Kowalski Posted June 14, 2013 #1 Share Posted June 14, 2013 AP IMPACT: Commander in SS-led unit living in US BERLIN (AP) — A top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States and has been living in Minnesota since shortly after World War II, according to evidence uncovered by The Associated Press. Michael Karkoc, 94, told American authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Galician Division and a Ukrainian nationalist organization he served in were both on a secret American government blacklist of organizations whose members were forbidden from entering the United States at the time. Though records do not show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader. Nazi SS files say he and his unit were also involved in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation. The U.S. Department of Justice has used lies about wartime service made in immigration papers to deport dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals. The evidence of Karkoc's wartime activities uncovered by AP has prompted German authorities to express interest in exploring whether there is enough to prosecute. In Germany, Nazis with "command responsibility" can be charged with war crimes even if their direct involvement in atrocities cannot be proven. Karkoc refused to discuss his wartime past at his home in Minneapolis, and repeated efforts to set up an interview, using his son as an intermediary, were unsuccessful. Efraim Zuroff, the lead Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said that based on his decades of experience pursuing Nazi war criminals, he expects that the evidence showing Karkoc lied to American officials and that his unit carried out atrocities is strong enough for deportation and war-crimes prosecution in Germany or Poland. From: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-commander-ss-led-unit-living-us-101016457.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted June 14, 2013 #2 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I don't care if the man is in his 90's, he needs to be prosecuted IMHO. The Ukranian SS were as bad or worse than the German SS according to many acounts of teh war I have read.. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kowalski Posted June 14, 2013 Author #3 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I don't care if the man is in his 90's, he needs to be prosecuted IMHO. The Ukranian SS were as bad or worse than the German SS according to many acounts of teh war I have read.. I agree. He should be prosecuted, and if he is found guilty, he should be hung. I don't care how old he is. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 14, 2013 #4 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I don't care if the man is in his 90's, he needs to be prosecuted IMHO. The Ukranian SS were as bad or worse than the German SS according to many acounts of teh war I have read.. He will be dead before the case begins. God will punish him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kowalski Posted June 14, 2013 Author #5 Share Posted June 14, 2013 He will be dead before the case begins. God will punish him. One can only hope..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafterman Posted June 14, 2013 #6 Share Posted June 14, 2013 He will be dead before the case begins. God will punish him. For those of us who are non-believers, I'd prefer a little Earth-bound justice. There have been a number of these cases in recent years that I didn't support prosecution because, in my opinion, the evidence was just too circumstantial. But in this case, it seems pretty clear cut. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashotep Posted June 14, 2013 #7 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Let him suffer like the people he made suffer then God can have him. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 14, 2013 #8 Share Posted June 14, 2013 What ever suffering he can be made to do here will be nothing he wilil go through after death, if he deserves it of course. Oh, and since he lives in the usa, he is innocent until found guilty in court. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted June 14, 2013 #9 Share Posted June 14, 2013 What ever suffering he can be made to do here will be nothing he wilil go through after death, if he deserves it of course. Oh, and since he lives in the usa, he is innocent until found guilty in court. Hence the discovery that goes along with a court case. he may very well die before the case ever comes to court but it sends a message that you will be hunted down and captured if you commit war crimes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Grey Posted June 14, 2013 #10 Share Posted June 14, 2013 It's amazing how the more you dig, the more you'll find that America and Nazi Germany were connected in so many ways. Much like the middle-east, the war on the surface doesn't really reflect the real motives underneath. Just look at how many major corporations made their profits during WW2 and are still profiting today. (Looking at you, Hugo Boss, IBM, etc) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kowalski Posted June 14, 2013 Author #11 Share Posted June 14, 2013 It's amazing how the more you dig, the more you'll find that America and Nazi Germany were connected in so many ways. Much like the middle-east, the war on the surface doesn't really reflect the real motives underneath. Just look at how many major corporations made their profits during WW2 and are still profiting today. (Looking at you, Hugo Boss, IBM, etc) Very true! I watched something, several years ago, about how there were certain pharmaceutical companies, who had the Nazis test their medications on concentration camp victims. I believe one of the companies was Bayer. Can't remember the other ones.... Need to look it up.