It's time to confront the dark postscript to America's role in defeating the Nazis

 

Last weekend, the United States deported Friedrich Karl Berger, an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard. The deportation was seen as a triumph of justice. When commenting on the case, Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson lauded the efforts of law enforcement involved in the process, while affirming America isn't "a safe haven for those who participated in Nazi crimes."

Except that it has been.

The US, of course, played a crucial role in defeating Nazi Germany. Over 400,000 Americans lost their lives in the war against Adolf Hitler. But there's also a dark postscript to this story, one that began when World War II ended and one that we need to address now.

America's been a haven for thousands of Nazis and Nazi collaborators who served in concentration camps and death squads and SS units. Several were even leaders of Nazi-allied governments. And we didn't merely take them in -- in some cases, we welcomed and protected them; we kept them safe from justice. It's far past time we acknowledged it.  (more...)

It's time to confront the dark postscript to America's role in defeating the Nazis

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