Crimes Trial
Out Of Time
Adelaide, South Australia
(JTA) — Jewish community
leaders, given an update on
the investigation of
suspected Nazi war
criminals living in
Australia, were told last
week that time is not on the
side of justice.
"Had the investigations
begun some time ago, we
would have many more cases
now before the courts, all of
which are horrifying in their
seriousness," said Graham
Blewitt, director of the
government's Special In-
vestigations Unit, which
tracks Nazi war criminals
and which is slated to end its
work next June.
Addressing the annual
meeting of the Executive
Council of Australian Jewry
here, Mr. Blewitt disclosed
that 13 Australian residents
sought by foreign govern-
ments as war crimes
suspects and another five
implicated at overseas war
crimes trials, died before his
unit was established.
Nevertheless, the unit has
completed 800 investiga-
tions and has broken ground
internationally because of
the high quality of its
research into specific
charges of murder and the
Nazi policy of genocide, Mr.
Blewitt said.
Three suspects are cur-
rently facing trial. One is
Heinrich Wagner, an accus-
ed mass murderer.
Witnesses will testify that
he personally murdered 19
children of Jewish fathers
and non-Jewish mothers in
front of stunned villagers in
his hometown, Mr. Blewitt
said.
Although the war crimes
investigation unit is due to
complete its operations. by
June, its supporters believe
the government has a
responsibility to maintain it
until all prosecutions are
completed.
Mr. Blewitt said it was
"regrettable that the unit
could be disbanded at a time
of great progress, in terms of
cooperation with overseas
law enforcement agencies,
and a change for the better
in the attitude of East Euro-
pean states to the work of
the unit."
He maintained that
"ongoing massacres, which
the world is witnessing to-
day, are in part the product
of the failure of the interna-
tional community to act cou-
rageously to make sure that
perpetrators of crimes
against humanity are
brought to justice."
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
53