that complicity in genocide was a prosecutable criminal act. The general population of Germany should bear the consequences for their actions or lack of action in empowering Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. The accomplishments of Oskar Schindler bear witness that some actions could have been preformed to circumvent the Nazi’s insatiable desire to exterminate the non-Aryans. It can be argued that because of intimidation the Germans did not act. The duress defense has not been very successful in criminal trials. Even under the threat of torture and death, a resistive population would have produced more martyrs attempting to circumvent the reprehensible actions of the S.S. and the Third Reich’s depraved leaders. The World Court and our judicial system are both founded on many of the same fundamental principles. There may be a question in a potential jurors mind if the general population of Germany truly were involved in the commission of the criminal acts of genocide and therefore are responsible for reparations to their victims. The burden of proof is much higher for conviction of a criminal offense. The prosecution would have to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the Germans were guilty. To assess civil liability the burden of proof is merely more likely than not. An example of an individual found not guilty but being liable for wrongful death damages has been recently and vividly presented to us by the news media. O.J. Simpson was not convicted for the murders of Nichole Simpson and Ron Brown but in a civil suit filed by the bereaved parents of Ron Brown, he was found liable for their death and damages assessed. According to Bruce Ottley, Associate Dean of the Depaul University Law School, the average award for wrongful death is 3.5 to 6 million dollars. This could easily lead to an award of $ 33 trillion dollars, and that is only for the actual people killed. As large as that number is it still does not account for pain...
