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May 12, 1989 - Image 36

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1989-05-12

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

ANALYSIS

GRAND
OPENING

DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM

479 SOUTH WOODWARD

Alleged Nazi War Criminals
Are Finding Time Running Out

A change in British law may make it possible to try several
men who are now British subjects for alleged war crimes.
After 45 years, however, the government does not seem eager to
conduct trials.

HELEN DAVIS

a

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36

FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1989

T

he British government
may be . ready to
change its law and in-
dict up to 15 alleged Nazi war
criminals who found refuge in
Britain after World War II.
An independent commis-
sion of inquiry, which was set
up by the government last
year, is scheduled to produce
its report later this month.
The commission, headed by
the respected former Director
of Public Prosecutions, Sir
Thomas Hetherington, is ex-
pected to announce that suf-
ficient evidence has been ac-
cumulated against at least
five — but possibly as many
as 15 — war crime suspects to
justify indictments.
It is also expected to recom-
mend that Britain change its
law to allow the men to stand
trial in British courts on
charges ranging from murder
to genocide:
Evidence against more
than 250 British citizens has
been examined by_ the corn-
mission ; which was establish-
ed after a vigorous campaign
by the Los Angeles-based
Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The campaign was
spearheaded by Efraim
Zuroff, Israel director of the
Wiesenthal Center and
former Justice Department
official in the Office of Special
Investigations.
Last year, Zuroff presented
British Home Secretary
Douglas Hurd with 17 names
of war crimes suspects who
had abandoned their homes
in the Baltic states and
Eastern Europe to settle in
Britain after the war. The
Soviet authorities have pro-
vided a further 34 names.
At present there is no legal
provision for indicting the
suspects, who were not
British citizens at the time
and whose alleged offenses
were not committed on
British territory.
Legal experts, however, do
not beliere that it will be dif-
ficult to change the law and
compel war crimes suspects to
answer the charges in British
courts.
Nevertheless, Dr Graham
Zellick, professor of law at
London University and co-
author of a report to the corn-

mission on the legal implica-
tions of indicting Nazi war
criminals in Britain, points
out that the legislative pro-
cess is unlikely to be com-
pleted until early next year.
A bipartisan Parliamentary
War Crimes Group pressed
the government last year to
make the necessary legal
changes, he told me this
week, but there was
resistance to such change at
the time.
"It's a pity because they
will only start the process
now and it will be next year
at the earliest before they can
issue indictments!"
Even so, it might still be
possible for the suspects to
avoid the legal process in Bri-

In the five years
after the end of
World War II, some
90,000 displaced
persons arrived in
Britain from the
Baltic states and
Eastern Europe.

tain by simply leaving the
country before charges are
filed.
"Frankly," said Zellick, "I
don't think the government
would be terribly distressed if
they did so. At the same time,
though, it wouldn't be so easy
for them leave — they have to
find somewhere to go, a coun-
try that would accept them.
"I don't believe South
American countries are so
keen to take such people
anymore, and while they do
have the right, as British
citizens, to settle elsewhere
within the European Com-
munity, they could face the
prospect of extradition to Bri-
tain."
He considered it unlikely
that the British government
would follow the example of
the United States and resort
to the legal device of stripping
war crimes suspects of their
citizenship and allowing their
extradition to a third country
for prosecution.
"That would be a sort of
backdoor extradition, which
is an improper use of the
deportation power," he
contended.
Nevertheless, . he does not

believe that the British
government is enthusiastic
about launching into war
crimes trials 45 years after
the end of the war.
"Basically, the government
can't be bothered. There is no
passion or concern about this
issue. And let's face it, such
cases demand a serious com-
mitment of resources and ef-
fort. It is a very complex mat-
ter!"
But Philip Rubenstein,
secretary of the Parliamen-
tary War Crimes Group, told
me that the goal of the group
was to insure that the govern-
ment acted as quickly as
possible.
"It took two years from the
time the Australian govern-
ment completed its inquiry
into war crimes until the
beginning of the first trial,
which will start sometime
this summer," he said. "We
hope to pressure the British
government to move more
quickly than that."
In the five years after the
end of- World War II, some
90,000 displaced persons ar-
rived in Britain from the
Baltic states and Eastern
Europe.
Faced with a critical labor
shortage and a desperate
need for scientists, the British
government adopted an open-
door immigration policy and
applied almost no checks to
the wartime activities of
newcomers.
According to official
documents which have
recently been declassified,
names of new immigrants
were not checked against the
Allied lists of wanted war
criminals.
Ukrainians arrived in Bri-
tain in particularly large
numbers, but only one in 25,
for example, was subjected to
even the most cursory
examination.
According to one recently
declassified report, British
miners objected to working
alongside Latvian im-
migrants who bore the Nazi
SS tattoo under their arms.
Rather than taking action
against the former SS
members, the British
authorities simply ordered
that the Latvians be assign-
ed to different tasks that
would not involve them hav-
ing to remove their shirts.



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