Exile or Mercy

I read the article that the professor had posted about old Nazi guards living in the US. I'm pretty torn on the topic.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090917/NEWS05/90917065/?imw=Y

Half of me says "They're just old men, leave them be," while the other half is thinking "The bastard shot at the Jews? That jerk should be kicked out." I almost think it is all based on circumstances. One of my favorite phrases "It depends on the circumstances," would work well here. If the old man is really nice, and regrets having done what he did, or not taking action, give the guy a break; it must be hard on someone to remember terrible things from long ago and wishing they could take it back. On the other hand, the ones who were cruel, like that one lady who had stomped an old Jewish lady to death, she shouldn't be given an easy time.

I think deciding who can stay or not should really be decided on the person, not all of the old guards in general. In a way, deciding that all of the guards are bad without knowing them could count as discrimination, which in a way could make us almost as bad as what the Nazis were (assuming we don't go around killing them). This is a touchy subject, but it happened a long time ago and I think those who were not 100% into it or were uneasy with the whole thing should be given at least a little bit a mercy. Now as for the guards who did beat on Jews and other "sub-humans" and did feel strong hate for them... Go ahead and kick them out.

(Now I feel like a hypocrite for wanting to kick out the pure evil ones after saying we should give the rest of them who were semi-evil a little bit of mercy. Oh well.)