The Evil Men Do . . .

"'Himmler was extremely interested in the development of a cheap and rapid sterilization method which could be used against enemies of Germany, such as the Russians, Poles, and Jews . . . . The capacity for work of the sterilized persons could be exploited by Germany, while the danger of propagation would be eliminated', wrote Dr. Brack, Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Fuehrer of he N.S.D.A.P."
Letter from Brack to Himmler:
"Among the 10 million Jews in Europe there are, I figure, at least 2 - 3 million men and women who are fit enough to work. Considering the extraordinary difficulties the labor problem present us with, I hold the view that those 2 - 3 million should be specially selected and preserved. This can, however, only be done if at the same time they are rendered incapable of propagating . . . . Castration by X-ray, however, is not only relatively cheap, but can also be performed on many thousands in the shortest time. I think that at this time it is already irrelevant whether the people in question become aware of having been castrated after some weeks or months once they feel the effects. Should you, Reich Fuehrer, decide to choose this way in the interests of the preservation of labor, then Reichsleiter Bouhler would be prepared to place all physicians and other personnel needed for this work at your disposal."
Human Behaviour in the Concentration Camp, Dr. Elie A. Cohen, c.1952

Prisoners break up clay for the brickworks at Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, in 1939.

Photograph from Akg-Images

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrchten newspapers quoted German officials stating that Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who had been deported last year to Germany died while in an elderly care home in the town of Ahlen, Germany. Mr. Jakiw was an ethnic Ukrainian born in part of Poland now Ukraine. He entered the United States under the Displaced Persons Act, in 1949. He became an American citizen in 1957.

A 1949 photograph of Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who had been living in New York. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice via AP

According to the U.S. Justice Department, Jakiw Palij served in a  unit that "committed atrocities against Polish civilians and others" and again, in the notorious SS Streibel Battalion, "a unit whose function was to round up and guard thousands of Polish civilian forced labourers". Most of those Polish civilians were part of Poland's pre-war three-million Jewish population. There weren't enough German troops stated in the area at the time to carry out the required work.

The occupying Nazi power found enthusiastic support among ethnic Ukrainian men more than happy to serve in the capacity of a special military unit to round up slave labour; they became, in fact, part of the SS machinery of military personnel specializing in solving Europe's Jewish 'problem'. Needless to say Mr. Palij did not declare his wartime activities when he applied to enter the U.S. in 1948.

"I would never have received my visa if I told the truth. Everyone lied", he told the investigators who first came knocking on his Queens-area door in 1993. Citizenship can be revoked as a result of false or incomplete declarations on visa applications. He had informed immigration officials his work during the war was in a wood shop and a farm in Nazi-occupied Poland; another farm in Germany and in an upholstery factory there.

Well surely, there is a modicum of truth in there; the crematoria produced fertilizer for agricultural fields after the bones of the dead had been burned to ashes; soap too was derived from the ashes of the gassed Jewish 'scum'. There were some Jews whose epidermis was flayed and cured and lamp shades made of the quite unique product. There may have been some Nazi elites who might delight at possession of a chair or two upholstered in human hide.

Former Nazi guard Jakiw Palij seen at his home in Queens, New York City. (Screen capture: YouTube)

The U.S. Justice Department, however, stated that the man had played an essential role in the Nazi program to exterminate Europe's Jews. His true work was as an armed guard at the Trawniki training camp, southeast of Lublin in German-occupied Poland. He had, in fact, served at Trawniki in 1943, the year six thousand camp prisoners and tens of thousands of others held in occupied Poland were rounded up for slaughter.

This man represents the last Nazi facing deportation from the United States. Although his past had been revealed years ago, for 25 years no move was made to deport him irrespective of political pressure and protests taking place outside his New York home. "It would have been upsetting to many Americans if he had died in the U.S. in what many viewed as a comfortable escape", stated U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell.

Ambassador Grenell had lobbied Germany to take Mr. Paljj. He credited U.S. President Donald Trump with finalizing the August 2018 deportation of this old Nazi, taken from his Queens home on a stretcher, and forthwith placed on a plane to Germany. Germany did not prosecute him, placing him in a nursing home for the last months of his life.

Though he was most helpful to the Nazi regime in their hugely successful bid to exterminate the entirety of Europe's Jews, he was himself given the opportunity to live a complete and satisfying life in a country unaware of his past. And when his past was revealed, content to let matters lie. Then came the final push to have him die elsewhere. He was 95 years of age at death.

Ravensbrueck, Germany, Female prisoners performing forced labor