Rooting Out Nazi War Criminals

"It is uncontested that [Helmut] Oberlander obtained his Canadian citizenship by false representation or by knowingly concealing material circumstances by failing to disclose involvement in the SS at the time of his immigration screening."
"There is no doubt that to have done so would have resulted in the rejection of his citizenship application." 
Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan, Ottawa 

Helmut Oberlander says he was forced to join a Nazi death squad. He never disclosed this activity when applying for Canadian citizenship

Ukrainian-Canadians mounted a funding campaign and a resistance toward the Government of Canada's eventual decision to root out Nazi war criminals who had entered Canada post-
WWII, enabled to do so by withholding admissions of their war-year activities. Ukraine-born Oberlander, now 94, arrived in Canada in 1954, becoming a citizen six years later. He had been a member of the Nazi death squad Einsatzkommando 10a (Ek10a). Since being identified as a war criminal he has asserted his exculpatory youth and forceful induction into the death squad.

As far as the Canadian Ukrainian nationalists are concerned, the war is long past, and bygones should be bygones. They, like Polish Canadians, cite the fact that under Nazi occupation, Ukraines and Poles suffered as well, somehow able to bypass the horrendously deadly reach into the existence of European Jewry in a formidable bid by Nazi Germany to exterminate them entirely. Neither ethnic groups willingly admits that their countries were hotbeds of anti-Semitism and were complicit in the Nazi death machinery. Jews, with their centuries of experience, bid otherwise.

Former Nazi death squad member Helmut Oberlander is seen in this undated file photo,   CIJA / Handout

Einsatzkommando 10a  was responsible for killing about 100,000 prisoners, most of whom were Jews. The government revoked the retired businessman's citizenship in 2017 -- for the fourth time since the mid-1990s. Now, through his lawyers Oberlander has launched yet another challenge to his loss of citizenship and imminent deportation on the basis that he lied to Canadian authorities on his immigration application, making him ineligible for entry to the country. A Federal Court judge had ruled the government acted responsibly in the case, limiting his appeal capacity.

"With his [accused, 95-year-old Hans Werner H.] service as a guard he aided or at least made easier the killing of many thousands of inmates."
"[In his role as guard he would have] known about the various methods of killing as well as the disastrous living conditions of the imprisoned people."
"[As a guard he would have] been aware that a large number of people were killed with these methods and that the victims could have only been killed with such regularity if they were being guarded by people such as himself."
Martin Steltner, Berlin prosecutor

"In a sense it gives a certain very nice closure that someone like this is brought to justice, which I'm sure would have been Simon's [Wiesenthal] dream."
Efraim Zuroff, Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem

Emaciated prisoners sit outside the hospital barrack in Nazi Germany's Mauthausen concentration camp during World War II. This undated photograph taken at great risk by Swiss prisoner Kurt Zalud, was later used as evidence in the Dachau war crimes trial.   jad/str/Kurt Zalud/AP

 For reasons known only to German justice, the last name in recognition of privacy regulations has been withheld of Hans Werner H., accused of serving as an SS guard in Mauthausen concentration camp and complicit in tens of thousands counts of accessory to murder. During the time of his service in northern Austria from 1944 to 1945, 36,223 people were murdered at Mauthausen, mostly by gassing, but also through lethal injection, shooting, starvation or exposure, according to meticulously kept Nazi-Germany's record-keeping, and cited by Berlin prosecutor Martin Steltner.

Nazi guard Hans Werner H. charged over 36,000 deaths at Mauthausen concentration camp - CBS News

Roughly 95,000 prisoners are believed to have died in the Mauthausen camp system among whom were 14,000 Jews -- along with Soviet prisoners of war, Spaniards fighting General Francisco Franco, and others viewed as enemies of fascism. As a member of the SS Rottenfuehrer accused of serving in the outer perimeter of the camp as well as within, guarding prisoner work details at a nearby quarry, he is held responsible in the deaths for the part he played as a guard.

Legal reasoning in Germany has advanced recently, holding that former Nazi camp guards may be charged with accessory to murder whether or not evidence exists that they personally took part in any specific deaths, an argument that has been upheld by Germany's highest criminal court, leading to a number of successful prosecutions. At this juncture, a court must review the charges to determine whether the man is held to be medically fit for trial. According to the prosecution, however, he is considered to be fit to stand trial.

KZ Mauthausen: Häftlinge auf dem Appellplatz   Foto Archiv BV