Voland

Children of survivors of Nazi concentration camps are trying to sue the german governement for the cost of psychological treatment they claim to need. Since the governement has denied responsibility the lawsuit is going to court, first in Israel and possibly later in Germany...


Shoah Class Action Suit: Children of Holocaust Survivors to Sue Germany - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

joep182

I dont think the Germans should have to pay. Hardly anyone who took part in the holocaust is still alive. Why should this generation of Germans have to pay for the mistakes of some of the previous generations ?

dahermit

Most Germans alive today were not born at the time of the holocaust. Many German people, even after finding out about the holocaust were unrepentant. Mengala's home town would not cooperate as to his whereabouts after WWII, protecting him from prosecution.
Most survivors of the holocaust are now dead. The few remaining survivors are few enough that it should not have a great burden on the German treasury to provide free psychological services to the living victims. It would be the decent thing to volunteer to do.

Voland

This is about the children of victims, not the victims themselves. Germany has accepted a huge financial burden over many decades to provide at least monetary compensation for lost or looted property, to provide pensions for former force labourers or for months and years of detainment in concentration camps. That its impossible to weigh psychological injuries and traumata in money is obvious though.
The question would be : Where does it end ? Those exspected to pay in this case where not more involved than those going to court. They weren´t even born, as you rightly pointed out.
That german authorities brought too few war criminals to justice, is true, but a different matter.
Again you can´t blame that on past generations.........
And it´s "Mengele", not "Mengala". Since he ended up in Brasil under a false name ( and died there) , i´m not sure as to why you blame his home town in Bavaria ? The Mossad apparently knew where he was, but decided not to catch him for political reasons..........

Slartibartfas

Exactly. Where does it end?

What about a sue of grandchildren of holocaust survivors for the psychological harm that came over them due to harmed parents who had a difficult childhood due to their parents sufferage during the Holocaust?


Regarding old Nazis. Well, Austria for example played here a very bad role in fact.


PS:
My own two cents. An NGO that does probably very good work in Israel is in a severe lack of money and the solution to this problem: Why dont we let the Germans pay?

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Slartibartfas

Germany as well as Austria paid or are still paying large sums for reparation reasons. (As far as it comes to Austria it took an nearly unendless long time until this could be reached and be dealt with, nothing we have to be proud of)

I dont know how its with Germany, but Austrias deal was connected with the condition that no further huge claims arise unexpectedly again. Such a condidtion probably does not exist with Germany.


The question remains, why Germans have not only to pay for the victims of the holocaust but for people who were not harmed by any German ever directly but pull their whole demand for reparations out of purely indirect relations to the Holocaust.

Let me talk in plain words: If it would be a few hand fulls of childrens who severely suffered from the heir of the Holocaust and how it changed its fathers and mothers who survived it I would not make much fuss about it.

But we are talking about 30.000 people who claim money from Germany through this way.

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dahermit

In a TV special about Mengele, he made at least one trip back to his home town under an assumed name. The TV report stated that even though it was know by the towns people that he was back in town, none would report him. It was also stated that he had the protection of dictators in South America and lived in a remote stronghold where he could not be captured by the Israeli's.

Slartibartfas

Thats bad if its true, but first of all its limited, second it would not have changed much as the age of him will solve everything soon anyway and most importantly: It has not much to do directly with the issue ahead. (Unless you want to make entire Germany guilty for the errors of some inhabitants of a village)

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Voland

So Mengele made one trip back to his home town of Günzburg in upper Bavaria, presumably decades later, presumably having changed his looks , using a false name and each or most of the several thousands of locals knew about it , thus making them members of a conspiracy to hide Nazi war criminals ? Excuse me, but you fail to convince me. It is highly unlikely that more than a couple of people were informed about such a trip ( if it took place at all) , all else would have been to dangerous for him.
Also Mengele lived at least during his late years in a bungalow in a suburb of Sao Paulo, where the Israelis could have gotten him as easily as they did in Eichmanns case.

How Josef Mengele Cheated Justice, Chicago Tribune Magazine, May 18, 1986

And finally again the question how this is connected to the actual topic ?

dahermit

Yes, age did catch up with him. He died years ago on a beach in South America from a stroke while swimming.

Yes, I did get off topic. And examining the posts after mine, I see that I was using faulty reasoning. Wow! Did you ever think that you would see such an admission on these forums?