marklv

Pretty sure that the Duke is suffering from advanced heart failure - it's common for the very elderly and not a surprise. I think it's odds-on that he will leave this world at some point in 2021, but you never know. Heart failure used to be fatal within a short time but with modern drugs people can survive for many years, depending on the severity. My feeling is that the Duke's condition started over 10 years ago and has become progressively worse in the recent period.

It's easy to attack an old Nazi, but then the 64,000 dollar question arises: what would you have done in his place? He was an ordinary guy serving a malevolent and brutal regime, and I guess that shooting 10 hostages for every German soldier killed (murdered) by the partisans (terrorists) seemed to him to be an acceptable punishment as a deterrent. Moreover, Hitler himself ordered this type of retaliation, so he could hardly tell the dictator to f**k off, could he? Let's not forget that partisans used the same killing methods that the Taliban uses in Afghanistan - not an excuse for the Nazi excesses of course, but let's put it in context. One man's partisan is another one's terrorist.