Complaining that media coverage of the case against Canada’s last-known wartime Nazi brings violent threats against his family and lawyers, Helmut Oberlander’s representatives asked for his immigration hearing to be closed to the public and the media.
The request delayed a last-ditch hearing to deport Oberlander to Germany before he dies in Canada — another step in the 35-year struggle to hold him accountable as a member of a German killing squad during the Holocaust of the Second World War — while reporters objected to holding this week’s Immigration and Refugee Board hearings behind closed doors.
“Each time the media issues a story about my grandfather, we receive unsolicited and often threatening messages by email and on social media platforms,” Oberlander’s grandson, Jamie Rooney, told the IRB in an affidavit.
“The messages describe various means of killing one or all of my family members, including forcing my family members to drink Clorox; gassing my family members; hanging my family members; decapitating my family members; shooting my family members; and killing my family members by other means,” according to Rooney.
Rooney asked to replace his mother as Oberlander’s designated representative before the IRB because of the fear of harm against her. (more...)
Canada's last wartime Nazi Helmut Oberlander loses bid to keep deportation hearing secret
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