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18
332-9430
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* previous orders excluded
The Man Who Finds The Clues
In The Unreadable Documents -1
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
A
s if the documents and
forms and eyewitness ac-
counts weren't enough,
one Nazi left a finger-
print, too.
It was several years ago, and
the U.S. Justice Department's
Office of Special Investigations
workers were researching the
case of a former Nazi living in
the United States. Among the
evidence they had against
him: a single, 40-year-old finger-
print on an order, discovered
through the use of an FBI laser
scanner.
Michael MacQueen has seen
those fingerprints and the docu-
ments, the files and the orders.
The OSI's senior historian has
been with the agency for eight
years.
But were it not for a last-
minute change in plans in Ann
Arbor, he might be spending his
days replacing fuel pumps in-
stead of researching Nazis.
Mr. MacQueen will speak
about his work with the OSI at
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, at the
Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield. The event is
sponsored by CHAIM, Children
of Holocaust-Survivors Associa-
tion in Michigan.
A New York native, Mr. Mac-
Queen worked as an auto me-
chanic with Arcure Motors in
Arm Arbor, then as a race-car dri-
ver throughout the Midwest be-
fore attending the University of
Michigan, from which he holds a
master's degree in Russian stud-
ies.
After receiving his graduate
degree, he began teaching East
European history at U-M and
working toward his doctorate,
when in 1988 he chanced to see
an OSI ad, where "the job quali-
fications listed looked as though
they had been lifted directly from
my resume."
It had nothing to do with cars
and everything to do with
historical knowledge and lan-
guage.
"I don't think there is a histo-
rian of World II better than
Michael," says Eli Rosenbaum,
acting director of the OSI.
And as for languages — in ad-
dition to English, Mr. MacQueen
speaks Lithuanian, German, Pol-
ish, Ukrainian and Russian.
Some he taught himself, some he
studied in school, some he
learned on the spot (Mr. Mac-
Queen studied Polish at U-M,
then did research for his Ph.D. in
Warsaw). Then there are those
hours away from work when he
reads — just the usual, light- er eager to turn over any mater-
hearted material like The Tin ial.) But few in those offices un-
Drum. In Lithuanian.
derstand what's in their own
Mr. Rosenbaum is left, well, records.
Most frustrating is when he
speechless.
"I've seen him in action with hasn't caught someone, Mr. Mac-
Polish and Lithuanian diplo- Queen says. He recalls the case
mats," he says. "It's an awesome of Stasys Cenkus, former head of
spectacle. He races through the the Lithuanian Nazi police. Only
languages without a single
mistake, without the
slightest hesitation."
Much of Mr. Mac-
Queen's job — Mr. Rosen-
baum labels the OSI's
seven researchers "the
backbone of what we do"
— consists of sorting
through documents and
files, many of which are
barely legible.
He specializes in cases
from Lithuania, but works
in every other language he
knows. What he's looking
for is anything about for-
mer Nazis now living in
the United States.
It's painstaking work.
A single set of letters
and numbers may provide
the clue to a mysterious
identity. (Kurt Waldheim,
for example, always was
identified by his code name
0-3.) Or it may be a famil-
iar signature, a name on
an American document
that parallels one of a an
SS officer — or of someone Michael MacQueen at the Rossa cemetery in
Vilnius.
ordering potatoes.
What could at first ap-
pear to be nothing more
than a food order may in fact pro- with the collapse of the Soviet
vide clues to the identity of a Union did the OSI get all the files
death-camp guard, Mr. Mac- on Mr. Cenkus, who had immi-
Queen explains. It takes a care- grated to the United States and
ful eye to notice that the 50 died, some years before, "peace-
pounds of potatoes, to be deliv- fully in his sleep."
In addition to doing document
ered to Sgt. Major X, were on
research, Mr. MacQueen sits in
their way to Bergen-Belsen.
All documents are certified on interviews of suspected Nazis.
He always is amazed by their
through forensics.
lack of regret.
"You meet these people and
He has yet to see some
of them are very hospitable,
they
invite
you in and ask, 'How
any Nazi express
about a cup of coffee? and you see
they've got a nice home and
remorse.
they've been living here a long
time. They have family.
"The one, consistent mitigat-
The work comprises "a lot of
mind-numbing details," Mr. Mac- ing factor that allows me to con-
Queen says. It also requires pa- tinue is that I have never seen
tience, both to consider the any remorse," he says. "I have yet
material and to work with all the to see a one throw himself on the
nations of the former Soviet floor and say, 'Oh, it was so ter-
rible. It was awful."'
Union.
Mr. MacQueen, whose office
Following the breakup of the
Soviet Union, new files on the walls are covered with maps and
Nazis became available to re- whose desk is laden with papers
searchers. (The Soviets were nev- — "I've got a lot of papers" — says
_/