Suspect in Nazi trial admits killings

"AACHEN, Germany — A former member of the Nazi SS being tried for murder admitted in court Tuesday that he killed three Dutch civilians during World War II, but insisted he was following orders.

Heinrich Boere told the Aachen state court in a statement read by attorney Gordon Christiansen that he had killed a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian in 1944 as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad.
"As a simple soldier, I learned to carry out orders," Boere said in his statement.

"And I knew that if I didn't carry out my orders I would be breaking my oath and would be shot myself."

The 88-year-old faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted of three counts of murder.

Boere has not entered a plea, as is usual under the German court system, but Christiansen said after the hearing that he would argue for an acquittal based on the assertion that Boere had to follow orders."

The Associated Press: Suspect in Nazi trial admits killings

 

Following orders, what the hell does that mean? How do you measure it? How does one side take it seriously? How does the other? Did they enjoy it? Did they trulely follow them under fear? How do you tell 65+ years later?

I'm always a bit depressed when it comes to this kind of stuff, I want justice to prevail, I also don't want the wrong decision to be made. How are such things decided after all this time? What kind of evidence is presented?

Has their ever been a case such as this where the accused was found innocent? I think their was a case here in Canada with a man called Oberlander but I think the case was reopened recently.

 

The Nuremburg trial established that a soldier has the moral duty to refuse an unlawful order. What the defendant argued would not be an effective defense for an international court, though I would leave the works of German courts to Germans on the forum.

 

Accomplice testifies at German WWII killing trial - Yahoo! News

An accomplice of a former member of the Nazi SS who is on trial for murdering Dutch civilians during World War II testified Friday that hit squad men were afraid of what would happen if they didn't follow orders.

Dutchman Jacobus Petrus Besteman testified Friday to a German court by video link from the Netherlands in the trial against Heinrich Boere, who is charged with three counts of murder.

"All those who participated were afraid of not following an order. That was very dangerous," Besteman told the Aachen state court. He said, however, that he wasn't aware that anyone had ever been punished.

The 88-year-old Boere admitted in court last month that he was involved in the 1944 killing of three Dutch civilians as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad.

Besteman, also 88, acknowledged that he and Boere were the only people present at the killing of pharmacist Fritz Hubert Ernst Bicknese in the Dutch town of Breda.

Boere has said he and Besteman both fired the fatal shots — but Besteman denied that.

"I had no weapon. Never," he said. Asked whether Boere fired on the pharmacist, he said he hadn't seen a weapon.

Boere's defense says he was just following orders and should be acquitted. He faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted on three counts of murder.

Defense lawyer Gordon Christiansen said after the hearing that Boere wasn't denying the killing, but added that Besteman's testimony clearly showed that all concerned greatly feared the consequences of disobeying the Nazis' orders.

Prosecutor Ulrich Maass questioned that assertion. He said Besteman, the only living witness, answered most questions by saying he didn't know the answer.

Besteman was the last scheduled witness at the trial, which started in October.

 

One less-
"A former SS hitman who escaped justice for six decades after murdering Dutch civilians during World War Two has died in a prison hospital while serving a life sentence at the age of 92.
Heinrich Boere died of natural causes yesterday in the facility in Froendenberg, Germany, where he was being treated for dementia, a North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Ministry spokesman said.
He had been the state's oldest prisoner.
Boere was on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals until his arrest in Germany and conviction in 2010 on three counts of murder.
During his six-month trial in Aachen, Boere admitted killing three civilians as a member of the Silbertanne - or Silver Fir - hit squad, a unit of largely Dutch SS volunteers responsible for reprisal killings of countrymen who were considered anti-Nazi.
'Late justice often sends a very powerful message regarding the importance of Nazi and Holocaust crimes,' the centre's top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.
'It's a comforting thought to know that Boere ended his life in a prison hospital rather than as a free man.'
Boere sat through his trial in a wheelchair and was regularly monitored by a doctor.
He spoke little, but told the court in a written statement he had no choice but to obey orders to carry out the killings.
'As a simple soldier, I learned to carry out orders,' Boere testified.
'And I knew that if I didn't carry out my orders I would be breaking my oath and would be shot myself.'"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516956/Nazi-hitman-Henrich-Boere-dies-prison-hospital-aged-92.html#ixzz2mLohTiV8

 

Shit rolls downhill. I'm sure the guy who gave the orders was a useful tool for the allies like Gehlen was. They get off and the little guys get fucked. Reminds me of Apocalypse Now, find someone gulty of murder in a war while thousands of civilians are being killed in air strikes.
Joseph Heller had it right.