Nazi war criminals: How old is too old to prosecute?

The last few years have been filled with news stories about aging men who are accused of helping the Nazis systematically murder millions of people during the course of their reign of terror from 1933-1945. The name that is the most fresh in my mind is that of John Demjanjuk who was a Ukrainian guard who was accused of murdering nearly 30,000 people at Sobibor and Treblinka. He claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. A German court found him guilty in 2011, by March 2012 he waiting for his appeal to be heard.

More names have popped up the last year or so of the known Nazi war criminals that are still alive.  Hans Lipschis. Laszlo Csatary. Soren Kam. Gerhard Sommer. Ivan Kalymon. Vladimir Katriuk. Agimantas Dailide. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is attempting to round up any and all Nazi war criminals that they can locate.

The question becomes: is there a point where age becomes a factor in hunting down Nazis? Should tax dollars be spent on locating men (and some women) who are in their 80s and 90s in order to possibly get a conviction before they die? Is there a line, if so where is it drawn?

To put in my two cents: as historians-in-training, we are taught to be objective. That you cannot take a side in order to get the full, unbiased story. However, it is hard to be unbiased with the pictures of thousands of lifeless bodies piled up in boxcars, gas chambers, or mass graves. I have walked the paths of Auschwitz. I have stood in the "shower room" at Dachau. I have walked the route from the train station in Krakow to the site of where Plaszow used to be. I have walked the site of Treblinka. I have walked through the Jewish cemeteries in Poland, many which were desecrated during the war. I have sat and spoken with not just survivors, but their families. 

What I have witnessed is evidence. Evidence of their crimes. My Mom once asked me if I did not think it was possible for men like that to change. I responded that it is only possible to change once you admit and repent for the crimes that you have committed. None of these men have paid for their crimes, and many are enjoying their last years without a care in the world.

 My Mom would follow that question up with whether or not it is really worth spending all that time and money tracking down someone, trying them, and having them die shortly after. Taking my historian hat off again, I responded as a human being. It is not about how much it cost, but the justice that is brought forth for the victims and their families. In addition, it shows the rest of the world that no matter how old you are, if you commit crimes against humanity or any war crimes for that matter, that you will be found and punished.

Putting the historian hat back on, I must beg the question to the rest of the world: How old is too old to prosecute for war crimes? Should there be a statue of limitations? 

For articles pertaining to current Nazi war criminals click here, here, here, here

For the 2013 Simon Wiesenthal Center Report on their Most wanted Nazi list, click here

Source: BBC News Online