English: The worlds most wanted Nazi war criminals: [15,655]

Deceased:  ALOIS BRUNNER – SYRIA: Key operative of Adolf Eichmann.  Responsible for deportation of Jews from Austria (47,000), Greece (44,000), France (23,500), and Slovakia (14,000) to Nazi death camps.

Status – Lived in Syria for decades; Syrian refusal to cooperate stymies prosecution efforts; convicted in absentia by France. Alois Brunner is the most important unpunished Nazi war criminal who may still be alive, but the likelihood that he is already decreased increases with each passing year. Born in 1912 and last seen in 2001, the chances of his being alive are relatively slim, but until conclusive evidence of his demise is obtained, he should still be mentioned on any Most Wanted List of Holocaust perpetrators. Note: Died 23 March, 2009.

Deceased:  DR. ARIBERT HEIM - ?
Doctor in Sachsenhausen (1940), Buchenwald (1941) and Mauthausen (1941) concentration camps. Murdered dozens of camp inmates by lethal injection in Mauthausen.

Status – Disappeared in 1962 prior to planned prosecution; wanted in Germany and Austria New evidence revealed in February 2009 suggests that he may have died in Cairo in 1992, but questions regarding these findings and the fact that there is no corpse to examine, raise doubts as to the veracity of this information. During the past year, a court in Baden-Baden, Germany closed the case without forensic confirmation of Heim’s death. Note: He died at the age of 78 on 10 Aug. 1992 in Cairo.

Deceased:  LADISLAUS CSIZSIK-CSATARY – HUNGARY
Served as a senior Hungarian police officer in Kosice (Hungarian-occupied Slovakia) and was in charge of the ghetto of “privileged” Jews; helped organize the deportation to Auschwitz of approximately 15,700 Jews from Kosice and vicinity in spring 1944.

Status: Convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for torturing Jews and his role in the mass deportation to Auschwitz. Escaped to Canada after World War II, but was stripped of his Canadian citizenship in 1997, and chose to voluntarily leave the country. His whereabouts were unknown until fall 2011 when he was discovered living in Budapest by the Wiesenthal Center in the framework of “Operation: Last Chance.” On July 17, 2012, Csatary was charged with torture of the Jews in the Kosice Ghetto, and was placed under house arrest and had his passport confiscated. Currently under house arrest in Hungary, where he awaits possible prosecution. In late March 2012, a Slovak court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment to enable Slovakia to seek Csatary’s extradition to stand trial for his crimes in Kosice. Residence: He has been living in Budapest quite comfortably in recent years. He died of pneumonia while awaiting trial, age 98.

1. GERHARD SOMMER - GERMANY
Former SS-Untersturmfuehrer in the 16th Panzergrenadier Division Reichsfuehrer-SS; participated in the massacre of 560 civilians in the Italian village of Sant’ Anna di Stazzema

Status: On June 25, 2005, Sommer was convicted in absentia by a military court in La Spezia, Italy for committing “murder with special cruelty” in Sant’ Anna di Stazzema. But, since 2002, he has been under investigation in Germany, but no criminal charges have yet been brought against him. He is living peacefully in Germany, with almost zero hope of ever being prosecuted or punished for his war crimes. And as of December 2015, Germany has refused all requests to deport him for his war crimes, he remains peacefully in Germany today.

Deceased: VLADIMIR KATRIUK - CANADA
Served as a platoon commander of the first company of Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 which carried out the murder of Jews and innocent civilians in various places in Belarus.

Status: Escaped to Canada after World War II but was stripped of his Canadian citizenship in January 1999, after his service as a Nazi collaborator was revealed. In May 2007, the Canadian authorities decided to overturn his denaturalization, a decision confirmed by the Federal Court of Appeal in November 2010. New research by Swedish historian Per Anders Rudling revealed Katriuk’s active role in the mass murder of the residents of the village of Khatyn, Belarus and provides a firm basis to overturn the decision not to strip Katriuk of his Canadian citizenship. His citizenship was returned in March 2014, and since then Canadian Officials has refused all requests for his deportation to face prosecution for War Crimes, due to his mental state.  He Died at age 93 in Canada,  on 28 May 2015.

