Dachau Waffen SS guard found in GA.

[SkyRock]

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14243131/detail.html

[Tiger]

I'm guessing there is no sort of statute of limitations on this sort of thing.

But deporting a guy who has been here over 50 years for something that happened over 60 years ago?

[AquaShrimp]

Get him.  Theres no honor in being a soldier who kills innocent people.  He's lived a life of relative peace and prosperity here in the U.S., while who knows how many civilians he killed or maimed with his attack dogs.

[BBBB]

The only problem I have with situations like this is the simple fact soldiers do as they are told. He was ordered to be stationed at that camp. He was ordered to guard it. He simply did as he was ordered. It is not as simple as saying "no" or "I won't" for him. He was a soldier, part of a military force. Unlike an officer of said force who makes decisions and orders for other troops. Officers are no doubt guilty, but a simple dog handler?

 Now, if it comes out that he willingly participated in the killing of civilians while on duty there then that is a different story all together, but so far these self proclaimed Nazi hunters have not proved that. So far all they have brought to the table against this guy is that he was a guard and a dog handler there.

 I have a buddy who is currently on duty at Gitmo. What happens to him if it is found that what they are doing there is against international law? Does his ordered presence there make him a war criminal? Of course not. He was/is simply doing as ordered. I am pretty sure this guy in the story is no different.

 These groups make simple duty sound as if this guy was some sort of cruel ****** who loved his job. I would like to hear his side of things before I say hang the guy.


-Spot

[Pooh21]

nev4r ferget!!


why the hating on the dog in the article? Its not his fault vicious attack dog indeed. do they expect guards to have a Westy in a novelty sweater?

[Jaxxon]

Paperwork filed by the Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Henss joined the Hitler Youth organization in Germany in 1934 as a 12 or 13-year-old boy and joined the Nazi Party in September 1940.

In early 1941, Henss volunteered to serve in the Waffen SS and became an SS dog handler in 1942 after serving in the elite Waffen SS combat unit “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.”

Investigators also said that Henss taught other concentration camp guards at Dachau and Buchwenwald how to use attack dogs to guard prisoners and prevent their escape.

I don't know, sounds like a willing participant to me.

[FrodeMk3]

Okay, if you go by this, from the article;

“Hundreds of thousands of persons were confined under horrific conditions at Dachau and Buchenwald on the basis of their race, religion, national origin or political opinion,” said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division in a release.

“By commencing these proceedings against a man who participated in the victimization of those who were interned there, the Justice Department continues to make good on its pledge to ensure that the United States does not become a sanctuary for human rights violators.”

“The SS committed mass murder at Dachau and Buchenwald and subjected thousands of inmates to slave labor, starvation, grotesque medical experimentation, and torture,” said OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum, whose office investigated the case.

“The brutal concentration camp system could not have functioned without the determined efforts of SS men such as Paul Henss, who, with a vicious attack dog, stood between these victims and the possibility of freedom.”

There are in fact, many soldiers in different armies' all over the world who are guilty of the same thing. Yes, he was a guard; No, he wasn't the officer ordering the valves turned on in the gas chambers. Taking orders, no matter how distasteful, is something that a soldier does. Using the reasoning that current Nazi hunters' use, even the pastry chef for the camp commandant is a 'war criminal'.

[Tiger]

I love the people who make it sound like he had a choice,  sit at this camp with a gaurd dog, or be sent to the Eastern Front, those were probably his only two choices.

[Mr No Name]

30 million illegal alien scumbags running around and the idiots want to deport an 85 year old dog handler who probably lived a productive life and came here LEGALLY.  No mention of suspicious post-war activity, right??  

Leave him alone, guards/dog handlers were never high on the food chain anywhere.  Just another nontroversy... A lot of those ex-german soldiers were instrumental in helping us in the cold war against a much greater evil - communism - which has butchered and enslaved many times the numbers tallied by the nazis.... and the numbers are still climbing for the communists.

[Viking]

Unless there is evidence that he committed war crimes this sounds like a case of "guilty by association". Not exactly the standard of justice we should strive for in our societies. To my knowledge guarding prisoners is not a crime.

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Jaxxon
Paperwork filed by the Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Henss joined the Hitler Youth organization in Germany in 1934 as a 12 or 13-year-old boy and joined the Nazi Party in September 1940.

In early 1941, Henss volunteered to serve in the Waffen SS and became an SS dog handler in 1942 after serving in the elite Waffen SS combat unit “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler."

No different from many other youngsters back then. Many who didn't join in the nazi regime's youth organizations were beat up and could been nothing but scum of the earth within the nazi society. For many it was easier to join than stay outside. Not only because of fear being outcasted, but  because the organizations were built to attract youth. They were provided with activities and a feeling that they are important. They no longer had to hang around street corners wondering what to do without money.

Many of those who were part of the youth orgnizations have no regrets of it. It was fun times. The fun times didn't either mean beating up people.

Someone joining the Hitler Youth at a young age doesn't appeal to me as an actual fault. Does anyone actually think that people at the age of 13 would join the Hitler Youth with genuinely bad intentions?  How could they have known what's ahead of them in the future? Besides that, the youth can be easily manipulated. The nazi regime acknowledged this and worked hard to manipulate the youth to follow their ideology.

Being in the Waffen-SS itself doesn't either make a man bad. Majority of the Waffen-SS fought at the frontline as an elite unit with better equipment and training than the regulars in Wehrmacht. Much like the elite units in the US armed forces. More skilled soldiers with higher morale. Just like in the Waffen-SS, also the US armed forces have their bad apples - Abu Ghraib, Gitmo...

The SS without the "waffen"... well, that's a whole another story.

So.. exactly what did this guy do different from the others, except he was ordered to be stationed at concentration camps - for mere 3 months in two different camps. All this only because he was at concentration camps for couple of months! Does this mean that even a soldier who simply transported a letter to a camp is a nazi war criminal?

This information alone isn't enough in my opinion to judge the man as a bad person. Besides, he has lived as a responsible member of a society since then, right? At least the article doesn't tell of any crimes by him since becoming a citizen.

[Mr No Name]

Exactly... probably some guy at the JDL whining like hell... sounds like the same dipstick wrote the statement that appeared in the article.  All they needed to complete the way these are usually written is to claim that some survivor remembers him and claims they called him "Henss THE 'insert made-up name here'" (They gotta have THE something in the name like italian mobsters)

this is bs - hell no mention of a single thing he did in his life after 1945... 62 years... wonder what he really did with his life after age 24 when the war ended???

Look at the names on the statements of the government officials involved... Alice Fisher and Eli Rosenbaum... Think this guy has any chance??

[Jackal1]

Screw him. Hang the scum........slowly.
Yea he had a choice and no he did not enter the country legaly. He concealed his true identity.

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Jackal1
He concealed his true identity.

As far as the article is concerned he didn't conceal his identity but his service record.

I'd be curious to know what kind of an application he had to fill up before becoming a US citizen. Was there a simple check box asking whether he participated in the nazi holocaust? If so, can 4 to 6 months service as a dog handler at a concentration camp be considered as participating in the holocaust?

As a follow up question: Why did he only serve 4 to 6 months at the concentration camps? Was he relocated by his own wish or was he needed somewhere else more? These are important questions to consider when judging the man and his motives.

He can't be judged solely based on his short service at two concentration camps during a war time.

[Mr No Name]

Out of a war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, he served 6 months total as a guard dog handler... the majority of the time he was a regular soldier