After the Second World War thousands of ethnic Germans came to Canada, aided by faith groups who helped steer government resettlement programs. There was little background screening, poor security checks and an anti-Semitic bias. The Waterloo Region Record’s Terry Pender documents how this led to Nazi war criminals quietly settling parts of Canada, including Waterloo Region.
An unknown number of Nazi war criminals and collaborators lived out their lives in peace in Canada, in places such as the Mennonite farms and villages of Waterloo Region.
They were among thousands of ethnic Germans brought into Canada after the Second World War — many of them members of the most reprehensible units of the Nazi war machine — by a group called the Canadian Christian Council for the Resettlement of Refugees (CCCRR), which included the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
How this happened is detailed in a Government of Canada report, “Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The Historical And Policy Setting From the 1940s to the Present.” Known as The Rodal Report, it is a 600-page study prepared by Oxford-trained historian Alti Rodal for the Deschênes Commission on Nazi War Criminals in Canada, which released its findings in 1986.
For decades, Ottawa refused to release the entirety of the Rodal report. The Waterloo Region Record filed an Access to Information request for a complete copy six years ago.
The Deschênes Commission said there were 29 cases of suspected Nazi war criminals in Canada that warranted special consideration because of the seriousness of the allegations and the availability of evidence against the men.
Among those priority cases was Waterloo resident Helmut Oberlander. The Record filed an Access to information Act request for the files on the other 28 cases, but Library and Archives Canada has refused to release any of the documents. (more...)
Bending the rules: How Canada opened its doors to Nazi war criminals
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