Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor once said, “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future. For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” During the time of the Holocaust, many innocent Jews were tortured and murdered by the group of Nazis. There were many deadly extermination camps set up that were the cause of this, but there was one camp which was the largest and the deadliest death camp, the Auschwitz. More than 1.3 million Jews were sent here, and 85% were murdered, nearly 1.1 million people. The Nazis were to blame for this horrific murder, but there was one individual, a 94-year-old former Auschwitz death camp guard, Hanning, who was being blamed for the reason for the …show more content…
The author of a New York Times passage, Melissa Eddy, includes, "In addition, Salmen also argued that his client’s age of 18 when he joined the SS should be considered a mitigating factor. “You can’t act today as if the defendant was a fully-grown man back then who knew just what he was doing,” he said." One can see from this is that Hanning had just become an adult when he joined the SS, meaning that he wasn't fully matured to do anything. It is possible that Hanning didn't realize any of the actions he was taking, or how it was affecting others. It would not be fair to give him punishment for something he did when he was 18 years old, when he probably didn't even know how to make such important choices. Along with this, the article 'Former Auschwitz Guard on Trial' states, "Hanging over the proceedings – and other similar cases in which aging men have been brought to trial for their role as concentration camp employees – is the question of what good it can do to punish people so late in life and in bad health." This piece of evidence shows that there would not be any benefit from punishing Hanning, after 76 years since the incident occurred. In current times, Hanning won't even be in the suitable condition to be punished, since Hanning is around 94 years old. In brief, Hanning should not be sent to jail for a deed he committed 76 years ago, including being in a bad state of health at age