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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| SS member 'outed' after he sues book author |
| 2007-11-18 |
| A FORMER member of Hitler's elite SS may have indicted himself as a mass murderer after stepping from the shadows to complain about an elderly woman's wartime memoir. Erich Steidtmann, 92, was offended to be portrayed as a philanderer who fathered a child out of wedlock in the Second World War and launched a lawsuit in a court in Leipzig saying his "honour had been besmirched" in the book A Perfectly Normal Life. But in doing so he has revealed himself to be the last known survivor of the SS killing squads which wiped out the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Now the battle is on by the publisher of the memoir, its author and Nazi-hunters to place Steidtmann at the epicentre of one of the worst crimes in history. The story of Steidtmann, now a pensioner in East Germany, only surfaced because he happened to read a book by Lisl Urban. One of the so-called Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia, Mrs Urban worked as a secretary for the Gestapo in occupied Prague. She described the occupied capital as a "hotbed" of frivolous sexual encounters, one of which she enjoyed with an SS man she nicknamed 'Eike' after her marriage broke down. Eike was a police officer who, he claimed, was drafted into the fighting arm of the SS. He was sent to Prague from the eastern front for recuperation and in order to document his experiences in tracking down partisans. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #12 I'm surprised that Seafarious didn't post this under "Today's Idiot". |
| Posted by: GK 2007-11-18 21:36 |
| #11 I've got to add that the prosecution of Erich Steidtmann takes on particular significance due to Islam's resurgent pursuit of another Holocaust. Our world must "never forget" but, instead, is doing just that. Otherwise, Islam would have already been slapped down hard. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-18 17:01 |
| #10 The son of a bitch isn't going to get what he richly deserves, unfortunately. Not in this life anyway. |
| Posted by: Thomons Poodle8901 2007-11-18 16:36 |
| #9 Clean up on aisle two! After seeing what is left of Dachau for myself almost five years ago, I'd be more than willing to personally drag Herr Steidtmann into court for his day of reckoning. The son of a bitch isn't going to get what he richly deserves, unfortunately. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2007-11-18 15:45 |
| #8 Turning himself in because he'd repented would be one thing; this, however, is Darwin Award level stupidity. |
| Posted by: Korora 2007-11-18 15:40 |
| #7 I'd like the people who confined my uncle Benjamin in Auschwitz to be tried and executed for their crimes, even if they have to be pulled out of their nursing homes for the occasion. Word, EJ. I don't give a damn if they have to be rolled into the courtroom with full life-support beeping behind them like a taxi cab. Each and every single one of these brutal murderers should dance from the end of a rope for their crimes against humanity. Anyone who doubts this needs to read Leon Uris' "Mila 18". Passages describe how Nazi |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-18 14:06 |
| #6 This could be very difficult. He can probably force a DNA test, and if her child is not his, then he can concoct any number of tales. There is probably little if any physical evidence that can connect him to any war crimes. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-11-18 13:01 |
| #5 Ship him to Israel. They know what to do. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-11-18 12:48 |
| #4 Hanging the last live one would be a fine damn touch. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-11-18 10:36 |
| #3 And I'd like the people who confined my uncle Benjamin in Auschwitz to be tried and executed for their crimes, even if they have to be pulled out of their nursing homes for the occasion. So there, Besoeker. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2007-11-18 10:08 |
| #2 I long for the day when "WWII Nazi hunting" will join the ranks of those who hunted the Psittacosaurus and Oviraptor. Maybe then we can get a life and move on. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-11-18 09:15 |
| #1 Erich Steidtmann: "oops!" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-18 08:02 |