1 DETROIT I

Nazis Were The Nice Neighbors
Who Didn't Discuss Their Past

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

t least 10,000 of
Hitler's Nazis are liv-
ing in the United
States with "blood on their
hands," according to Allan
Ryan Jr., former director of
the Office of Special In-
vestigations.
Ryan, in town this week to
speak at Adat Shalom Syn-
agogue, said most of these
Nazis entered the United
States in the early 1950s
under the Displaced Persons
Act, which allotted visas to
immigrants based on na-
tionality.
Numerous immigrants
came from Latvia, Lithuania
and Estonia — countries
with a high proportion of
Nazi collaborators, Ryan
said.
"These people, by the very
fact of their nationality,
were entitled to go to the
head of the line to get U.S.
visas," Ryan said.
Ryan headed investiga-
tions of such Nazis as Ar-
chbishop Valerian Trifa,
Andrija Artukovic, Klaus
Barbie and John Demjanjuk.
He is the author of Quiet
Neighbors: Prosecuting
Nazis War Criminals in
America.

A

Rarely do cases of
suspected Nazis begin with a
phone call from someone
saying his neighbor is a
suspicious character, Ryan
said. Instead, government
investigators review paper
work to compare names on
original Nazi documents
with U.S. immigration files.
Most former Nazis used
their own names when ap-
plying for American visas,
Ryan said.
Ryan said much documen-
tation is "extraordinarily
incriminating." Some might
show a request for more
bullets, explaining "we used
the last to kill Jews."
The government will not
prosecute unless it has vir-
tually no doubt that some-
one was part of the Hitler
regime, Ryan said.
"When the Justice
Department accuses some-
one of being a Nazi, the
Justice Department damn
well better be right," Ryan
said.
So in addition to docu-
ments, it seeks further
evidence in the form of
eyewitness testimonies.
The OSI also looks for con-

Allan Ryan, Jr.:
Looking through a window
of history.

tradictions in the defen-
dant's account.
Ryan calls cases with
documentation, eyewitness
reports and contradictions in
the accused's testimony
"tripod cases." These were
his favorites.
One "tripod case" was that
of John Demjanjuk, iden-
tified as the "Ivan the Ter-
rible" who operated the gas
chambers at Treblinka.
Found guilty last year in
Israel, Demjanjuk is appeal-
ing his case.
Ryan said Demjanjuk
made numerous contradic-
tions when discussing his
whereabouts during World
War II. Initially, Ryan said,
Demjanjuk said he had been
a prisoner of war the whole
time. He later said he had
been a prisoner for part of
the time. During his trial in
Israel, he said he had been a
prisoner briefly and had
worked in a labor camp the
rest of the time.
Demjanjuk continually
protests his innocence, as do
most other Nazis caught in
the United States, Ryan
said.
Not a single Nazi he has
prosecuted "has shown any
remorse or any feelings of
guilt," Ryan said. "On the
contrary, they always deny
it. They say, 'But it wasn't
me!' "
Once they had immigrated
to the United States, most
Nazis preferred to keep a low
profile, leading ordinary
lives and speaking little
about themselves. Ryan said
that when OSI represent-
atives went to speak with
neighbors about the accused,
"the first thing they would
say is, 'He's nice, very friend-
ly, the kind of guy who keeps
his lawn mowed and gives

out candy to the kids at
Halloween.' "
"But when asked what
he'd said about his
background, they often re-
sponded, 'Come to think of
it, he never said much about
it.' "
Ryan was 34 when he was
named director of the OSI in
1980. Today a lawyer and
professor, he said he ac-
cepted the OSI position
"primarily because I saw it
as a professional challenge"
and because he believed it
was important to prosecute
Nazis.
The more he investigated
the cases, the greater the
significance became of the
work he accepted. Instead of
dealing with the vast,

unimaginable number of the
six million Jews killed, Ryan
found men who had killed 50
or 100 men, women and
children.

