Did Frank Trenker Face Justice For His Actions

When you work in the Army, you do not have much of a choice when you are given an order, which makes it hard to define what actions from troops in the Army are the result of just following orders and what actions are ultimately their willful decision. In the book Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr, we can judge whether we believe Frank Trenker, also known as Gentlehands, should face justice for his actions as an SS Nazi soldier or if he should be left alone in peace. Mr. Trenker, like almost all Nazi soldiers at the time, killed millions of innocent people. He also lied on a legal document upon entrance to America. What sets his case apart is that he committed acts that were beyond his orders, such as tormenting his prisoners. Therefore, because Trenker committed genocide, lied on a federal document, and tortured innocent people, he must face the repercussions of his actions.

Trenker should be allowed to live out the rest of his life peacefully, since he is currently a kind, wise, and caring old man, and the past is no longer relevant. While he is a new man now, he is still not sorry for his actions, and he must know that what he did is unacceptable and unethical. To start, Frank was an SS Nazi officer and was involved in the mass murder of a myriad of innocent people. Those he “condemned to death were: all mothers together with children up to age thirteen, the pregnant, the deformed, invalids, the sick (even the exhausted who only seemed sick after the torturous ride there), and all men and women over fifty.” (pg. 163) Trenker killed many innocent people, from children and babies to pregnant women, mothers, and the elderly. Even worse, those who were not killed were sent off to work camps and were worked to death. This is genocide, or deliberate mass murder of a group of people, which is absolutely