[Z]

This is a complex issue that I could debate endlessly... and never come to the same conclusion. He was there, on the right side of the fence. Regardless of his attitude or why he was there, whether he enjoyed it, whether he pulled a trigger or not; he knew what was going on there.

I've been to Sachsenhausen. We walked the route from the train station that any of the transported prisoners would have walked to the camp. The townspeople in Oranienburg feigned ignorance and said they had no idea what was going on in a camp that was on the edge of their town - it would have been impossible to not know. German guilt has translated into convictions for war crimes and while I think that's a good thing, the world at large can only lament that it took so long for them to start doing so.

While I think it's ultimately a bit fruitless to be prosecuting a 90-something Nazi bookkeeper for war crimes, I think it's symbolic of the fact that justice has eventually been dealt - it might not be much and it will certainly never be enough to make up for what happened but it's the best anyone can do at this stage and I'm sure that for anyone who lost someone they loved to the Nazi concentration camps, this is still an important conviction.

Yes, he was probably swept up in what he had to do to survive - it wasn't his fault personally that concentration camps came to be... but he was there. He was a witness, an accessory, a cog in a machine and he had to make the tough choice between surviving by any means or being killed himself. He made his choice and lived to be in his 90s. All choices have consequences.