Bruno Dey, a former guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, hides his face as he is wheeled into a courtroom in 2020. The 93-year-old Dey was convicted of complicity in the murder of 5,230 people at the German-run camp during World War II (1939-1945).
Credit: © Christian Charisius, AFP/Getty Images

In July 2020, a 93-year-old man was found guilty of helping Nazis murder thousands of people while serving as a guard at a concentration camp in Poland during World War II (1939-1945). The former Nazi guard, Bruno Dey, was convicted (declared guilty) of 5,230 counts of accessory to murder, meaning that he aided in over 5,000 deaths. The number of charges represents the number of people believed to have been killed in the Stutthof concentration camp.

The Nazis, led by the dictator Adolf Hitler, controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945. The Nazi government operated concentration camps at which people—many of them Jews—were imprisoned and forced to work. In some cases, these people were killed without legal proceedings. The imprisoned people also included socialists, Communists, priests, homosexuals, and political prisoners, among others.

Although Dey is 93, he was tried in a juvenile court, because he was 17 when he committed the crimes. Juvenile court is a special court that handles cases involving children accused of crimes. During the trial, Holocaust survivors spoke of their horrific experiences in the Stutthof camp. The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II.

Such survival stories are not restricted to courtrooms. Rather, stories, possessions, and photographs from the Holocaust have been collected in museums throughout the world. The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., features films, photographs, eyewitness accounts, and various objects from the Holocaust. The museum is devoted to teaching the history of the Holocaust.

Given his advanced age, Dey is perhaps one of the last participants in the Holocaust to be convicted. In recent years, German courts have tried many people who participated by either rounding up Jews or operating concentration camps. These efforts have become urgent, because many of these participants are now in their 90’s.

Trials to convict Nazis began soon after the end of World War II. Chief among these were the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949). These trials were the first successful war crimes trials conducted against senior Nazi officials. Another prominent trial was that of Adolf Eichmann, a lieutenant colonel in the Nazi secret police. In 1961, he was convicted and executed for his part in the killing of about 6 million Jews during World War II.

August 30, 2019

This Sunday, September 1, marks 80 years since Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Fighting in Asia had begun years earlier, but Germany’s invasion of Poland is considered the beginning of World War II, the most destructive war in history. World War II eventually drew in more than 50 nations, and more than 50 million people died before the war ended in September 1945.

German troops attack from a trench early in World War II. Germany started the war in Europe by attacking Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, 80 years ago this Sunday. Credit: AP Photo

Germany’s invasion of Poland came after years of problems and shifting attitudes in Germany. The nation’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918) resulted in dire economic and social problems in the 1920′s. Many people longed for the more prosperous pre-war days of the German Empire. In the early 1930′s, political unrest led to the rise of the Nazis, a fascist (extreme authoritarian) political group. The Nazis opposed democracy, Communism, socialism, feminism, and other political systems and movements that claimed to favor equality. The Nazis promised to make Germany great again by building a harmonious, orderly, and strong society. Instead, they brought terrorism, war, and genocide to Germany and other countries.

Adolf Hitler, far right, reviews German tanks as they parade through the streets of Warsaw, Poland, in 1939. Credit: AP/Wide World

In 1933, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, was appointed chancellor of Germany. Hitler rapidly increased his own power, and preached that Germans were a “superior race.” He called Jews, Slavs, and other minority groups inferior. He began a campaign of hatred against Jews and Communists and promised to rid the country of them. In this time of distress and economic depression, Hitler’s version of nationalism (an extreme form of patriotism) appealed to many Germans.

Hitler built up Germany’s armed forces. In March 1938, German soldiers marched into neighboring Austria and united it with Germany. At the end of September, Germany seized part of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs came under complete Nazi control in March 1939. Germany’s September invasion of Poland took place after Hitler agreed to divide the country with the Soviet Union. After quick German advances in western Poland, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east on September 17. Attacked from both sides, Poland fell on October 6. The Germans went on to invade other countries (including the Soviet Union) and took control of much of Europe.

The Nazis instituted the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews and other people the Nazis judged politically dangerous or racially or mentally inferior. Historians estimate that the Nazis killed as many as 11 million people, including some 6 million Jews.

The war eventually turned against Nazi Germany, and the Nazis lost control of all areas—including Germany, which was badly damaged in the fighting. Around 5 million Germans died during World War II. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Germany surrendered on May 8, ending the war in Europe. Despite the death and destruction brought by Hitler and the Nazis, far-right Neo-Nazi (new Nazi) groups formed after the war in Germany and elsewhere. Neo-Nazis continue to threaten and attack Jews and members of other minority groups.

