THE JEWI SH NEWS

I) FRONT

This Week's Top Stories

A reparations conference for Holocaust survivors
is set for May in Southfield.

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

ran Victor thinks of the
old couple in the little
house in Oak Park.
What a difference $100 a
month extra would mean,
added on to their modest fixed
income.
The couple Ms. Victor
thinks about are Holocaust
survivors. She met them while
chronicling their story on video
as part of the Shoah Visual
History Foundation.
Ms. Victor wants them and
any other deserving survivors
to get that money. Based on
what she's learned from the re-
cent news accounts of missing
Jewish money held in Switzer-
land, she has no reason not to
believe that hundreds of sur-
vivors living in Michigan are
due more.
With the help of several
sponsors, Ms. Victor, president
and executive producer of Vic-
tor-Harder Productions, is
hosting a Compensation For
Holocaust Survivors Confer-
ence 1-3:30 p.m. Sunday, May
18, at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
The conference will feature
a presentation by attorney
William R. Marks, whose
Washington, D.C., practice is
entirely dedicated to Holocaust
reparations and restitution
claims. Mr. Marks, according
to Ms. Victor, works with an

attorney in Germany seeking
to increase the health pensions
for those survivors already col-
lecting compensation, to reac-
tivate claims for those
survivors who previously ap-
plied and were denied, and to
pursue claims for German so-
cial security, property restitu-
tion, slave labor and Swiss
bank inquiries.
What started as something
that Ms. Victor thought would

A reparations
expert will speak.

be a nice, relatively small
meeting that would take "six
phone calls," has turned into a
major conference. The word is
getting out to survivors all over
the state, including the Upper
Peninsula. Sponsors of the
event also reflect the diversity
of the Jewish community and
the unity of several Holocaust
organizations. They include
the Jewish Federation of Met-
ropolitan Detroit, CHAIM
(Children of Holocaust-Sur-
vivors Association in Michi-
gan), Holocaust Education
Coalition, Hidden Children of
Michigan, the Holocaust

COMPENSATION page 26

Gubernatorial Mission

Gov. Engler has set a date for his trip to Israel.

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

ov. John Engler is finally
going to Israel.
He'll be there from May
17-21 in a trip arranged
by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and the
Jewish Community Council.
The trip is seen partly as a
trade mission and an opportu-
nity for the governor to meet
with high-level Israeli political
and business officials. The gov-
ernor may also be visiting the

G

Central Galilee area, Michigan's
Partnership 2000 region. Plans
and a specific itinerary are still
in the making.
"We are proceeding," said the
governor's spokesman, John Tr-
uscott. "We've been in consulta-
tion for years with Max Fisher
about making this happen."
Mr. Truscott said it is Gov.
Engler's hope to meet with
Prime Minister Binyamin Ne-

GUBERNATORIAL page 26

To Deport Or Not?

A judge weighs the deportation question in the case of
Ferdinand Hammer, former Waffen SS member.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

