On Apr 7, 2:29=A0am, David Friedman <d...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> In article
> <synthfilker-52B2C6.00050007042...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> =A0Joe Ellis <synthfil...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > In article <ftc2d8$90...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > =A0"Keith F. Lynch" <k...@[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.. =A0 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.. =A0 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.. =A0but 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.. =A0
>
> 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?
There were certain categories of people whom the Nazis put into
concentration
camps not because of what they DID, but what they WERE. The list
includes
Jews, Homo***uals (male and female), Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Freemasons, the mentally and physically disabled. There were others,
but
those are the ones that come to mind. AFAIK, ordinary criminals,
convicted
through the courts, did not wind up in the camps.
For this reason, it possible to argue that wholesale freedom for those
in the camps was reasonable.
pt
|
