Poll: Would you harbor a nazi?

[Dirty Hipsters]

I wouldn't even protect an innocent person in my house if they are wanted by police. They aren't my problem or my responsibility, so why the hell would I hide a Nazi there and risk being an accomplice?

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

I'd turn him in. If he honestly seemed sorry, I may appear as a witness for his case, maybe somehow get him a slightly lesser sentence. But more than that, I can't be asked to put myself in legal jeopardy for what he has done.

 

[kickyourass]

No, I wouldn't, I'd certainly try and help them out with their legal representation or something like that, but actually obstructing the police? Personally I can't think of a single situation where that'd be a good idea.

 

[SirDoom]

I have a personal "Don't get involved" policy for morally grey areas.

I would not hide the man in my home, but the authorities would get no assistance from me in finding him, even if I knew exactly where he was hiding.
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That being said, if I had been around him for years and years and never seen any negative things, and he truly regrets his actions, I would likely take his side over that of the police. (Ideologically, of course. I still wouldn't hide him in my basement or anything)

It doesn't change the fact that he did what he did in the past, but is he really the same person that he was back then? A man who cries himself to sleep every night and spends his life trying to atone for a crime he know he can never be forgiven for is hardly the young officer barking orders at an oppressed people.

Punishment can come in many forms. In a sense, this man has it worse than any man in prison. His very soul is scarred by his past arrogance and willingness to overlook the depravity of the things he was ordered to do, for whatever reason. No matter what he does, even if the police stop looking for him, he will never be able to sleep at night without seeing the faces of those he had a hand in torturing.

If this crime was recent, or if he wasn't genuinely remorseful, I'd feel completely the opposite about it. In this case though... well, at least he is crying himself to sleep at night while helping the local charities instead of crying himself to sleep at night behind bars.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Make sure he's treated well in prison. I don't want the guy to get hurt in there, but seriously, I'm not going to believe that story. He had the same morals in the war that he does now.

 

[Thurston]

He's sorry, now that the cops are knocking on his door? Typical crocodile tears.

I've heard a man, pleading in serious tears to cop, about how the cigarette burn on his daughters arm was "an accident! The wind blew the ash onto her!" He couldn't terrify his wife anymore, so somehow this scumbag got occasional custody, and is now torturing his wife through their daughter.

Monsters can cry too. They can fake it as well. Bullies can be good at playing victim.

He was not complicit in a murder, or ten deaths, or a hundred.

He was complicit in the industrialized slaughter of millions. Plead your case to the courts, not to me.

 

[subtlefuge]

I'd definitely turn him in. He still has to pay his debt to society, and a lifetime of good deeds does not exempt him.

I'd feel quite a bit of sympathy for him, but I'd have to turn him in.

 

[zehydra]

nowadays. If it was more recent maybe not

 

[Eijarel]

I would help him, but after he said he was part of a concentration camp i would stop him from giving me the details of his specific occupation.

 

[ultrachicken]

I would turn him in. He's going to get caught eventually, might as well get it over with.

 

[Sarge034]

I almost said I'd kill him myself, but if the cops are already after him I'd just turn him in. The cops comming after him mean they have proof and he will not get off of the charges. If the question was what would you do if he told you in confidence he was a Nazi officer. I would have voted for the gone "missing" option.

 

[silversnake4133]

I would hide him, but this is a very tricky question because of the vague details of when this is taking place.

If it was only like one or two years after the end of WW2 then yeah I'd turn him in, but if this is many years past the whole WW2 crime search and the police just decided to arrest him because of what he was then I'd hide him and think poorly of the justice system because then it would only seem like they were after him because of his affiliation with the Nazis.

Plus the OP did say that this former Nazi was a kind and caring man and good to the community, which makes me think that the crimes he committed were done because he was ordered to. People don't usually become officers right out of basic training. They have to work for it, which means doing things that their commanding officers say.

So to sum it up, I think that it would be a bit discriminatory if the police wanted to lock someone up for something that he or she was initially commanded to do.

