AP report: Commander in Nazi SS-led unit living in Minnesota

AP report: Commander in Nazi SS-led unit living in Minnesota

A top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States and has been living in Minnesota since shortly after World War II, according to evidence uncovered by The Associated Press. Michael Karkoc, 94, told American authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Though records do not show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader. Nazi SS files say he and his unit were also involved in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation. The U.S. Department of Justice has used lies about wartime service made in immigration papers to deport dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals. The evidence of Karkoc's wartime activities uncovered by AP has prompted German authorities to express interest in exploring whether there is enough to prosecute. In Germany, Nazis with "command responsibility" can be charged with war crimes even if their direct involvement in atrocities cannot be proven.

Isn't it about time this witch-hunt came to an end? They even admit there is no evidence showing this guy is guilty of anything but they still want to prosecute him. This man is an American citizen and if there is no hard evidence showing his involvement in these crimes then in no way should he be handed over to another government for trial.
Why are they chasing after people that did something 65 years ago when we don't prosecute war criminals now?

reply to post by buster2010
I agree with you. It's a witch hunt and it needs to stop. Even if they were able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy was involved in all that they claim taking him to trial and imprisoning him would be a waste of time and money. He probably doesn't have much time left on this earth as it is, and the odds of him living through the entire procedure aren't very good.

While we should never forget the atrocities committed in WW2 it is time to commit them to history and look to the future. It is time for the search for Nazi war criminals to end. Any that are still living are so old now that they can be of no further harm to anyone, if there are any left living at all.

witch hunt????

statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader

I'd take an eye witness any day over the press.

Such hypocrisy , hes only a criminal because he wasnt of any scientific or intelligence use to the US after the war. If he had been then he would have been pardoned and brought in through operation paperclip.

reply to post by buster2010


Well for the sake of argument, if he did command a unit that committed war crimes does it matter how long ago it occurred?

Is there a statute of limitations on genocide?

reply to post by StoutBroux


It depends under which circumstances the information was gathered in order to prosecute higher ranking officials.

Most of the time it was not voluntarily, it was extracted by any means necessary and the Nazis were not the only ones using persuasive methods.



Still the man is 94, what they are planning to do with him?

It needs to be noted that the guy wrote a memoir in which he described being an integral part of this group. Now, he didnt admit to any of the atrocities, but admitting to being an on the field leader of a faction that, without a doubt, committed some of these things, sure is reason to take a closer look.

I so hope that in digging about this, it comes forth that he was actually 'handled' by the US and came here under one of the re-appropriation projects....wouldnt that just be a hornets nest...

After reading your headline I was hoping
the attitude you took was one of let's drop this already.
He's 94. Certainly no threat to anyone except the floor.

I know there are many cases to be made against this idea
but I for one am ok in 2013 with this man living out his last days
in peace.

reply to post by marg6043


94 yes, but murder has no statute of limitations.

Originally posted by sealing
After reading your headline I was hoping
the attitude you took was one of let's drop this already.
He's 94. Certainly no threat to anyone except the floor.

I know there are many cases to be made against this idea
but I for one am ok in 2013 with this man living out his last days
in peace.

Good on you but maybe his victims and their families might not be. After all, was your brother killed by him?

reply to post by buster2010


FOIA request? This means gov has known all along about this guy, and done nothing???

Originally posted by deckdel
reply to post by buster2010

 

FOIA request? This means gov has known all along about this guy, and done nothing???

He wrote a memoir which is in the library of congress...so yeah, Id say they knew about him.

However, in a Ukrainian-language memoir published in 1995, Karkoc states that he helped found the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion in 1943 in collaboration with the Nazis' feared SS intelligence agency, the SD, to fight on the side of Germany — and served as a company commander in the unit, which received orders directly from the SS, through the end of the war.

usnews.nbcnews.com...

It was not clear why Karkoc felt safe publishing his memoir, which is available at the U.S. Library of Congress and the British Library and which the AP located online in an electronic Ukrainian library.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Originally posted by StoutBroux
reply to post by marg6043

 

94 yes, but murder has no statute of limitations.

You're right. Revenge has no limits.

reply to post by StoutBroux


Yeah you are totally right.
It's such a tough subject to approach.
I guess not being related to victims makes it a lot easier
for me to decide, but I completely understand the other side of the coin.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by StoutBroux
reply to post by marg6043

 

94 yes, but murder has no statute of limitations.

You're right. Revenge has no limits.

So if he was 34 years old, would that make it better for him to be punished? Or is it the lapse in time of the crime that absolves him? It's not revenge, it's a punishment for an action, a horrific one at that. Would you alevieate crime for Hitler if he was 94?

reply to post by StoutBroux


And the question is and remain the same, what should be done with him or better yet, what you want to do with him that has lived a long life and now is 94

reply to post by marg6043


The likely result should be prison for the rest of his life. Being 94 is not a free pass imho, but it does seem to work for some.

Originally posted by StoutBroux

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by StoutBroux
reply to post by marg6043

 

94 yes, but murder has no statute of limitations.

You're right. Revenge has no limits.

So if he was 34 years old, would that make it better for him to be punished? Or is it the lapse in time of the crime that absolves him? It's not revenge, it's a punishment for an action, a horrific one at that.

Really? Did you read the source material? I did. This is VERY specious reasoning to try someone:

In Germany, Nazis with "command responsibility" can be charged with war crimes even if their direct involvement in atrocities cannot be proven.

Holy crap. Even if you didn't do something you can be fried. That's not punishment. That's revenge my friend.

Secondly, his "atrocities" were the killings in a couple of towns. Total dead 61. I know, I don't condone that but it was war. That's a pittance compared to the rest. So why try this guy? Because he was a Nazi. Why not try the Vichy French? Well that's another story. Yup, revenge and this is getting old, after almost 70 years.

ETA: Seems like these hunters want to punish these guys before natural causes takes them out of their reach. Again.... revenge.

A top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit who lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States more than 60 years ago said Friday that he 'can't explain' his wartime service.

Michael Karkoc, 94, made the remarks to a reporter who knocked on the door of his Minnesota home to ask him about accusations that he burned villages filled with women and children.


He told American authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by the AP.

Karkoc told American officials he was a carpenter, and records indicate he worked for a nationwide construction company that has an office in Minneapolis.

Following the war, Karkoc ended up in a camp for displaced people in Neu Ulm, Germany, according to documents obtained from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

The documents indicate that his wife died in 1948, a year before he and their two young boys - born in 1945 and 1946 - emigrated to the U.S.

After he arrived in Minneapolis, he remarried and had four more children, the last born in 1966.

snip

Villagers offered chilling testimony about the brutality of the attack.

In 1948, Chlaniow villager Stanislawa Lipska told a communist-era commission that she heard shots at about 7 a.m., then saw 'the Ukrainian SS force' entering the town, calling out in Ukrainian and Polish for people to come out of their homes.

'The Ukrainians were setting fire to the buildings,' Lipska said in a statement, also used in the Dak trial. 'You could hear machine-gun shots and grenade explosions.

Shots could be heard inside the village and on the outskirts. They were making sure no one escaped.'

Witness statements and other documentation also link the unit circumstantially to a 1943 massacre in Pidhaitsi, on the outskirts of Lutsk -today part of Ukraine - where the Self Defense Legion was once based. A total of 21 villagers, mostly women and children, were slaughtered.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

I guess he shouldn't have to pay any penalty, he only slaughtered women and children, no harm no foul.

reply to post by StoutBroux


See my post above.