In article
<synthfilker-52B2C6.00050007042008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Joe Ellis <synthfilker@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <ftc2d8$90v$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
....
> > Anyone convicted of those genuine crimes by the Nazi regime should
> > have been given the benefit of the doubt, and freed.
>
> Oh, come on.. Overturn a legitimate conviction at the local level
> simply because upper level government was evil? You're compounding the
> problem, not righting a wrong.
>
> > If a criminal gang tem****arily took over your town, should its
> > decisions be honored as the acts of a legitimate government?
>
> Show me that the Nazi regime was not a "legitimate" government. I'm not
> arguing good vs evil.. that is all too clear. Demonstrate that, in
> broad terms, they were not the "legitimate" government of Germany at
> that time. If not them, then who? Yes, they manipulated the people, and
> murdered. However, the people DID put them into power. Scoundrels at
> best, liars, cheats, and even murderers.. but the fact remains they
> WERE the "legitimate" and internationally recognized government of
> Germany.
Going beyond the particular example, I'm curious as to what "the people
DID put them into power" means, beyond "they got into power." Consider,
not the Nazis, but the communists. I don't think any of the communist
governments came to power by democratic means, even to the degree that
the Nazis did. They either won a civil war or were installed by a
foreign power.
So when the communist governments fell, should the jails have been
emptied? If not, then "legitimate governments" isn't really the basis of
your argument.
....
> Free Jews? Of course. Free homo***uals? Absolutely. Free rapists and
> murderers? Don't be silly..
At the time the war ended, homo***uality was criminal in the U.K., I
think most or all of the U.S., probably in at least some of the other
allied powers. It shouldn't have been illegal, of course--just as the
Nazis shouldn't have ruled Germany. But in terms of the existing legal
structure, why was locking up homo***uals not in the same category as
locking up burglars?
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
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