 

[ultrachicken]

Like hell he's sorry. I'd turn that fucker in, I have no sympathy for nazis.

EDIT: And what the hell people!? How can over 40% of you say you'd hide him? Unless you were a straight white racist male he wouldn't do a damn thing if YOU were in trouble.

Repentant nazi. As in, no longer follows their ways.

 

[mjc0961]

If I knew from the start that he was running from the police, I wouldn't let him in in the first place. But say I did let him in; yes I would turn him in. Him hiding doesn't help him get out of trouble, it only makes me guilty of a crime as well. Plus, if he truly is sorry as you say he would claim to be, then it seems to me that he'd want to stand up and pay for his crimes. If he's really a better person now, he can get some people in that community as character witnesses and maybe get a less harsh sentence. But no, hiding from the police isn't going to solve anything.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Considering how he'd probably be in his late 80's to mid 90's, he would be constantly remembering his actions and hate himself because of this, and he would be mentally torturing himself since 1945 (possibly); I wouldn't turn him in. He has faced enough and there's no use in putting someone in jail for the last 10 years of their life. I'm not saying I could forgive someone like that, but I wouldn't persecute him for his past actions. Those will all be judged when he dies and if he really was sorry for his actions and he was doing this community service as a form of repentance, he should be ok.

This happened to me before anyways, and I did the same thing (though not a nazi, but same principle). A guy volunteered at the Salvation army. And he was the nicest guy. he did all our fundraisings, did any jobs they needed, never asked payment.

Turned out he was stealing part of what he raised, and he had just raised so much no one bothered to ask him about it. I shipped his ass to jail, and didnt lose a wink of sleep.

That has almost no bearing on this whatsoever. The man you were talking about was probably using the community service as a "cover." Or at the very least was doing these things for his own selfishness. The man OP mentions is doing nice things for either the sake of doing nice things, or as a way of making up for his past actions. The two are almost polar opposites.

 

[rutger5000]

This is not a crime one can atone for by him/her self. Proper legal institutions should be the judge here on how to deal with this man/woman. I would visite the guy in prison though. Personally I wouldn't blame him/her the only crime he/she commited was being a homo sapien (I only use the term human for people who have proven to stand above our animalastic behaviour) in Germanny at that time. Just saying it is not like you or I would act any differently if we were in the spot he was in.

 

[dyre]

Like hell he's sorry. I'd turn that fucker in, I have no sympathy for nazis.

EDIT: And what the hell people!? How can over 40% of you say you'd hide him? Unless you were a straight white racist male he wouldn't do a damn thing if YOU were in trouble.

Repentant nazi. As in, no longer follows their ways.

I'm sure the families of the hundreds of Jews he put six feet under (actually, scratch that. They're not six feet under because their bodies were used to fuel furnaces) will be gratified to here he repented :/

What would justice be if we could get away with crimes simply by dodging the law long enough and feeling bad about it? I'd understand if a robber go away with his crimes after several years in hiding and him turning over a new leaf, but there's no statute of limitations for genocide.

 

[Kwaren]

I more than likely would. No person is beyond helping.

 

[ultrachicken]

Like hell he's sorry. I'd turn that fucker in, I have no sympathy for nazis.

EDIT: And what the hell people!? How can over 40% of you say you'd hide him? Unless you were a straight white racist male he wouldn't do a damn thing if YOU were in trouble.

Repentant nazi. As in, no longer follows their ways.

I'm sure the families of the hundreds of Jews he put six feet under (actually, scratch that. They're not six feet under because their bodies were used to fuel furnaces) will be gratified to here he repented :/

What would justice be if we could get away with crimes simply by dodging the law long enough and feeling bad about it? I'd understand if a robber go away with his crimes after several years in hiding and him turning over a new leaf, but there's no statute of limitations for genocide.

I was responding to SvenBTB saying that the guy would only help a white, straight, racist male. You're reading too much into what I said.

 

[drivebyhobo]

Kill him. Kill yourself. Problem solved.