Blame the French for fucking up not being able to carry out the punishment.

Wasn't able to flee to South America, eh? Has he been speaking his mind all throughout his post-war life, and this law is just catching up to him now? Or does he just not give a fuck, having lived this long?

Afaik, he's been very vocal for a very long time about this stuff and was kind of a mascot to many neo-nazi organizations that he was all to eager to cooperate with. He's selling autographs, for instance. So yeah.

I'm starting to wonder if I mix him up though. I think this is the guy who worked as a guard in the camp that turned people into lampshades, so saying stuff like "They deserved it" is really fucked up.

 

[PL 001]

Ah leftists.

Participating in the attempted genocide of a race? Eh, what are ya gonna do? Don't you DARE call them a kike though or we'll have you drawn and quartered!

 

[Ma Wang]

I may be missing something, but why couldn't he be extradited to France? Presumably his death sentence would be commuted to life in prison, since the death penalty was abolished.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Afaik, he's been very vocal for a very long time about this stuff and was kind of a mascot to many neo-nazi organizations that he was all to eager to cooperate with. He's selling autographs, for instance. So yeah.

I'm starting to wonder if I mix him up though. I think this is the guy who worked as a guard in the camp that turned people into lampshades, so saying stuff like "They deserved it" is really fucked up.

Is there a reason these former Third Reich randos don't move to a country less psychotically broken about WW2? Like, say, literally anywhere else? It seems pretty obvious at this point that they'll inevitably be dragged for something, anything that a random prosecutor can find or make up.

 

[Clop]

Christ almighty how many people are going to read the headline and make a smartarse comment without reading why he's not facing charges?

This is Facebook levels of stupid now.

I may be missing something, but why couldn't he be extradited to France? Presumably his death sentence would be commuted to life in prison, since the death penalty was abolished.

Alright, this one is a good question, fortunately there is an answer:

"He was sentenced to death in absentia by a French military tribunal in 1949 for his role in the Ascq mass killing but was pardoned in 1955 as part of French-German reconciliation efforts after World War II.

German prosecutors had sought to reopen the war crime case on his home soil but dropped the case against him in March last year because of his prior conviction in France -- under a legal principle known as double jeopardy."

So there you go.

 

[Barnard]

I have no clue how law works in these cases and unfortunately, the article provides no legal details. Shouldn't France be looking for him? Or is the sentence no longer binding after all these years? But I suppose even if they handed him over to France, the original sentence can't be carried out anymore because death penalty is no longer legal there, unless there's some legal mechanism allowing to "convert" pre-1981 death sentences to lesser penalties. This is so annoyingly complicated.

Yeah, so they're getting him mainly for Holocaust denial instead, which is up to five years in prison. I don't know, this doesn't seem right.

 

[Bassomatic]

Such irony a man who was trying to fight for his nation and in misguided ways, is to be punished for people wanting to destroy his nation, in deep seeded hateful ways.

 

[Vampirella]

Way to miss the point. He was sentenced for his war crimes. Blame the French for fucking up not being able to carry out the punishment.

The French always mess things up. What do you think @Heinrich Himmler?

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Because he was already sentenced for his war crimes, he can't be tried for them a second time.

I don't see why not. Trying him for mean words is transparently an end run around that kind of red tape. I'd respect Germany a tiny bit more if they were just honest about it.

 

[ES 148]

Surprised no edgelord has defended him yet. Any bets?