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted June 14, 2013 #12 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Very true! I watched something, several years ago, about how there were certain pharmaceutical companies, who had the Nazis test their medications on concentration camp victims. I believe one of the companies was Bayer. Can't remember the other ones.... Need to look it up.... The whole who-is who of the American Industry was cheering Adolph and his loonies, started from Henry Ford (who even got the Nazi equivalent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts for the III Reich) to Thomas J. Watson (IBM) who supplied the card sorters for the racial separation program (though some say unwittingly). And Bayer is and was a German company (with subsidiaries in the US), so no surprise that they used the Nazi facilities to test medicines. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Grey Posted June 14, 2013 #13 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Very true! I watched something, several years ago, about how there were certain pharmaceutical companies, who had the Nazis test their medications on concentration camp victims. I believe one of the companies was Bayer. Can't remember the other ones.... Need to look it up.... So sad, Kowalski... Was there ever a time in recent history where corporations didn't run everything? It's like once that big picture comes in to focus, you can't "un-see"; it's everywhere. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jugoso Posted June 14, 2013 #14 Share Posted June 14, 2013 but it sends a message that you will be hunted down and captured if you commit war crimes. That´s good to know. So should I expect to see these guys on trial in the US too?? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted June 14, 2013 #15 Share Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) That´s good to know. So should I expect to see these guys on trial in the US too?? No, now get off your Mom's computer. Edited June 14, 2013 by Merc14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s33ker Posted June 14, 2013 #16 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Bosch made the ovens , didn't they? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted June 14, 2013 #17 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Bosch made the ovens , didn't they? No, that was a small company called Topf&Soehne. That company was nationalized by the East Germans after the war. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jugoso Posted June 14, 2013 #18 Share Posted June 14, 2013 No, now get off your Mom's computer. Hey man.....I calls ´em as i sees´em. Oh.Gotta go.....Mommy´s got lunch ready. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s33ker Posted June 14, 2013 #19 Share Posted June 14, 2013 No, that was a small company called Topf&Soehne. That company was nationalized by the East Germans after the war. Ohhhh, paint me colour slander! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrooma Posted June 14, 2013 #20 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Bosch made the ovens , didn't they? . their new microwave's a six-seater..... :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted June 14, 2013 #21 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Ohhhh, paint me colour slander! you did not start that rumor, it was the same East Germans who kept Topf&Soehne under the new name VEB Ofenbau operational. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 15, 2013 #22 Share Posted June 15, 2013 you did not start that rumor, it was the same East Germans who kept Topf&Soehne under the new name VEB Ofenbau operational. In other words don't believe everything a government tells you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafterman Posted June 16, 2013 #23 Share Posted June 16, 2013 If anyone is interested, do a little research on some of the Japanese companies whose names are probably on some of the stuff in your home right now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules97 Posted June 16, 2013 #24 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Age is no question when dealing with these kinds of issues. Justice is blind, he deserves the worst punishment possible for his actions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkHunter Posted June 16, 2013 #25 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I know this won't make me popular here but I don't care much about that anyway so that ain't a problem but I honestly don't see the point in prosecuting him at this point. What he did was terrible and he should of faced trial for what he did, but lets be honest he effectively escaped punishment and nothing we can do will change that. After the war he somehow managed to sneak into the US, lived pretty much the whole rest of his life as he wanted to and was free to do what he wanted to do for the most part and now at the very end of his life we manage to catch him. We could put him on trial but what is the point, he probably wouldn't even live to see the end of the trial and even if he did somehow manage to live to the end he would probably die in a year or two anyway. One or two years in prison at the very end of his life for the crimes he did is not a punishment at all, the simple fact is he escaped punishment completely by living the vast majority of his life as a free man. All prosecuting him would do is waste money that could be put to much better uses, maybe ease the conscious and make a few people who more then likely where not effected by this man at all feel better about themselves, and might bring a tiny amount of peace to the few people he harmed if they are even still alive. The simple fact is he got away and doing anything to him at this point is just a waste of resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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