Helmut Oberlander

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Helmut Oberlander (born February 15, 1924 in Molotschansk , Molotschna colony ) is a former member of Einsatzgruppe D of the security police and the SD of Ukrainian-German origin. Oberlander is on the list of the most wanted war criminals at the Simon Wiesenthal Center . During the Second World War he was drafted at the age of 17 and served as a translator in Sonderkommando 10a during the German invasion of Ukraine in 1941. His tasks were to translate Russian radio messages and support German troops. He emigrated to Canada with his wife Margaret in 1954 and became a Canadian citizen in 1960.

Allegations of war crimes committed

Oberlander served in the SS security service SD from 1941 to 1943. His unit, the Einsatzgruppe D of the Security Police and the SD , was responsible for ethnic cleansing , that murders, used in the occupied territories, their actions were directed against people of Jewish faith or of Jewish descent and against Sinti and Roma .

Oberlander's role during his SS service is controversial. In one of his radio broadcasts, the Canadian right-wing extremist Paul Fromm campaigned vehemently for Canada not to extradite Oberlander.

So far, the Canadian government has tried four times to revoke Oberlander's citizenship, which he had obtained by stealth while hiding his role as a war criminal in the Soviet Union. Withdrawal would result in expulsion from Canada. Canadian courts have upheld the man and his sympathizers' lawsuits three times. A fourth decision, however, came out in court in September 2018 in favor of the state, because Oberlander had kept quiet about his membership of the death squad "Einsatzkommando 10a" in Einsatzgruppe D during naturalization. On April 25, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeals (FCA) finally and unanimously rejected an objection by Oberlander, who wanted to open up the legal process for himself again in order to continue to sue.

As early as 1997, a private investigation had shown that 161 wanted Nazi war criminals could be located in Canada with the help of telephone directories alone.

Web links

notes

  1. ↑ Four decisions of the Supreme Federal Court of Appeal, Federal Court of Appeal FCA, in the Oberlander case, engl.
  2. ↑ Canada Clears the Path for Nazi Collaborator Extradition , Die Presse , September 28, 2018
  3. ^ Court dismisses latest Oberlander effort to fight stripping of citizenship , Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC News, by Michelle McQuigge, April 25, 2019
  4. ↑ 161 War Criminals in Canada , Der Neue Mahnruf , No. 6, 1997, p. 11
personal data
SURNAME Oberlander, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS member
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Molochansk