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Chief US Counsel Justice Robert Jackson delivers the prosecution's opening statement at the International Military Tribunal.

Is It Ever Too Late to Seek Justice?

"My God, I knew this would happen. You've come."
—Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, housewife in Queens, New York, former concentration camp guard 

Washington Post article
Washington Post article

An August 6, 1972, Washington Post article about former concentration camp guard Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, entitled "From a Dark Past, A Ghost the U.S. Won't Allow to Rest".

  • The Washington Post
  • Image produced by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

While the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and numerous subsequent courts tried Nazi officials and their collaborators, many lesser-known offenders were able to evade justice. Even some who had participated in the murder of thousands of innocent civilians slipped out of Europe, often assuming new identities and living out their lives undetected and unpunished. While individuals and governments tried to hunt them down in the years and decades following the end of World War II, the statute of limitations—20 years for murder—was running out.

Efforts to hold some of the remaining perpetrators accountable continue today, raising the questions: is it ever too late to pay for a crime? Is justice delayed justice denied?

On July 14, 1964, the New York Times revealed that a New York City housewife was in fact a former SS guard at the Ravensbrück and Majdanek concentration camps. She had been known as “the mare” because she brutally kicked inmates with her iron-tipped boots. Hermine Braunsteiner had already served two short prison terms in her native Austria for mistreatment of inmates in Ravensbrück, a criminal past she had not disclosed to her American husband or US authorities. In response to a West German request for her extradition to stand trial for her crimes at Majdanek, the US government stripped Braunsteiner Ryan of her US citizenship and initiated deportation proceedings, over which the extradition took priority. In 1973, she became the first Nazi criminal to be extradited from the US.

In 1981, Braunsteiner Ryan was sentenced to two life terms in prison. She was released in 1996 due to poor health and died three years later in a nursing home in Germany.

Historian Peter Black describes the legislation used to deal with Nazi offenders living in the United States

In the 1980s and 1990s, historian Peter Black worked for the US Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations, as part of a team tracking and prosecuting suspected war criminals. Black later served as the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Historian Peter Black describes the potential of legal consequences

In the 1980s and 1990s, historian Peter Black worked for the US Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations, as part of a team tracking and prosecuting suspected war criminals. Black later served as the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Thomas Buergenthal discusses whether it is ever too late to seek justice

Judge Thomas Buergenthal was one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. Judge Buergenthal devoted his life to international and human rights law. He served as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience; was named the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School; and served for a decade as the American judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He served as a judge and president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank. He was the first US national to be elected to the UN Human Rights Committee, a member of the UN Truth Commission for El Salvador, and vice chairman of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. With a unique perspective shaped by his experiences as a Holocaust survivor and international jurist, Judge Buergenthal taught at several leading law schools and wrote more than a dozen books and numerous articles on international law and human rights.

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • Beyond the verdicts, what impact can trials have?
  • How were various professions involved in implementing Nazi policies and ideology? What lessons can be considered for contemporary professionals?
  • Is a perpetrator ever too old to prosecute? Is it fair to the victims and their families not to prosecute?
  • Does it serve justice to try some perpetrators when so many others have gone free? Is it ever too late for accountability?

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