XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: msmith77@gmail.com   
      
   It is time for this Jew revenge vendetta to end.   
      
   PHILADELPHIA (AP) — German efforts to prosecute aging war   
   criminals suffered a setback this week with the death of a   
   retired Philadelphia toolmaker who had long been in the   
   crosshairs of Nazi hunters.   
      
   Bavarian prosecutors had hoped to extradite 89-year-old Johann   
   "Hans" Breyer because of his alleged service as a Waffen SS   
   guard at Auschwitz in 1944.   
      
   However, Breyer died at a Philadelphia hospital Tuesday, hours   
   before a U.S. judge approved the extradition request. He had   
   spent a month in jail since his arrest on charges of accessory   
   to murder in the deaths of 216,000 Jews.   
      
   "It is very unfortunate that Breyer died but this in no way   
   shape or form should discourage the prosecution of Nazi   
   perpetrators who can still be brought to justice," said Efraim   
   Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in   
   Jerusalem.   
      
   Breyer's death was disclosed Wednesday just as U.S. Magistrate   
   Timothy Rice approved the extradition request, which would still   
   have needed final U.S. government review.   
      
   Rice found probable cause that Breyer was the person being   
   sought by German prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Weiden over   
   his suspected service as an SS guard at Auschwitz during World   
   War II.   
      
   "No statute of limitations offers a safe haven for murder," Rice   
   wrote in his 31-page ruling.   
      
   "A death camp guard such as Breyer could not have served at   
   Auschwitz during the peak of the Nazi reign of terror in 1944   
   without knowing that hundreds of thousands of human beings were   
   being brutally slaughtered in gas chambers and then burned on   
   site," Rice wrote.   
      
   Breyer had claimed he was unaware of the massive slaughter at   
   Auschwitz and then that he did not participate in it, but "the   
   German allegations belie his claims," the judge wrote.   
      
   Breyer died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, according   
   to his lawyer, Dennis Boyle, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The   
   lawyer said Breyer's health had deteriorated in jail but he   
   didn't know the cause of death.   
      
   Boyle had argued in bail papers that Breyer was too frail to   
   remain in custody, given his history of heart disease, stroke   
   and dementia.   
      
   German authorities in Weiden issued a 2013 warrant charging   
   Breyer with accessory to murder under the theory that the death   
   camp's sole function was to kill people.   
      
   The same legal strategy had been used to charge and convict   
   former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk on charges he served as a   
   death camp guard at Sobibor in occupied Poland. Demjanjuk died   
   in a Bavarian nursing home in 2012 while appealing his 2011   
   conviction.   
      
   The 2013 warrant accused Breyer of 158 counts of accessory to   
   murder — one count for each trainload of victims brought to the   
   Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland from May to October   
   1944, when he was allegedly a guard there.   
      
   Breyer told The Associated Press in a 2012 interview that while   
   he was a guard at Auschwitz, he was assigned to a part of the   
   camp that was not involved in the slaughter of Jews and others.   
      
   "I didn't kill anybody, I didn't rape anybody — and I don't even   
   have a traffic ticket here," he said. "I didn't do anything   
   wrong."   
      
   Breyer moved to Philadelphia after World War II and for decades   
   lived a quiet, middle-class life with his wife, children and   
   grandchildren. He had American citizenship because his mother   
   was born in the U.S.; she later moved to Europe, where Breyer   
   was born.   
      
   In 1992, the U.S. government tried to revoke Breyer's   
   citizenship after discovering his wartime background. The effort   
   became a decade-long legal saga and appeared to end with a 2003   
   decision that found that Breyer had joined the SS as a minor and   
   could therefore not be held legally responsible for   
   participating in it.   
      
   Then he was arrested last month outside his home in northeast   
   Philadelphia based on the German warrant. Officials say the   
   arrest was delayed for a year because of the complexity of the   
   extradition request.   
      
   "This hurts. This hurts the families of the victims. This hurts   
   anyone who is interested in justice," Zuroff said. "We want to   
   urge everybody involved in this effort, particularly   
   prosecutors, not to let this discourage them from continuing   
   their work."   
      
   http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Suspected-Nazi-guard-   
   s-death-a-blow-to-prosecutors-5642876.php   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)