Nazi War Criminals

Jews turned to a Catholic priest Thursday for help in remembering the horror of the Holocaust. A ceremony at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles paid homage to 6 million Jews killed in World War II by honoring Father Josef Gorajek--a Polish village priest who saved dozens of Jews from Nazi invaders by hiding them in his parish. The event was part of an international Holocaust Day remembrance.

The United States did a good job of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice after World War II but failed by allowing lesser figures in the Third Reich into the country to work for the CIA, an Israeli professor said. "The main argument against the U.S.

Hughes asks whether the fire-bombing of Dresden and the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima are somehow different from the Nazi massacres in the concentration camps. He asks, "If Dachau was not legitimate, were Hiroshima and Dresden?" He refers to the pursuit of Nazi war criminals and asks whether it is "wise and just" to pursue these issues of "reported misdeeds" from so long ago. Yes, it is "wise and just"; it is even necessary and essential. It is necessary because people like V. W. Hughes have to ask if there is a difference between Dresden, Hiroshima and Auschwitz.

In most countries there is no statute of limitations on the prosecution of World War II war crimes. But in countless cases prosecutions have been made impossible by certain governments' indifference or protectiveness toward war criminals, or because mortality has carried off those who engaged in atrocities or those who could bear witness against them.

Forty years ago the Auschwitz extermination camp established by the German occupiers of Poland was liberated by Soviet armed forces, and the first graphic evidence of some of the horrors committed there by the Hitler regime was revealed to the world. An estimated 4 million people had been murdered at Auschwitz. Many were killed by poison gas. Others died of torture, starvation and disease. Thousands more were made the sacrificial victims of groteseque medical experiments.

The government Tuesday offered a $1 million reward for the capture of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious "Angel of Death" who performed experiments on inmates at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. The reward brings to at least $2.3 million the amount offered for the capture of Mengele, who has been reported hiding in Paraguay and would be 73 if still alive. The Paraguayan government denies he is in the country.

The CIA, under pressure from Congress, has agreed in principle to release new documents detailing its ties to former Nazis who aided U.S. Cold War espionage against the Soviet Union, officials said Sunday. Facing demands for public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, CIA officials have conceded that records on former Nazis who have not been accused of war crimes, including members of the German SS, should be subject to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998, the officials said.

White House aide Patrick Buchanan said today that he has urged Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to meet with East European groups opposed to deporting suspected Nazi war criminals to the Soviet Union. Meese is currently considering handing over to the Soviets Karl Linnas, an accused Nazi collaborator whose U.S. citizenship was revoked in 1981. Buchanan opposes such deportations.

Bavarian authorities, stung by embarrassing revelations that they are giving "war victim" pensions to families of Nazi war criminals, said Friday that they will re-examine the practice. The reassessment began after a local politician, Social Democratic state Sen. Guenther Wirth, stirred controversy with disclosures that Bavaria is giving cash to the widow of Nazi judge Roland Freisler and the widow of a man hanged for running extermination squads--the Einzatzgruppen--in the Soviet Union.

I would like to praise Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Manning for his letter to the court regarding Andrija Artukovich. He did a moral and courageous thing. Artukovich has lived 35 years in this country as a good citizen. The same could be said of two other men recently deported. One had made substantial contributions to our space and defense efforts. The government recently said it is asking the court to deport 13 other old men to foreign countries and has 300 others under investigation.