Nazism and fascism (which also thrived in Italy and Spain) were not unique to Europe. In the United States in the 1930′s, the German American Bund and other groups actively supported the Nazis. The Bund gained a large membership, and in February 1939, it held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Some 20,000 people attended the radical Bund rally as around 1,500 police officers held back crowds of anti-fascist protesters outside. The Bund collapsed with the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941—against Nazi Germany (and Japan).

August 3, 2016

On Aug. 3, 1936—80 years ago today—African American track and field star Jesse Owens won the gold medal in the men’s 100-meter dash at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. It was the first of four gold medals that Owens would win over the next week—a remarkable performance by a remarkable athlete. Owens’s accomplishment transcended the sports world, however, and took on a much greater importance. The Nazis controlled Germany in 1936, and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler hoped the Olympics would help prove—athletically, anyway—his theory of Aryan racial superiority. Aryan was a term the Nazis used for Germans and certain other white peoples of northern Europe. Owens (and his American teammates) disappointed Hitler, but he won the admiration of the crowds watching in Berlin. Owens’s Olympic performance made him one of the most famous athletes in sports history.

Jesse Owens races in a preliminary heat of the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.
Credit: © AP Photo

In the 100-meter dash, Owens edged out his African American teammate Ralph Metcalf by 1/10^th of a second to win gold. German runner Erich Borchmeyer finished a “distant” fifth (4/10^th of a second behind Owens). The next day, August 4, Owens set an Olympic record in the broad jump (now called the long jump), winning gold over German jumper Luz Long. On August 5, Owens set a world record in the 200-meter dash, nosing out another African American teammate, Mack Robinson (older brother of baseball legend Jackie Robinson). Four days later, Owens and Metcalfe joined American teammates Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff in the 400-meter relay, setting a world record and winning gold over the second-place Italian team and third-place Germans.

Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, near Danville, on Sept. 12, 1913. His given and family name was James Cleveland Owens. His nickname, Jesse, came from his initials, J. C. Owens was the son of a sharecropper. At the age of 9, he moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. Owens excelled in track and field while attending Ohio State University from 1933 to 1936. At a college meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1935, he broke three world records and tied a fourth within 45 minutes. Owens set seven world records during his career.

Owens eventually went into the public relations business. He worked in community service, especially youth work. He traveled widely, giving many speeches that supported clean living, fair play, and patriotism. Owens believed that athletic competition could help solve racial and political problems. He died on March 31, 1980. Owens’s many honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. In Berlin, a street near the Olympiastadion (Olympic Satdium) is named for Owens, as is a nearby school.

See Back in Time Olympic Games (1936)

July 6, 2016

On Saturday, July 2, Romanian-American author Elie Wiesel died at age 87. Wiesel dedicated his life to describing the horrors he witnessed during the Holocaust and to helping victims of oppression and racism. The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II (1939-1945). Wiesel won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, seen here in 2015, died in New York City on July 2, 2016. Credit: © Gary Cameron, Reuters

United States President Barack Obama was one of several world leaders to pay tribute to Wiesel on Saturday: “He raised his voice, not just against anti-Semitism, but against hatred, bigotry, and intolerance in all its forms. He implored each of us, as nations and as human beings, to do the same, to see ourselves in each other and to make real that pledge of ‘never again.’” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke highly of Wiesel: “In the darkness of the Holocaust in which our brothers and sisters—6 million—were murdered, Elie Wiesel was a ray of light and greatness of humanity who believed in the good in man.”

Eliezer Wiesel was born on Sept. 30, 1928, in Sighet, Romania. In 1944, he was sent with his family and the town’s other Jews to a camp at Auschwitz (now Oswiecim), Poland, near Krakow. He was later sent to a camp at Buchenwald, Germany, near Weimar. Wiesel’s parents and a sister died at these camps. After Buchenwald was liberated in 1945, Wiesel settled in France. He later studied philosophy at the University of Paris, became a journalist, and moved to the United States. In 1976, Wiesel became a professor of humanities at Boston University. President Jimmy Carter appointed him chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust in 1979. In 1980, Wiesel was named head of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Wiesel’s humanitarian efforts earned him the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel citation reads in part: “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace, atonement, and human dignity. His belief that the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a hard-won belief.”

Wiesel wrote more than 35 books. His first book, Night (1958, revised edition 2006), is a memoir of his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. Dawn (1960) and The Accident (1961) are novels about survivors of the Holocaust. Wiesel’s other books include The Jews of Silence (1966), A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968), The Testament (1980), Wise Men and Their Tales (2003), and A Mad Desire to Dance (2009).