No statute of limitations on mass murder, experts say of Canada’s reluctance to pursue accused Nazis

 

The Canadian government recently released a document about the country’s embrace of former Nazis after World War II

Canadian Jewish leaders appeared to be indifferent to, or at least complacent about, Nazis living in the country post-World War II, adding insult to the Canadian government waving Nazis in after the war and failing to prosecute them, a Nazi hunter and a former president of a Jewish organization told JNS.

Steven Rambam, a noted Nazi hunter, and Moshe Ronen, former head of the Canadian Jewish Congress, spoke to JNS after the Canadian government earlier this month declassified 15 pages of the “Rodal Report,” which relates to Nazis settling in Canada after the war.

Canada has “waited until every single mass murderer of Jews residing in Canada was literally or functionally beyond Canadian justice before releasing redacted documents,” Rambam told JNS.

Ronen, who led the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1998 to 2001, told JNS that Canadian Jewish leaders resisted the idea in the 1980s, when he was a student activist, to pressure Parliament to take action against former Nazis.

“There was a “sha-shtil kind of environment” in Canada, he said, using the Yiddish for “Sh. Quiet!”

“They thought ‘Never again’ was fine, but it was time to move forward, to maintain good relations with our government,” he said. He was told resources were better directed to advocating for Israel and combating antisemitism. “Of course, the standard argument was that, ‘We’re talking about an elderly population, and who’s going to prosecute these 80-year-old people?’” he said.  (more...)

No statute of limitations on mass murder, experts say of Canada’s reluctance to pursue accused Nazis