OSI: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust

635 Pages·2011·33.73 MB·English

The Office of Special Investigations:
Striving forA(!coun,tability in the AfterlllathoftheHolocaust
by Judy Feigin
Edited by Mark M Richard
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Department of Justice
Criminal Division
December 2008
Table of Contents
~
Page
Preface .................................................................................................................................. IV
Chapter One: The Creation of OSI
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1
The Beginning........ .... ..... ....... ... ..... ....... ...... ... ...... ..... ... ... ....... .......... ................. .... ... 2
Historians................................................................................................................. 21
Chapter Two: The Limits of the Law
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 33
Statutes and Procedures............................................................................................ 35
Chapter Tbree: Case Stlldiesof¥~ious Persecutors and HO':V,theLaw HandledT~ep1"
, , "
Introduction .... ,:',: ............. .//. ...... . 45
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Fedore~10 "Assi~tanceil1 Persecutioll~~.un~~r
Feodor - the DPA ................. ::........ 48
Georg Lindert and Adam Friedrich - "Assistance in Persecution" Under the RRA 64
Frank Walus - Lessons Learned by OSL................................................................ 71
Elmars Sprogis - When Are Law Enforcers Persecutors? ...................................... 101
Jacob Tannenbaum - The Kapo Dilemma. .............................................................. 106
Edgars Laipenieks - When There are No Good Choices ........................................ 117
Juozas Kungys - When is Misrepresentation Actionable?...................................... 127
Leonid Petkiewytsch - An Aberrational Loss .......................................................... 134
Aloyzas Balsys and Vytautas Gecas - Self-Incrimination in OSI Cases .................. 141
John Demjanjuk - An Appropriate Prosecution Initially Brought, in Part,
Under the Wrong Factual Predicate ........................................... 150
Johann Breyer - An American Persecutor ................................................................ 175
Propagandists
¥ladimir Sokolov - A Persecutor Who Found a Home in Academia ...................... 192
¥alerian Trifa - A Persecutor Who Found Refuge in His Church ........................... 203
Ferenc Koreh - A Lifetime of Propaganda.................. ......... ....... ..... ........................ 229
Senior Officials
Andrij Artukovic - Justice Interminably Delayed .................................................... 239
Otto von Bolschwing - An Eichmann Associate Who Became a CIA Source ......... 259
Karl Linnas - Cold War Politics and OSI Litigation ................................................. 271
Chapter Four: Protecting Our Borders
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 296
The Watch1ist. ........................................................................................................... 297
Kurt Waldheim - A Prominent International Figure................................................ 310
Chapter Five: Alleged U.S. Support for Entry of Nazis into the United States
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 330
Arthur Rudolph - An Honored Rocket Scientist.. ..................................................... 331
Tscherim Sooqzpkov"::'" The Victim ofy~gilantes ..... ,~ ............................... , •. ,. .......... 342
The Belarus CS)llspiracy - Sensationalislllys. Reality~'.;........................... . ....... 356
Chapter Six:. Efpand~gJurisdiction
Introduction ... . ..... 370
•••••••••••• ~/~\. u" F.'' • •••••"••"• ,', ~ •••••••••••••••• '" • '! ••
Reports
Klaus Barbie - The Butcher of Lyons ...................................................................... 371
Robert Verbe1en - Another Barbie? ....................................................................... 385
Josef Mengele - The Angel of Death ........................................................................ 390
Looted Assets ............................................................................................................ 406
Kurt Waldheim - A Prominent International Figure ...................................... supra, 310
OSI Goes International
Germany .................................................................................................................... 424
The Ba1tics ................................................................................................................. 454
The Commonwealth Nations ..................................................................................... 485
Japan .......................................................................................................................... 500
Tracking Persecutors Outside the United States:
Case Studies of Bohdan Koziy and Harry Mannil.. .................................................. 509
Chapter Seven: Reaction to OSI
11
Introduction..... ........... ....... ... ... ........ ........ ... .... .... ..... ....... ...... ... ... ........ ..... ....... ....... ... 523
The Jewish Community ............................................................................................ 524
Critics ........................................................................................................................ 533
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 556
Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 570
Glossary of Acronyms and Foreign Terms ............................................................................ 610
Index ...................................................................................................................................... 614
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1 Preface
3 [T]he Holocaust is one of those few issues that the more distant we are from it, the
4 larger it looms. Each decade since the end of the war has seen greater, not lesser,
5 attention, and that is an oddity. There are very few issues which grow in
6 magnitude as they are further away from the event. This is one of them. Perhaps
7 because it is the ultimate evil, because it takes so much time to absorb its lessons,
8 and that those lessons have become universalized in Cambodia, in Rwanda, in
9 ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the Holocaust has taken on an even greater sense
10 of urgency.1
11
12 The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is often referred to as the government's "Nazi-
13 hunting" organization.2 While that moniker is catchy, in fact the United States does not seek to
14 exclude everyone who had an affiliation with the Nazis, nor even everyone who fought on their
15 behalf. OSI'B role is to identify; and to seek removal ot: only those who assisted the. Nazis and
16 their; allies in the persecution of civilians.
