Copyright 2010 by Curtis Sagmeister. All Rights Reserved.
A recent decision by the US Department of Justice to extradite Anton Geiser to Israel to stand trial for alleged war crimes during World War Two is a difficult one to comprehend on so many levels. Any time you mix emotionally charged sentiments surrounding Nazi atrocities with the continuing Jewish browbeating of the Holocaust, no possible outcome can be harmonious.
Geiser arrived in the United States in 1956 from Austria, and became an American citizen in 1962. By all accounts, this now 85 year old man was a model and productive citizen of his welcoming country. In 2006, Geiser's American citizenship was revoked after an investigation revealed, and Geiser admitted, that he was a SS prison guard at three different concentration camps as a young adult from 1943 to 1945. Why has it taken the US government this long to pursue eviction from the country?
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest Anton Geiser committed any war crimes. Not even from Israel. He is, instead, guilty by association for merely being a prison guard. And this association is inflamed by his enrollment in the SS, a branch of the Nazi military known for its voluntary service and particular affinity to Hitler's ideologies.
One must remember the times. The world was at war. There was no internet and very little in the way of outside media influence. Everything was censored. The fervor of the Nazi propaganda machine was both subtle and overt. Even today, tactics used to brainwash and program the German people then are purposely practiced with admiration by so many nations. This speaks to how effective it was. To a young boy growing up poor in and around the mob mentality of Nazi superiority, promised riches, and institutional influence such as school, government, family, peers, and employment, Geiser was unaware and ill prepared of mounting any sort of defense against such hypnotism.
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