"You deal with one person
who killed 120 people in an
obscure corner of the
Ukraine, and he was just a
nobody in this little village,"
Ryan said. "Then you think
about those killed in large
villages, and then the
ghettos and the cities and
your mind goes on and on
until you can't comprehend
it all."
He said working at the OSI
was often difficult.
"We were looking at trails
that had grown cold and at
documents scattered all over
the world," Ryan said.

It meant dealing with
nations like the Soviet
Union, which was eager to
cooperate but was constantly
tangled in bureaucratic red
tape; Austria, which was
"terrible" about handing
over information; and Great
Britain, where "the attitude
to prosecuting war criminals
was indifferent at the very,
very best."
Day-to-day life at the OSI
could also be eerie, Ryan
said. He and his agents often
traveled to far away villages
in Eastern Europe in their
search for evidence against
Nazis.
"We talked to survivors
and criminals themselves,"
Ryan said. "We were able to
look through a window of
history." ❑

Yeshiva Delays Its Move
Into B'nai Moshe Building

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

y

eshiva Beth
Yehudah's plans to
move its pre-school
classes and girls' school into
the Congregation B'nai
Moshe building have been
delayed.
When the school purchas-
ed the Oak Park synagogue
earlier this year from United
Jewish Charities, yeshiva of-
ficials hoped to move the pre-
school in Southfield and the
Sally Allan Alexander Beth
Jacob School for Girls in
Beverly Hills into the reno-
vated building in
September.
However, delays in con-
struction mean the pre-
school will not be moved into
the synagogue at Church
and 10 Mile roads until
January, said Rabbi E.B.
Freedman, school ad-
ministrator.
The girls' school may have
to delay its move until
September 1991, Rabbi
Freedman said. Although he
would like to move the girls'
school into the new building
by January, Rabbi Freed-
man is not sure that will
happen.
Seymour Mandell, the
yeshiva's architect who
showed parents plans of the
renovated synagogue during
the school's open house
Tuesday night, said school
officials had hoped to begin
remodeling the interior of

the synagogue after
Passover.
School officials were forced
to change their plans when
they discovered renovation
work could not begin until
the end of June when the
congregation moves out,
Mandell said.
Because the school will
lose more than two months'
construction time, the
building cannot be used in
September, he said.
Mandell estimates it will
take $600,000 and five mon-
ths to turn the synagogue
into a school. The renova-

The girls' school
may have to delay
its move until
September 1991.

tions include turning the
main sanctuary into six
classrooms for high school
students, remodeling the
chapel for two pre-school
classes, upgrading 10 ex-
isting classrooms, turning
the bridal room and gift shop
into administrative offices
and enclosing a courtyard to
make it an indoor playroom
for pre-school children.
Other changes include turn-
ing the social hall into a
multi-purpose room.
The remodeling will not
change the exterior look of
the synagogue, Mandell
said.
Once completed, the school
will have three separate

wings — one for elementary
students, one with four
preschool classrooms
totaling 6,000 square feet,
and another for high school
students.
Despite some safety con-
cerns about their children
playing so close to Interstate
696, which runs beneath
Victoria Park behind the
synagogue, parents were
pleased with the construc-
tion plans.
When the pre-school is
moved from the Joseph
Tanenbaum School for Boys
on Lincoln in Southfield, the
four rooms in the boys'
school will become
classrooms for the older
children.
"We have pressing need
for space," Rabbi Freedman
said. "I can think of 10 diff-
erent uses for the four
rooms."
In addition to classrooms,
the school needs tutorial
space for Soviet Jews, a
larger library facility, and a
teachers' lounge.

Before purchasing the
B'nai Moshe facility, there
were plans to expand the
boys' school at a cost of $1
million. Instead that money
will be used to pay for the
synagogue's renovation.
As for Beth Jacob, school
officials eventually hope to
sell the school building,
Rabbi Freedman said. Other
private schools have ex-
pressed interest in it. ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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