Nazi hunting report praises Germany, downgrades US
4-13-2015
For first time, US ranked lower than Germany in Simon Wiesenthal Center report after it failed to prosecute SS unit commander living quietly in midwest.
Associated Press
The world's predominant Nazi-hunting group is taking the United States to task over its failure to prosecute a member of a notorious Nazi killing unit who lived quietly in Minnesota for decades.
In its annual report, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said Monday that it had lowered its ranking of the US's Nazi-hunting efforts from A to B. It was the first time the US has been ranked so low.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the center's Israel office, said the ranking was in part because the US took no action against Michael Karkoc. An Associated Press investigation exposed the retired carpenter as a commander in an SS-led Ukrainian unit. This year's report praised Germany for loosening criteria to make it easier to prosecute former Nazis.
It was published as Israel prepared to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, when the entire country would come to a standstill for two minutes of silence to remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust in World War II.
Last year, the report placed both countries in its Category A of states which "have taken all reasonable measures to identify the potential suspected Nazi war criminals in the country in order to maximize investigation and prosecution and have achieved notable results during the period under review."
The 2014 report also specifically praised Germany for implementing a legal strategy that "paves the way for the conviction of practically any person who served either in a Nazi death camp or in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units)."
A Nazi in Minnesota
The US was penalized for not prosecuting Michael Karkoc, a former SS unit commander that an Associated Press investigation found was living unmolested in Minnesota and had even enjoyed US social benefits.
Despite US inaction, Germany's highest criminal court ruled that the country has jurisdiction over the case of the retired Minnesota carpenter revealed to be a former commander in a Nazi SS-led unit.
The Federal Court of Justice said in its ruling that 95-year-old Michael Karkoc's service as a commander in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion made him the "holder of a German office" — giving Germany the legal right to prosecute him even though he is not German himself, his alleged crimes were against non-Germans and they were not on German soil.
Someone in that role "served the purposes of the Nazi state's world view," the court said.
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