Nobody wins wars

Illustration by The New York Times; Photographs by U.S. Department of Justice, via Associated Press and Srdjan Suki/EPA, via Shutterstock

A comment on a piece by Margaret Renkl about the conviction and deportation of 95-year-old Friedrich Karl Berger, who worked as a concentration camp guard in the last months of the war in 1945, when he was 19 years old. He emigrated to the USA in 1959, and lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The essay writer tried to find a satisfying answer to the question whether trial and conviction at this late date served any kind of justice. Renkl was uncertain, ending her essay “So which is it: real justice, or too little too late? I honestly don’t know.” Of the many comments, this one caught my eye.

John
California March 8

@Ronald Grünebaum My father was an infantry man in the Second World War and horrifically wounded as he crossed into Germany. Like most veterans, he didn't talk about it often and never at length. Except, that is, for one day he sat on the porch with my neighbor, Mr. Rupple, a navy veteran on the German side; they spent the afternoon in quiet conversation. My mother sent me to get my father for dinner and, as we walked home, I asked him if it was awkward talking with Mr. Rupple. He asked why I thought it would be awkward and I said, my 14 year old brain abuzz, that "we won and they lost." We walked a few steps then he said, "I'm surprised you still think people win wars."