"Even if all the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, it still wouldn't be sufficient to expiate the deeds perpetrated at Auschwitz. For this, human life is too short." So spoke presiding Judge Hans Hofmeyer last week in Frankfurt as he sentenced 17 defendants whom a six-man jury had found guilty of murder or complicity of murder in the death of thousands of inmates at Auschwitz, the largest of Hitler's death camps.
Throughout the 20-month trial, the defense lawyers had argued that the accused were only "little men" acting on orders, and hence were themselves...
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