British
Sun reports Germany refusing to extradite Dutch-born SS volunteer
Klaas Faber, who fled prison in Holland after being convicted
of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment
The unbelievable story of a Nazi criminal who escaped a Dutch prison and fled
to sanctuary in Germany, which still refuses to extradite
him due to a law legislated by Hitler. The British Sun on
Monday published photographs of Klaas Faber, the Dutchman
who volunteered to the SS and was convicted of war crimes,
strolling through a park with his wife in Germany – despite
having been sentenced to death and then having his sentence
commuted to life imprisonment.
Faber, 88, was born in Holland and
volunteered for Adolf Hitler's SS in 1940. In 1947 he was
convicted of war crimes, and five year later, after his sentences
was reduced to life imprisonment, he escaped from his prison
cell in Breda, Holland and fled to Germany.
Despite him being the fifth most wanted
Nazi fugitive, Berlin has rejected many requests to extradite
him, since he was granted a German citizenship by Hitler
while serving with the SS.
The Sun tracked Faber down in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, where he lives
with his wife Jacoba. He has made no attempt to hide his
identity, and the name "K. Faber" marks the doorbell on his flat.
After years of working at Audi, Faber
now enjoys a cozy retirement relaxing in local parks and
going on shopping trips in his VW Golf.
Merciless slaughter of Jews
Faber's neighbors say the father of
three is quiet, but friendly and polite. But when the Sun
reporter confronted him and asked if he felt any remorse
for his crimes or compassion for his victims and their relatives,
his smile vanished, and was replaced with a cold stare and
piercing silence.
In his trial after the Second World War, it was argued that
he was an enthusiastic Nazi, and after volunteering to
the SS at the age of 18, he travelled around northern Holland
and mercilessly slaughtered Jews and Dutch resistance fighters.
He became an officer with the Nazi
secret service and worked with the Gestapo as an executioner
at the Westerbork concentration camp.
He was convicted of murdering at least
22 people, but the court heard he personally carried out
mass shootings and experts believe the actual toll was much
higher.
In 1952, Faber was one of the seven
Nazi officers who escaped from the Breda prison in Holland.
He and his comrades fled to Germany, where they were welcomed
by the customs clerks with coffee and cookies. The seven
received a fine for illegally crossing the border, and were
then set free.
'He is one of the most evil men'
Surprisingly, German authorities still honor the privileges
Hitler granted to his followers. Faber himself became a German
citizen in 1943, in accordance with the "Fuhrer's
Law", which grants citizenship to foreign Nazi volunteers.
This is the only one of Hitler's laws
that Germany has not revoked, and is still using to reject
requests to send Faber back to a Dutch prison.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center said, "He is one of the most evil men alive. For Germany to continue shielding him is
a shocking stain on the nation's reputation.
"We are talking about someone who volunteered for the SS so he could help Hitler's
regime turn his vile beliefs into reality. He didn't just
support the Holocaust; he actively helped those behind it.
The families of those he killed deserve justice, and it's
time for Germany to stop hiding behind a law that Hitler
brought in."
German authorities confirmed that
Faber is immune from prosecution and extradition, despite
repeated requests by the Netherlands to hand him over. State
prosecutors decided in 2006 to classify Faber's crimes as
manslaughter. So a time limit on trying him in Germany -
which does not apply to murder - has now expired.
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