by Roger Moore

Created on: May 12, 2009

Not only should former Nazis continue to be persecuted, they should be prosecuted.

The second half of the 20th Century has been filled with much debate concerning the atrocities committed by the Adolf Hitler-led Nazi party.

Germany, still suffering from its defeat in World War I, was in political and economic turmoil in the early 1920s. Hitler and his goons tried, unsuccessfully, in 1923 to seize power of the government. The putsch failed and landed many, including Hitler behind bars.

While in jail Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which included his final solution and would help turn his regime into one of the most murderous in the history of mankind.

Hitler, through manipulation, intimidation and murder, took control of the German government in 1933 and boasted of a Thousand Year Reich which would cleanse the world of anyone not of Aryan blood.

It doesn't take much research to learn about the atrocities of World War II.

Martin Gilbert's History of the Twentieth Century: Volume II touches the tip of the iceberg concerning the treatment of Jewish, Gypsy and any other race of people deemed not fit for Germany and its Nazi doctrine.

It has been well-documented how many prisoners of war civilian or soldier were used for concentration camp guards' amusement.

Recently, Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch died. While at Auschwitz, Arouch fought other prisoners and survived captivity. Often, the loser of a particular fight was taken to the gas chambers or sometimes shot immediately. Arouch was the subject of a movie Triumph of the Spirit.

Prisoners, from Jews to former Polish, Czech, Belgian and Russian natives were also forced to take part in scientific experiments. Josef Mengele was almost as notorious as Hitler for his cruelty.

Mengele and other scientists often picked those fit for work or study and sent the rest, the old, weak, sick and handicapped, to their deaths. The goal for the Nazis was to eliminate all handicapped, all weak all Jews from the Third Reich and eventually the world.

Millions were killed.

Any resistance led to mass murder. If one member of the Gestapo or SS or Nazi party was killed by an underground movement, then there were mass reprisals. For instance, if a Nazi died in or around Paris, then 25, maybe 50 or 100, Parisians would be killed.

With German armies spread from France to the Ukraine, the tide slowly turned as England, the United States, the Soviet Union and their allies began to take advantage of a worn-down, and spread-too-thin German military machine.

As the Soviet Union battled toward Berlin and the Americans and Brits charged from the west, it was inevitable the fate of the Third Reich.

Many of those responsible for murder in the name of Germany fled. Some were eventually caught. The infamous trials at Nuremburg brought the atrocities to the world although many inside Europe already knew of the last decade's horror.

Erich Erdstein's Inside the Fourth Reich: The Real Story of the Nazis in Brazi is one of many books about the never-ending search for escaped Nazis worldwide. Some feel remorse, others don't, but most are in hiding for a reason.

World War II ended over a half-century ago. But the stench the Nazis left behind will never cease to exist.

If a serial killer did his damage for five years but decided to "retire" would, 25 years later, he not be responsible? If caught, would he not be prosecuted?

The Nazis were serial killers for almost a decade.

Without a doubt, even if a former Nazi is 100 years old, he or she should be persecuted and prosecuted with all means necessary.

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