Punished for the Past

The Mercury News article "Age, time can't erase her past as a Nazi guard" brings up an interesting question--Is being punished for a past life fair?

Eighty-four year old local woman, Elfriede Rinkel, is being deported from the U.S. because of the recent unveiling of a life-long secret.

Rinkel, widow of a German Jew and a long-time contributor to various Jewish charities, was a Nazi guard at the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany from 1944 to 1945. Although many decades have passed with Rinkel living a peaceful life and being of no harm to anyone, U.S. law requires her to be tried in court and deported for her participation in Nazi atrocities. Rinkel, at the budding age of 18, opted to be a Nazi guard in the all-women’s concentration camp because it paid better than working in the factories. She says she never harmed any prisoners during her year-long employment.

However minor her participation was in Nazi atrocities, should she still be tried and deported? Or should she be pardoned since she has lived most of her life as a good American citizen?

I am torn. I am not a Jew. I do not have a direct link to the Holocaust. I do not have any life-long repercussions from the Holocaust. Therefore, a pardon from me would not be of any significance. But I do feel great sympathy for Rinkel. She lived the majority of her life here in America. She is of no harm to anyone. But she is still being sent back to a past that she was trying so hard to forget. It is truly sad.

I do recognize the justice in the law, however. The Holocaust was so horrible that there needs to be punishment. We need to punish those who participated in such a grave, incredibly inhumane event; or else, it may happen again. Like I said earlier…I am torn.