2. HANS (ANTANAS) LIPSCHIS – GERMANY
Served in the SS – Totenkopf Sturmbann (Death’s Head Battalion) from October 1941 until 1945 at the Auschwitz – Birkenau death camp where he participated in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews. Directly responsible for the deaths of 116,000 Jews and after exhaustive research, attributed to the deaths of 138,000 Jews.

Status: Escaped to the United States after World War II, but was deported by the American Office of Special Investigations to Germany in April 1983. He is currently leaving peacefully on Engelberg Strasse,  in Dallenwil, Switzerland with his wife and 5 children, all the while under investigation by the German authorities for his role in the Nazi death camp. Arrested: 6 May. 2013. Currently awaiting trial.

Deceased: IVAN (JOHN) KALYMON – UNITED STATES
Served in Nazi-controlled Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in Lvov (then German-occupied Poland, today Ukraine) during the years 1941-1944, during which time he participated in the murder, roundups and deportation of Jews living in the Lvov Ghetto.

Status: On January 31, 2011, Kalymon was ordered deported from the United States to Germany, Ukraine, Poland, or any country willing to admit him, for concealing his wartime service with forces in collaboration with Nazi Germany and his participation violent acts of persecution. No such country has yet been found and he therefore remains in the United States.  John Kalymon of Troy, Michigan died at his home on 29 June, 2014. The 93-year-old served in the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police during World War II and allegedly shot dead one Jewish person He had been officially stripped of his United States citizenship but could not be deported because no other county would take him He had pneumonia, prostate cancer and dementia, at the time of his death.

Deceased:  SOEREN KAM - GERMANY
Volunteered for SS-Viking Division, where he served as an officer; he participated in the murder of Danish anti-Nazi newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen. After exhaustive research, it was found that he participated in the selection of Jewish concentration camp slave laborers, and attributed with the deaths of 15,000 Jewish prisoners.

Status: In 1999 Denmark requested the extradition of Kam, which Germany refused due to his German citizenship. A subsequent extradition request was refused in early 2007 on the grounds that Clemmensen’s death was not murder but manslaughter, which was under a statute of limitation. Efforts continue to bring Kam to justice either in Germany or in Denmark, for naught. He is currently residing on Benser Mauer, Einbeck, Germany, under the care of private nursing staff.  "The fact that Soeren Kam, a totally unrepentant Nazi murderer, died 23 March, 2015 as a free man in Kempten, is a terrible failure of the Bavarian judicial authorities.”

3. ALGIMANTAS DAILIDE – GERMANY
As a member of the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security Police, Algimantas Dailide arrested Jews who were trying to escape the Vilna ghetto and handed them over to the Germans. He lied about his wartime activities on his U.S. immigration application after the war, was stripped of his American citizenship in the 1990s, and was ordered deported in 2003 following an investigation and legal proceedings that lasted more than a decade. Dailide fled arrest and settled in Kirchberg, Saxony, where he has been living ever since.

Status: Dailide, 87, lives with his wife in a modest apartment at Torstrasse 13, across the street from the town hall. His name is on the mailbox and intercom at the entrance. Dailide's German-born wife, whom he met in 1945 after escaping Lithuania, has relatives in Kirchberg, a town of 7,000 in what was formerly East Germany.  His American citizenship was revoked in 1997 and he was deported from the United States in 2004 for concealing his wartime activities with the Saugumas. In 2006, he was convicted by a Lithuanian court for arresting 12 Jews trying to escape from the Vilnius Ghetto (and 2 Poles), who were subsequently executed by the Nazis, and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.  The judges, however, refused to implement his sentence because he was old and was caring for his ill wife and “did not pose a danger to society.” In July 2008, in response to an appeal against the refusal to implement his sentence, Dailide was ruled medically unfit to be punished, without being personally examined by the doctors who provided the expertise. A spokeswoman for the Lithuanian court said in a written response: "A medical board that convened for two years ruled that Dailide's state of health does not allow for his incarceration." Yet he was not personally examined, they relied upon his own words stating simply: that he suffers from chronic back pain and arthritis, and that he takes medication for high blood pressure.

