Former Ukrainian policeman on trial
This definitely isn't a case that you hear about every day:
An aging Chicago carpenter should be stripped of his U.S. citizenship because he was a member of a police unit that helped the Nazis round up Ukrainian Jews for forced labor and death camps during World War II, federal attorneys argue.
It's hard to believe that these guys are still around and have yet to be caught. The reason behind how the whole case started is interesting though:
Firishchak's name surfaced after the fall of the Soviet Union when the newly independent Ukraine opened its archives to Holocaust researchers.
Why has it taken 15 years for this trial to come about?
I know that at this point in the man's life, deportation would hardly have much of an effect. But I am a believer in justice and punishment according to entitlement. One of my favorite Holocaust books is Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman Jurman, a Polish Jew that fled Europe and eventually made it to America. She recounts many instances of the brutality of the Ukrainian police that were assisting the German forces occupying southeastern Poland. If this man was indeed a member of that organization, regardless of what we can prove about his actions, I can truthfully say that my sympathy is lost.
An aging Chicago carpenter should be stripped of his U.S. citizenship because he was a member of a police unit that helped the Nazis round up Ukrainian Jews for forced labor and death camps during World War II, federal attorneys argue.
It's hard to believe that these guys are still around and have yet to be caught. The reason behind how the whole case started is interesting though:
Firishchak's name surfaced after the fall of the Soviet Union when the newly independent Ukraine opened its archives to Holocaust researchers.
Why has it taken 15 years for this trial to come about?
I know that at this point in the man's life, deportation would hardly have much of an effect. But I am a believer in justice and punishment according to entitlement. One of my favorite Holocaust books is Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman Jurman, a Polish Jew that fled Europe and eventually made it to America. She recounts many instances of the brutality of the Ukrainian police that were assisting the German forces occupying southeastern Poland. If this man was indeed a member of that organization, regardless of what we can prove about his actions, I can truthfully say that my sympathy is lost.
posted by Remz Pokorny @ 10:56 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:36 PM,
Robert Taylor said…
well then same thing goes for Papa Ratzinger
At 8:14 AM,
Remz Pokorny said…
Haha... I'll leave that up to historians. He claims that during the 30's it was compulsory for every German kid to enlist in the Hitler Youth, so he had no choice in the matter. I doubt the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was a compulsory thing.
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