Breaking News

This appeared on yahoo this morning. At first glance I looked at it and told myself well it is about time but after reading it I felt appalled by what we as a people on this little planet  are doing to each other.

Here is a 94 year old man that was sentenced for war crimes that was committed during the time of war just because he was on the loosing side. Those who were judging him were people who had won the war.

Today our science has evolved tremendously to the point that we can kill millions of people with just one bomb that is if we are on the winning side of the war and nobody will say anything. If we had lost the war what would have been the consequences? People have not evolved as much as science over the centuries we still do the same things as we did for the last few thousand years.

I truly can't help wondering why that is.

Maybe it is the church as we have had many religions and churches for many thousands of years. Each church was created by man and each church opposed other churches that had other beliefs. How many hundreds of millions of people have died through out history by the battles of the churches? Should these people be brought to trial also or is the reason that they never are brought to trial is that they were on the winning side and now have too much power.

I hear people saying every day that our world is changing. I believe that is true but I also believe that the people and governments are not changing.

Then the big question comes to mind why are not the people changing and if anything there seems to be more evidence of violence on the street level as well as one country against another countries mainly because their ideas on how to live their lives are not the same as ours.

How are we evolving then?

Who is right and who is wrong?

I started writing blogs based on the Tarot Cards. The purpose of these cards is to enlighten us all. No it is not a church and the church tries to enlighten people in the same way, but they only go so far leaving most people floundering in the darkness, hoping that God will be their savior helping them through their lives.

Don't get me wrong I believe in GOD it is just religion I have a hard time with as religion was created by man.

Should this man have to go to jail  at 94 years old, because his country lost the war?

Where is the justice in this?

I have been trying to enlighten people through my Tarot card a day, with the hope to bring them to a new level of understanding of themselves. I can't help wondering if it was all for not, and just a waist of time.

That is the end of my rant, I just got so upset by what my fellow man was doing I just could not keep my mouth shut.

If you want to read the Yahoo News report I have made a copy below.

DETMOLD, Germany - A 94-year-old former SS sergeant was found guilty Friday of 170,000 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison for serving as an Auschwitz guard, in a verdict that survivors from the Nazi death camp hailed as a long overdue victory.

Reinhold Hanning, sitting in a wheelchair, listened attentively but showed no reaction as Presiding Judge Anke Grudda read the ruling in state court in Detmold, Germany.

She said Hanning was a cog in a "perfectly functioning machinery" of destruction, helping operate the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where some 1.1 million people, primarily Jews, were killed.

"You were in Auschwitz for two and a half years and performed an important function," she said. "You were part of a criminal organization and took part in criminal activity in Auschwitz," she said.

Auschwitz survivor Hedy Bohm, who came from Toronto to testify at the trial and for the verdict, said she was "grateful and pleased by this justice finally after 70 years."

"It is my dream to be in Germany, in a German court, with German judges acknowledging the Holocaust," the 88-year-old said.

Bohm was one of four survivors present for the verdict, who also joined the trial as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law. Overall, about a dozen survivors testified during the four- month trial, and 58 survivors or their relatives joined as co-plaintiffs.

In her ruling, Grudda said much of their testimony put to rest any criticism that the crimes of the Nazis were too far in the past to prosecute today.

"Anyone who had the opportunity to hear the testimony of the co-plaintiffs can answer the question of importance of such a trial," she said.

Hanning's attorney, Andreas Scharmer, suggested an appeal was likely, and Hanning won't have to serve any prison time until his appeals are exhausted.

He had faced a maximum of 15 years. Hanning's defence had called for an acquittal, saying there is no evidence he killed or beat anyone, while prosecutors sought a six-year sentence.

Scharmer said he was not surprised by the verdict.

"I didn't expect the court to have the courage for an acquittal," he said.

In sentencing Hanning, Grudda said "there is no appropriate punishment" for his crimes, but that the court had to follow guidelines and also take into account his age, his statement of remorse, and the length of time that had elapsed since the crimes.

"We cannot, and should not punish him symbolically for all the perpetrators of the Holocaust," she said.

Hanning had testified that he volunteered for the SS at age 18 and served in Auschwitz from January 1942 to June 1944, but said he was not involved in the killings.

"It disturbs me deeply that I was part of such a criminal organization," he told the court in April. "I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it and I apologize for my actions."

Following the verdict, Leon Schwarzbaum, a 95-year-old Auschwitz survivor from Berlin, said he had slipped Hanning's attorney a letter urging him to have his client detail more about what he knew about the death camp's operations for the sake of educating younger generations.

"Mr. Hanning should have said more about what he saw in Auschwitz and what he did in Auschwitz — he did not tell what Auschwitz was," Schwarzbaum said.

"It was a hell on earth."

Hanning joined the Hitler Youth with his class in 1935 at age 13, then volunteered at 18 for the Waffen SS in 1940 at the urging of his stepmother. He fought in several battles in World War II before being hit by grenade splinters in his head and leg during close combat in Kyiv in 1941.

He told the court that as he was recovering from his wounds he asked to be sent back but his commander decided he was no longer fit for front-line duty, and so sent him to Auschwitz, without his knowing what it was.

Though there was no evidence Hanning was responsible for a specific crime, he was tried under new legal reasoning that as a guard he helped the death camp operate, and thus could be tried for accessory to murder.

The same argument was used last year against SS sergeant Oskar Groening, to convict him of 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving in Auschwitz. Germany's highest appeals court is expected to rule on the validity of the Groening verdict sometime this summer.