,,,< ~, , " ',,' "v::: ,i' " v',~, ~
th~:public~~s shocl<edtoh~anlthat hlld
17 In the 1970s, somb Nazi persecutors emigrated to
, ,t,;', '''';
.l,
Ther~ callsforit~eir
the United States. were expulsion and legislation was passedt6 facilitate
19 their deportation. OS1 was created in 1979 to handle the caseload.
20 The obstacles to success were formidable. OS1 had to prove events decades old which
21 were committed thousands of miles away, despite the fact that most witnesses had been killed
22 during the war. Many who survived the war nevertheless died before OS1's founding. The
23 witnesses ultimately available for testimony rarely knew the names of their tormentors.
24 Moreover, by the time they were called upon to bear witness, their memories were fallible. Much
25 of the relevant documentary proof had been destroyed - some in the rubble of war, some by
26 Nazis intent on obliterating evidence of their horrific acts, and some by newly liberated camp
27 inmates who, in the first blush of freedom, wanted to bum the records of their persecutors. Much
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l of what survived was behind the Iron Curtain. Access to this material was extremely limited
2 until the Cold War ended - more than a decade after OSI's founding.
3 The most frequently asked questions about Nazi persecutors in the United States are:
4 how many came? did OSI find most of them? and was the government complicit in providing
5 these persecutors a safe haven? OSI's work sheds light, although not definitive answers, on all
6 these questions.
7 One ofOSI's early Directors hypothesized in 1984 that approximately 10,000 Nazi
8 persecutors had emigrated to the United States.3 In retrospect, that estimate seems high. In
9 1984, the Cold War was at its height; one could only speculate about information in Soviet
hav~access t~>thousandsofnClll1es
10 arc1::rives. We,Uow not available then. Running;those names
indic~s the\~nite~~.tates (axe~earchtechnique als~1pot
11 through computer ofpersol1sin available
in 1984) has not led toanywhere~e~ 10,000 "hits.'04
13 The 10 ,000 figure has enduring significance, however, because it has been widely
14 reported.5 To the extent that people believe it, it unfortunately suggests that the number of cases
15 handled by OSI - approximately 130 - is de minimus.6 However, that number, which includes
16 three cases that reached the Supreme Court, should be placed in context. There is enormous
17 difficulty in marshaling the evidence for these prosecutions, many subjects died before
18 investigation was complete,7 the cases take years to litigate to completion, and the office is
19 small. 8 As of this writing, more than 25 years after OSI's founding, 83 persecutors have been
20 denaturalized; sixty-two have left the country permanently as a result of OSI' s work? Almost
21 200 have been prevented from entering at all.
22 The disparity between the number of cases filed and the number of defendants who left
v
1 the country is due to a variety of factors. Several cases are still in litigation. More than 20
2 defendants died while their cases were pending. Some cases were settled - generally because of
3 health issues - with the government agreeing not to pursue deportation even though the facts
4 would have warranted it. The government did not prevail in a few cases, and a handful of
5 defendants who have been ordered deported remain in the United States because no other country
6 is willing to accept them.
7 "Na zi hunting" so many years after the war is dramatic, tedious and difficult. It calls for
8 the prosecutorial collaboration of litigators and historians. Because the work is so unusual, and
9 the moral content so profound, the Department of Justice determined that the history of the office
10 itself shouldbedocum.~nted. This¥~port is theTesult of that4:etermination.
prep~ing ~~port of tl1i~t~pe, tli~re il1.~v:itably ~~~question what,~d
11 In a is of how much,
f ,'" ',,\ "; >',::,';);
to include. Anyreader interested in the .full scope o:fth~ litigation handled by the office should
13 tum to the Appendix at the conclusion of this report. It lists every case filed, the charges made,
14 and the litigative outcome. The body of the report details only a sampling of the cases. They
15 were chosen as representative of a type of case, or of a particular issue, important to
16 understanding the work of OS!.
17 Although OSI's litigative losses are few, virtually all are discussed.iO This was done for
18 two reasons: (1) to avoid any suggestion that the report is designed to aggrandize the office's
19 record; and (2) because the losses are rare, almost all present unique issues worthy of comment.
20 The history of OSI involves more than its cases, however. Although initially conceived
21 solely as a litigating unit, OSI's mandate has expanded over the years. As a repository of World
22 War II lmowledge, the office has been called upon by various parts of the government to prepare
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1 reports and to assist in non-litigative matters concerning the Holocaust. The reports, all of which
2 are detailed herein, involve World War II issues relevant to the nation and to the world
3 community.
