The Oskar Groening trial in Germany raised many questions. For some, an issue was simply the very fact that this elderly man was standing trial for something he did many years ago. For others, including myself, we could only wonder how that could even be a question. Simple justice would seem to have demanded this trial regardless of the age of the defendant.
Another issue, though, did present a more complicated problem. It seems that the defendant's crime was only discovered through his involvement in challenging those who denied the Holocaust. It was, thus, his subsequent positive actions that led to his trial and conviction. Should these subsequent positive actions, though, have then mitigated in his favour?
See further on this in my
latest Huffington Post blog: Oskar Groening's Trial Reveals the Complexity of Morality.
My
original title for the post, btw, was 'The Complexity of Life,
Morality and the Human Being' but it
was changed by the editors. The present title may actually, though, be the better one.
Please
feel free to comment here or there.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
For an interesting Torah article regarding the first issue mentioned above, see
http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/torah-for-today-what-does-the-torah-say-about-oskar-groening/
2 comments:
well done. I will probably include this, with credit of course, in the chapter on Tshuva in my forthcoming book tentatively entitled "Jewish Insights for Christians & Other Good People (Collect Reward Points to Heaven)"
With pleasure (with credit, of course). Thank you.
If you have a chance, you may want to take a look at the actual Huffington Post site (the link is in the blog post) as there are some comments there that you may find of interest.
RBH
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