AP finds Nazi commander, now 94, living in Minnesota

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ap-impact-commander-in-nazi-ss-led-unit-linked-to-atrocities-living-in-minnesota/2013/06/14/d9c0f374-d4da-11e2-b3a2-3bf5eb37b9d0_story.html

Michael Karkoc moved here in 1949 and obviously told nobody in Minneapolis of his past as the founder of the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, which massacred civilians there and was part of the Warsaw Uprising. He told the story in a Ukrainian memoir published in 1995, and it was just discovered and linked to his address. Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi hunter (coolest job in world BTW) expects deportation and a trial for war crimes.

I await neighbors saying he was a nice guy, kind of quiet, and they in no way suspected him of being a genocidal maniac.

 

In fairness, I've never met anyone who I thought "boy, I bet he tried to help exterminate an entire group of people."

 

Line 'im up.

 

And because it's an intense scene (even though I didn't like Roth in the role):

http://youtu.be/DD1y-XvreNc?t=2m2s

 

Man, that Adrian Peterson can do it all.

 

Not excusing or making light of the atrocities that were done during that period, but a lot of Ukrainians sided with the Nazis because they were the enemies of Stalin's Soviet regime, and as the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." By the time they figured out that they'd made a devil's bargain, if they ever did, it was too late.

 

I would think statute of limitations has long since passed.

 

Nope

 

Interesting story, but is it even worth the expense and effort to extradite and prosecute a 94 year old man? He'll likely be dead before anything ever gets to trial anyways.

 

Don't care. Do it anyway. Some things should never, ever be let go.

 

Does make you wonder how many of these guys are still out there.

 

I read "Hunting Eichmann" last year -- it isn't a new book but I just got around to it -- and that made it clear that "never forget" is ingrained in the culture and rightfully so. There is no give on this subject. It has been less than 70 years, a very short time, and saying "all right, that's enough" is seen as softening future generations.