Ex female concentration camp guard dies aged 99, town mayor calls her a "great woman" - thoughts?

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

She lived in my wife's family birth town (majority of it is German-speaking population). She was an Aufseherin in a little subcamp near the principal Bozen Transit Camp.

She was tried after the war and did some years in prison for her role, but when she got out she became an advocate for remembrance and always expressed regret for her actions, even meeting some of the former prisoners - many of them children - to ask for their forgiveness.

Now that she passed on the mayor of the town wrote that a great personality and a "great woman" left them. This obviously sparked an uproar in which I chipped in - I wrote that I find it admirable she spent the majority of her life - over 70 years - repenting for her crimes, but we are still talking about a Nazi - a real Nazi, not the Twitter meaning of the word - and a criminal that should not be glorified.

Many people agreed with me but some - and regrettably enough, my wife among then - are saying I'm being too harsh and I can't understand that she was "just a girl" who was "forced" into it. Nevermind she had admitted during an interview that she volunteered so she could get better money, chocolate and cigarettes.

Updates

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The mayor in question clarified she called this woman a "great woman" because of her work in establishing a school and a charity for orphaned children and widows, not because she was a ex Nazi.
At the same time she doubled down declaring that we have to respect that she repented.

[Lionman95]

I agree with your wife because her regretting what she did for a long time and meeting "the other" side shows me that regrets it and is sorry about. Like what should she do more to show she´s not a Nazi. She couldn´t undo what she did and I think it´s easier to talk about it when you´re never experienced a dictatorship or an authoritative system where it takes courage to not follow the mainstream.

The question many young people also in Germany should ask themselves would you stand up for your opinion if it could ruin your life. Like would you speak up against authorities knowing it could cost your future kids the possibility to make an academic exam?

She was probably 17/18 when she made the decision. I don´t know about other places but in Germany that´s usually the age where it´s cool to drink so much that you get a hangover and forget what happened the evening before, it´s not the age where usually wanna be the mature adult but in Western culture it´s rather an age to play around.

I would like to hear a person that not lives in a Western country to have a stand on that. Because neither the US, the UK nor Germany are any where near from being a dictatorship so it´s easier for us to make a judgement while we hopefully never face that situation.

[Levin]

I agree with you, there is something faintly sick about this. I used to think of those particular crimes, in my typically aloof, snooty British way, as the preserve of the uniquely German psyche.

I have become quite convinced that each and every one of us is capable of such heinous crimes. Will those people ever actually understand what they have done? Outrageous crimes against humanity are being committed all the time. Watch the news. I went to bed feeling sick last night.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

I wholeheartedly agree with you and I have to admit that at the coust of sounding racist, I do believe there's something in the Germanic psyche that makes those people towards such cold actions.
My wife is Germanic and for all the love I have for her, I do see those traits.

[Levin]

That is worrying though to say that about your wife 🙂

[melanieeeB]

Well we must keep in mind that yeah you weren't forced to do something back then but also indirectly you got stalked by the SS and they would report anything that made you seem like a non supporter and working as an aufseher as a german had some benefits... doesn't make it better and that shouldn't be a justification for her being an Aufseher but yeah it's also something we shouldn't forget about... different times and thankfully over... at least she did a lot to redeem herself and maybe she wasn't a nazi by heart, some kept their views for their whole life...

[OlderAndWiser]

Forgiveness is a difficult concept. The camp guard does not deserve foregiveness, but it is given as an act of love and as a means of moving on from the past. I also understand the idea of remembering the past so that we don't repeat those same mistakes again.

[Guy13]

The Ex SS female concentration guard is a remarkable anthropological and spiritual case study on the human being experience in a fallen world.

As long as all the forgiveness seeking, repentance, and works righteousness was a resultant of Faith Alone in Christ Jesus Alone then I am thrilled for her. She is indeed a “great woman” and a daughter of God.

Eventually like us all, having to learn it the hard way, she demonstrated conscience, knowledge of right/wrong, (lust, power, coveting, and prestige), and the Times at work in the daily life of the human.
Survival and Thrive instincts without high spiritual and moral standards can end in her experience. Today’s modern West, especially USA, is the modern example.
Unless one has resided outside of the West or Developed World, there is an appreciation of Existence in this dynamic that will be unrealized to you.

[Jamie05rhs]

You don't get a pass for your past misdeeds just by becoming a Christian. You still did what you did.

[Guy13]

@Jamie05rhs No one says their behavior and outcomes disappear. How do you even come up with that...

[Jamie05rhs]

You said she was a great woman.

[Guy13]

@Jamie05rhs dude never mind 🙄

[Jamie05rhs]

Okay

[Jamie05rhs]

I agree with you. I thought that the comment you made was correct.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Thanks.
Shame that the wife didn't think so.

[Jamie05rhs]

You're welcome. And yeah.

[Jamie05rhs]

But you know what? This situation kind of reminds me of Trent Lott and what he said about Strom Thurmond. (Not the same thing, though; I know.)

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Was that the guy that said he supported race segregation in not so veiled terms?

Anyhow I'm a bit bitter for the way my wife reacted. She said I embarassed her and her whole family, because how dare I, she went to summer school with this woman and she was like a grandmother, and etc.

[Jamie05rhs]

Yep! That guy.

[Jamie05rhs]

Strom did, though. Not Trent. Trent did not intend it in that way. People just took it wrong and then blew it out of proportion.

[Jamie05rhs]

Your wife went to summer school with the old Nazi woman?
... Oh, wait. You mean the mayor, right?

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

No, the old Nazi woman.
Now she won't speak to me.

[Jamie05rhs]

I don't think your wife has a right to be mad. You're a politician; you can make public statements if you want to. But that's just my opinion.

[Jamie05rhs]

Your wife is emotionally compromised on this issue, due to her personal connection. That is why she cannot think clearly.

[Leopard23]

It was the result of brainwashing. The entire youth of Germany was basically brainwashed into it. Even Arnold Swartznager's father was a nazi only he was bitter about it all

[Agape93]

Good riddance

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

I'm honestly appalled by the number of people that are treating this as a tragedy, my wife and in-laws included.

[Agape93]

I don't understand that at all

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

They won't admit it, but I think they are a bit like US southerners who miss the Confederation or the Russians that are nostalgic of the Soviet Union.

[Agape93]

Agreed entirely

[MidwestHeels]

The town mayor is a plain Nazi