 4. MIKHAIL GORSHKOW – ESTONIA
Served as interpreter for the Gestapo in Belarus and is alleged to have participated in the mass murder of Jews in Slutzk. Gorshkow,  actively of participated in the murder of 3,000 Jewish residents of a ghetto known as Slutsk in Belarus in February 1943.

Status: Fled from the United States to Estonia before he was denaturalized for concealing his wartime service with the Nazis; had been under investigation in Estonia since his arrival several years ago, but in October 2011 the Estonian authorities closed the investigation against Gorshkow, claiming the case was one of “mistaken identity,” a decision which was severely criticized by the United States and  Russia.  He currently lives peacefully,  without fear of prosecution on Jakob Liivi, in Vaike-Maarji, Estonia.

5. THEODOR SZEHINSKYJ – UNITED STATES
Served as an armed SS Death’s Head guard at the Gross Rosen (Poland), Sachsenhausen (Germany) and Warsaw (Poland) concentration camps where he actively participated in the persecution of civilian prisoners.

Status: Escaped to the United States after World War II, but was stripped of his American citizenship in 2000 by the Office of Special Investigations and was ordered deported in 2003. To this date, no country has been willing to admit him and he therefore remains in the United States. Theodor Szehinskyj is from Ukraine, but now resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

6. HELMUT OBERLANDER – CANADA
Served in Einsatzkommando 10a (part of Einstazgruppe D), which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea and is estimated to have murdered more than 23,000 people, mostly Jews. Helmut Oberlander, 92, was in death squad estimated to have killed 23,000 civilians and has lived in Canada since 1954.

Status: Escaped to Canada after World War II, but was stripped of his Canadian citizenship in August 2001, after his wartime service with the Nazis was revealed. In May 2004, his citizenship was restored but it was revoked a second time in May 2007, a decision which was overturned by a Federal Court of Appeal in November 2009. The court of appeal again overturned the decision in 2009 and ruled the cabinet must consider whether Oberlander was forced to join the death squad under duress. On September 27, 2012, Oberlander’s citizenship was revoked again by Order in Council P.C. 2012-1137.  (“The cabinet found the defense of duress had not been established, and revoked his citizenship for the third time.”) The decision was upheld in 2015 by the federal court judge James Russell, who said Oberlander never sought to be relieved of his duties nor expressed remorse for his membership of the death squad. But in the latest ruling, the appeal court has once again sent the matter back to cabinet on the grounds that Russell failed to take into account a 2013 supreme court ruling that found the principle of “guilt by association” was unjust and wrong. “To be complicit, ‘there must be serious reasons for considering’ that the person concerned ‘voluntarily made a significant and knowing contribution to the organization’s crime or criminal purpose’”, the new ruling states. He is currently appealing the decision before the Federal Court of Canada.

It is not clear whether Oberlander will be extradited to stand trial at the international criminal court in the Hague. Bernie Farber, the former chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said last year: “My guess is he’ll live the rest of his life in Canada. He never took a scintilla of responsibility for anything, and I think for the most part that has turned so many against him. He refused to recognize that he was a participant in an evil or illegal organization.” Karen Redman, a former Canadian MP, said in 2000 she had received numerous petitions from residents of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario, where Oberlander lives, stating that the finding of fault with the immigration process should not form the basis for citizenship revocation and deportation.

“Mr. Oberlander has been a good citizen of Canada and a contributing member of the community for over 40 years, the petitioners call upon the federal government not to revoke the citizenship or deport Helmut Oberlander of Waterloo,” she added. He remains in Canada, and the Canadian Officials are discussing whether or not to attempt another revocation of his citizenship. However as of 23 March, 2016, he remains a free man.

Until next time, stay safe !

Bird

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