I

f Ferdinand Hammer is to be involvement in wartime atrocities.
believed, his case is the ulti-
At the hearing Monday, dozens
mate right-name-wrong-man of Mr. Hammer's friends and rel-
atives attended as a show of sup-
tragedy.
A farm worker recruited into port. They say he is being cruelly
the Nazi Waffen SS, he was a du- persecuted by the U.S. govern-
tiful soldier on the Russian front ment.
Mark, Mr. Hammer's son-in-
who suffered through daily rations
of potatoes for so long that he can law who asked that his last name
no longer stomach them.
not be used for fear of retribution,
He could hardly believe it when said the family is torn up by the
the United States Department of accusations and blames Jews in
Justice, through its Office of Spe- the government for this misguid-
cial Investigations (OSI), began ed pursuit.
its quest to remove his citizenship
"[The family] feels the Jewish
and deport him. Even more sur- people are doing this persecution,"
prising to him was the evi-
dence the government
produced, including docu-
ments from concentration
camps listing one of its work-
ers as Ferdinand Hammer.
"I swear that that was not
me," he said. "I was not
there."
A deportation hearing for
Mr. Hammer was held Mon-
day before Judge Michael
Creppy in Detroit.
So far, the OSI has proven
through thousands of pages
of documentary evidence pre-
sented in federal court that
Mr. Hammer voluntarily
served in the Waffen SS
Death's Head Battalion as a
concentration camp guard Ferdinand Hammer waits with family members
and then lied on immigration during a break in his deportation hearing.
papers to secure passage to
America and to eventually gain he said, adding he believes there
is a conspiracy against Mr. Ham-
U.S. citizenship.
Last May, U. S. District Court mer, 75, a former foundry super-
Judge Horace Gilmore found the visor. "It is common knowledge
government's evidence convincing that the prosecution is Jewish."
and removed Mr. Hammer's
At the deportation hearing, the
American citizenship.
government called no witnesses
The question before Judge but presented a stack of historical
Creppy is whether or not to deport documents on which Mr. Ham-
Mr. Hammer. The immigration mer's name appears, including
judge is expected to render his de- duty rosters from concentration
cision within 30 days.
camps such as Auschwitz,
If Judge Creppy decides for Mr. Flossenberg and Sachsenhausen.
Hammer, he can stay in the coun-
The defense, represented by
try. If the court finds for the gov- William Bufalino II, aimed at de-
ernment, Mr. Hammer must bunking the prosecution's theo-
leave the country or stay while ap- ry that all Waffen SS involvement
pealing the verdict, said Justice was voluntary and that Mr. Ham-
spokesperson John Russell.
mer served in the Death's Head
So far, Mr. Hammer is one of Battalion.
58 individuals the OSI has been
The first of three witnesses to
successful in denaturalizing for take the stand, Elizabeth Schnei-
their activities during World War der of Sterling Heights, testified
II; of that number, 48 have been that she saw Mr. Hammer in their
deported. Another 300 individu- village of Lacarek, Yugoslavia,
als are being investigated for their when he was on leave from SS

duty in 1944. She said his uniform
carried no marks of the Death's
Head Battalion members, an in-
signia with a skull and crossbones.
The second witness, Joseph
Hajnal of Eastpointe, said he was
forced to become a member of the
Waffen SS or be shot.
"You don't go and your family
gonna get a hard time," he said.
"They watch them and maybe
shoot them."
Ferdinand Hammer testified
last, maintaining that he fought
on the Russian front lines and that
he never worked as a guard at a
concentration camp. He said
he entered the service after
receiving a letter asking him
to join. In addition, Mr. Ham-
mer testified that he was told
grave consequences would be-
fall him if he refused to join.
"They would kill you," he
said.
He said he never partici-
pated in the atrocities against
Jews during the war and only
learned about them after he
came to America.
However, on cross exami-
nation, Mr. Hammer faltered
on the dates and locations of
his service and contradicted
some earlier testimony. He
said that although his name
appeared on the duty rosters
of and transports to concen-
tration camps, it was not the
same Ferdinand Hammer.
Mr. Bufalino also entered the
defense's only material evidence
in support of its claim that mem-
bership in the Waffen SS was not
voluntary. A 1953 memo issued
by the U.S. Displaced Persons
Headquarters in Europe stated
that some of the individuals re-
cruited from the Balkan states
were forced into German military
service.
"Mr. Hammer testified that he
was not at Auschwitz, Mau-
thausen or Sachsenhausen," Mr.
Bufalino said. "No evidence
showed Ferdinand Hammer was
involved in atrocities against Jews
or anyone else."
Jeffrey Menkin, a government
trial attorney, said the case was
decided on the evidence present-
ed. When asked if it was possible
that the government could have
the wrong man, he replied, "I find
that entirely incredible." El

PHOTO BY DANIEL L I PPITT

Seeking Just
Compensation