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Albert Fish via YouTube

Over 40 Auschwitz guards to face German prosecutors

For decades German courts only prosecuted Nazi war criminals if evidence showed they had personally committed atrocities, but since a 2011 landmark case all former camp guards can be tried.

GERMAN INVESTIGATORS INTO Nazi war crimes will send the files of more than 40 former Auschwitz death camp personnel to state prosecutors from next month, a newspaper in the country reported today.

Most of the suspects are aged in their 90s and they live in all parts of Germany including the former communist East, chief investigator Kurt Schrimm told the Tageszeitung.

The list of alleged guards at the concentration and extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland initially contained 50 names, but some of them have since died.

“These accused have so far not been informed” that they are now in the crosshairs of justice, said Schrimm, senior prosecutor at the Central Office for Resolving National Socialist Crimes.

More than 6,000 SS personnel served at Auschwitz, where about 1.1 million Jews, Roma and Sinti and members of other persecuted groups died in gas chambers or of forced labour, sickness and starvation.

For over 60 years German courts only prosecuted Nazi war criminals if evidence showed they had personally committed atrocities, but since a 2011 landmark case all former camp guards can be tried.

In that year a Munich court sentenced John Demjanjuk to five years in prison for complicity in the extermination of more than 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor camp, where he had served as a guard.

The investigative office, set up in 1958, has carried out more than 7,000 probes but has no powers to charge suspects itself. Instead it sends case files to regional prosecutors who then decide whether to pursue suspects, who must also be judged fit to stand trial by the courts.

- © AFP 2013.

Related: 98-year-old former Nazi charged with World War II crimes>

Read: Most-wanted Nazi war crimes suspect dies>

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    Mute Mick12
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:09 AM

    About time

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    Mute Brian Flavin
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:39 AM

    Should setup for social welfare check foreign DNA ID for Fraud easy caught cos they apply different names to social welfare get dole

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    Mute Maria
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:46 AM

    @Brian Flavin: they use photo recognition now

    41
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    Mute Mick12
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 11:39 AM

    @Brian Flavin: all social welfare offices use photo recognition now so and your signature must match when signing otherwise you don’t get paid

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    Mute Brian Flavin
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 4:52 PM

    @Maria: thank you cheer

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    Mute Brian Flavin
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 4:52 PM

    @Mick12: thank you cheer

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    Mute Blind Faith
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:26 AM

    It should also be mandatory for all law enforcement individuals to be included on any DNA register . . . to help capture corrupt undesirables within the force.

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    Mute O Hiongardail Collie
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 11:10 AM

    @Blind Faith: but then that violates the right of the law enforcement officer . For that to work you you would need to submit the entire population as DNA so there is fairness and equality. The people on the database have been found guilty of an offence or have left DNA at the scene of a crime. You can’t take DNA of people for fear they commit a crime

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 2:18 PM

    @Blind Faith: there are way more corrupt members of public than police..so why are you only calling for Garda to be made give samples?

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    Mute Dermot Murray
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 3:02 PM

    @MerryLounyMcD: I’m willing to give a sample at any time

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:12 AM

    Protecting your rights pffft…..your DNA won’t be collected or put on system unless you are a criminal…

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    Mute *The* Brendan Gordon
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:20 AM

    @MerryLounyMcD: or a suspect. Or just happen to have shed a hair in the wrong place.

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:22 AM

    @*The* Brendan Gordon: watching too much csi

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:23 AM

    @*The* Brendan Gordon: Suspect DNA is removed if you are not convicted.

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    Mute Veronica
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 11:03 AM

    @MerryLounyMcD: or you or your family members submit DNA to a genealogy site ;)

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    Mute *The* Brendan Gordon
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 12:13 PM

    @MerryLounyMcD: True, It’s meant to be but do you really trust Irish bureaucracy?

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 2:06 PM

    @Veronica: genealogy sites are not in the Garda database

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    Mute Veronica
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 11:33 PM

    @MerryLounyMcD: not yet, but that’s how they caught EAR/ONS earlier this year, it’ll be heading that way here too.

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    Mute Mary Dunphy
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 11:02 AM

    General alert issued for information relating to a shady character who dresses in red.
    UFO in which he travels annually was picked up on airport radars and found to be a sleigh drawn by Reindeers. Driver captured on CCTV descending chimneys worldwide. DNA found on Christmas presents in homes and on plates from which he had eaten and glasses from which he had drunk. He has been traced as emanating from Lapland and the hunt for this individual is on.

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    Mute John Tierney
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 12:46 PM

    Given how the Gardaí bolloxed up the breath tests this should be fun to watch (bolloxed is less toxic than c0cked up!)

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    Mute MerryLounyMcD
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 2:20 PM

    @John Tierney: seeing as it is run by Forensic Science Laboratory and not the Garda….think you made the boll ox up.

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    Mute Stephen Kearon
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 8:16 PM

    Should be mandatory to give DNA when turning 18, or entering the country for the first time. Obviously with strict access controls, would act as a deterrent as well as helping to solve crimes

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:28 AM

    Damn, have to cancel that diamond heist in Monaco this year.

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    Mute Chewey Bacca
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 10:50 AM

    @Greg Blake: Monaco lol you been watching too much oceans 11. Antwerp my friend Antwerp.

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 12:24 PM

    @Chewey Bacca: forget it Chewey, I’ve decided it’s better to rob every takeaway and restaurant in Ireland instead. With a delivery app, no less, 30% going abegging. You in??

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    Mute Stevie Doran
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 5:56 PM

    What could possibly go wrong?

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    Mute Godfrey Vian
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    Dec 3rd 2018, 4:11 PM

    Suspected offenders? Alias subversives?

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    Mute Daniel Donovan
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    Dec 4th 2018, 5:36 PM

    Criminals is just the beginning. Don’t be fooled. Those of us who are willing to give up our freedom and liberty for safety will deserve and get neither.

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