4 While the cases and projects are individually fascinating, this report was not written
5 simply to recount a series of unrelated but interesting undertakings. It is designed to serve as a
6 teaching and research tool for historians, the media, academics, policy makers and the general
7 public. The project will hopefully provoke discussion about some of the legal and moral issues
8 involving prosecution of those involved with the Holocaust. Among the questions: what kind of
9 behavior constitutes assistance in persecution? how do people become involved in genocidal
if
10 activity? didfuey hav~.Niable alterJ;l(ltives? not; should tlw,t be a factor in deterrpining whether
theIIl1i~g: s~~iety.handle
11 they are allowedto stay in State:ihow. • ShOuld them, 30,140, 50 years
~,' . ' ,'" ' . ,,' ,';, "u, " " "
th~passage'()ftimeaffect a~ijity t~
after the fact? does their .refute the charges? And what is
13 society's goal in bringing these cases? should it be to punish? to establish personal
14 accountability? to educate future generations? to present a historical record? Whatever the
15 goals, how can they best be met?
16 The issues are legion. While one would hope that the Holocaust was such an aberration
17 that its like would never recur, the world has since learned of new and horrific genocidal
18 undertakings. Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, Rwanda, Serbia and Sudan are among the all-
19 too-many countries involved. These societies will inevitably have to confront some of the same
20 issues which faced OS1. The United States as well will have to revisit some of the issues as it
21 determines how to treat those new persecutors who have emigrated to this country. It is the
22 Department's hope that this report will help bring some of the matters into focus, both for
Vll
1 historical accuracy as well as to provide some guidance on how to respond to the inevitable
2 repetition of persecution.
V1l1
1 1. S. Eizenstat, Keynote Address, 25 Fordham Int'l 1.J. 205, 208 (2001).
2. E.g. ,"Racing Against Time," by Angie Cannon, The Miami Herald, Nov. 2, 1996; "Nazi
Hunters are Still at War," by Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post, Aug. 27, 1995; ABC-TV
News, March 25, 1995 (describing OSI as "the most successful government Nazi-hunting
organization on earth.")
3. Allan Ryan, Quiet Neighbors (Harcourt Brace, 1984), pp. 26-27. Ryan acknowledged that
the figure was speculative. His calculation was based on the fact that approximately 400,000
emigres had been admitted under the Displaced Persons Act. That statute favored persons in the
Baltic states and Ukraine, two regions rife with Nazi collaborators. Because the visa screening
process was woefully inadequate (see pp. 36-37), Ryan postulated that 10% of those admitted
had been collaborators. Not wanting to be accused of "being hysterical on this subject," he
halved the percentage and then halved it yet again. The figure thus calculated was 10,000.
Recorded Ryan interview. Oct. 6,2000. (Ryan's calculations do not include anyadmittees
under the Refugee Relief Act, under which another 200,000 persons entered the country. Very
few of those admittees were from the Baltics or Ukraine.)
, ",;'" I
4 .. Qfcollrse,not all p~rsons whoparticipatedin!the Holocau~fare listed on roste~sand the
illlh1
gov~rnment does. not have all relevant rosters in any event; Y are missing or inc()mplete.
Moreover, the nrunber 9f"hits"dQes not co!,!,elate directly withprosl;\cutable cases. Many
1
subjects died before OS~ leained;iheir names.Some~its are <;;:tses of mistaken identity; in others
then;~ is no evidence orjt,1sufficient~videnGe ofpersec~tion.4lthough we have noreliable way
of(letermining the precise number?fNazi persecutors whoelltered the United States after World
War II, OSI has investigated approximately 1,500 persons since its founding in 1979.
That number overstates the universe of known potentially viable cases, however. Before
1988, a matter was "opened" as an OSI investigation as soon as a match (or sometimes a near
match) was found between a name in INS files and a name on an OSI source list. In many
instances, it turned out that the person was dead, the near-match was not an actual match, or there
was no reasonable basis to believe the individual was involved in persecution. After 1988, OSI
generally "opened" a case only after it was clear that the subject was alive and living in the U.S.
(or a U.S. citizen living abroad), the match was proper, and there was a reasonable basis to
believe he had been involved in acts of persecution.
5. E.g., "As Suspected Nazi Cases Dwindle, Government to Cast Wider Net," by David Porter,
AP, Feb. 27,2005; "Unforgiven, Michael Gruber Can Never Escape his Nazi Past," by Katherine
Marsh, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, June 17, 2001; "Filed Away, As America's Last
Hidden Nazis are Pursued, Silent Witnesses Emerge to Testify from Long-Hidden Soviet
Archives," by Joseph Slobodzian, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, May 13,2001; "Probers
Race Against Time in Hunt for Fugitive Nazis," by Adam Piore, The Record (Bergen Co., NJ),
Aug. 10, 1997; "Nazi Hunters Sift Aging Archive," by Angie Cannon, The Charlotte Observer
(No. Car.), Oct. 13, 1996; "Holocaust's Last Chapter; Hunt for Nazis Continues As Clock Winds
Down," AP, Apr. 11, 1995; "The Nazis Among Us," by David Friedman, Newsday (New York),
Feb. 22, 1995; "As Time Runs Out, Hunt for Nazis Speeding Up," by Matt O'Connor, The
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