Another Nazi Found

They just keep coming out of the woodwork...
"A great-grandfather living in a quiet Lancashire street has been named as a former soldier in a notorious Nazi SS-led unit responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Jewish and Polish civilians in the Second World War.
Retired coal miner Mychajlo Ostapenko, 88, has lived in Britain for more than 65 years – but documents discovered by a Holocaust researcher reveal that he served in the feared 31st Punitive Battalion.
The unit carried out appalling atrocities, including the murder of more than 100 prisoners in 1944 and the destruction of the Polish village of Chlaniow, when 44 civilians, including five children, were killed.
When contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Ostapenko said he could not remember joining the battalion and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
But now his name has been passed by British historian Stephen Ankier to Scotland Yard, which is responsible for investigating war crime suspects.
Mr Ostapenko, who was born in Ukraine, was let into Britain in 1947 with no questions asked about his wartime activities and has lived here ever since, marrying an English woman and fathering two daughters.
He is thought to be one of the last veterans of the battalion still alive in Britain, following the death of 89-year-old Serhij Woronyj in a London hospital 15 months ago."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664656/Revealed-Great-grandfather-living-Lancashire-cul-sac-Nazi-notorious-SS-unit-massacred-hundreds-Holocaust.html#ixzz35KQbtlyu

 

Is there any evidence ?

 

So tough to prove something so long ago during wartime.

 

There appears to be on the unit records, skip, but it's anyone's guess how reliable they are.

 

That's my point. If he is a war criminal , then he ought to be treated like one, but I'd expect evidence.

 

Again, if the evidence is found there should be enough to convict, but is a particular Unit's history enough to charge 1 man or just guilt by association.

 

So many stories.

Another participant, of another punitive battalion:

A resident [SIZE=16.7px]of the city of Kras[/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]nograd of the Charkov [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]region, Grigori Moiseevich Gurevich, a [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]sergeant of the Red Army, was taken pris[/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]oner by the Germans in 1941 in the[/SIZE]
vicinity of Leningrad. As a Jew, he could [SIZE=16.7px]be shot on the spot, but he managed to [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]conceal his background. He said that he [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]was Ukrainian-Grigori Mikhailovich [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]Gurvich and
was, therefore, sent to a [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]military prison. Gurevich tried to flee [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]twice and twice he was caught. After the [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]last attempt, the head of the prison gave [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]him two options-to be
executed or to [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]become an executioner. Gurevich chose [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]the second option, and the first task he [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]was given by the Nazis was to execute his [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]comrades in flight. When the
Germans [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]beg [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]an to form punitive battalions, [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]Gurevich became a soldier in one of them.[/SIZE]

He was a machine-gunner and he [SIZE=16.7px]participated in punitive actions more than [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]once, dealing with the local population [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]allegedly in contact with the guerrillas. In [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]1943, he was
wounded. The Red Army [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]was advancing and soon Gurevich was [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]taken prisoner by the Soviets, but during [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]the interrogation, he [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]managed to hide his membership in the[/SIZE]

punitive battalion. He was conscripted to [SIZE=16.7px]the acting Red Army with which he [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]reached Berlin. He al[/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]so received military [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]rewards for his service.[/SIZE]

After the war, he resided in Leningrad [SIZE=16.7px]without attracting the attention of the [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]K[/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]GB. It was the KGB, which searched [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]for military criminals in the USSR. This [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]continued smoothly up to 1973, when [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]Gurevich applied to emigrate to Israel. [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]During a very painstaking verification of [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]his documents the inconsistencies were [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]revealed. This led to suspicions, and after [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]a number of inquiries and cross [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]examinations, it became clear that [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]Gurevich, a person applying to move to [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]Israel, and, Gurvich, [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]a soldier of the Nazi [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]punitive battalion, were one and the same [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]person. The court sentenced him to the [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]severest possible punishment, the death [/SIZE][SIZE=16.7px]penalty. [/SIZE]

extract from an article in "Refuge" vol 17, No. 2 (April 1998)

 

Let's get this straight: any man serving under the German and Austrian armed forces from, say, 1938 to 1945 was a nazi?

 

No-one's claiming that, Marc.
However, another member of the same unit was recently discovered who also previously claimed to have done no military service. Why lie?
"Germany's highest criminal court has the right to prosecute a 95-year-old man accused of being a
notorious Nazi commander who 'burnt villages filled with women and children.'
It is alleged that Michael Karkoc was an officer in the SS-led Ukranian Self Defence League and later the SS Galician Division.
According to records, he told American authorities in 1949 he had performed no military service during the Second World War and has been living in a quiet Minnesota town.
However, an investigation last year revealed the retired carpenter is alleged to have been a
former commander in a Nazi SS-led unit."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2636496/Germanys-highest-criminal-court-rules-right-prosecute-95-year-old-man-accused-notorious-Nazi-commander.html#ixzz36sm4m0fj

 

If that man really is a nazi then let that son of a bitch burn.

 

"no questions asked." i'm starting to understand why, aside from ex-nazis, the UK appears to suffer from communist infiltration more than the US.

 

??

Where did this come from? Just how does this "communist infiltration" in the UK express itself?

 

burgess, maclean, philby, blunt, and maybe one more.

 

You realise, you were talking in the present tense, yet referring to something that occurred 50 years in the past?

Cambridge Five

 

He was a member of the SS. Wouldn't that by definition make him a Nazi since they swore an oath to Hitler?"

 

*bump* for an update-

"A state prosecutor in Poland says that evidence shows without doubt that a Minneapolis man was a Nazi unit commander suspected of contributing to the death of 44 Poles.

Robert Janicki said that years of investigation into US citizen 'Michael K' confirmed '100 percent' that he was in charge of an SS unit accused of burning villages and killing civilians during the Second World War.

Michael K has been identified as Michael Karkoc, 98, whose family deny he was involved in war crimes. He may now face extradition."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nnesota-man-Nazi-commander.html#ixzz4bGcNqpKV

 

98 years old! I doubt anything will ever happen .

 

I agree, Skip. Not sure about the evidence either. However, many have been prosecuted with less.

 

I guess it would depend on the policies of the government of the day, wouldn't it?

I suspect Atlee's policy was rather more lax than Churchill

 

Both Daily Mail articles talk about the Warsaw Uprising, but use unrelated photos taken by the Nazis a year earlier, during the final deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto - most likely for the simple reason those Nazi photos are free to use.