Jerusalem
lawyers have added 150 signatures to a petition to the Israeli
government asking them to put pressure on Germany to extradite
a convicted Nazi executioner living in Bavaria.
Dutch-born Klaas Faber, 88, was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death
in Holland in 1947. The fifth most wanted Nazi war criminal,
Faber was a member of a roving SS death squad and SS officer
at Westerbork concentration camp – one of the places Anne
Frank was held.
In 1952 he escaped from prison
in Breda, Holland and fled to Germany, where he had previously
been granted citizenship as part of his service to the
SS.
He was convicted of the murder
of 22 people but is believed to have participated in mass
killings in Holland of Jews and Dutch resistance fighters.
Faber is currently living in the
Bavarian town of Ingolstadt with his wife Jacoba. The law
granting Faber citizenship in Germany is the only one of
Hitler’s laws that has never been revoked. Last month,
Faber was tracked to his home by a Sun journalist but,
when confronted, refused to speak about his past.
The Dutch government has requested
many times that Faber should be extradited back to Holland
but German state prosecutors decided in 2006 to classify
his crimes as manslaughter. A time limit on trying him
for the crimes, which applies in Germany, has now expired.
Lawyer David Schonberg, who initiated
the petition, said: “The protection that German law accords
this convicted war criminal, enabling him to live untroubled
in Germany is an affront to law and human values, and by
its belittling of the enormity of the holocaust’s crimes,
provides a harmful message to modern society.
"We expect our government
to take a more active role in the efforts to bring Nazi
war criminals to justice and this is exactly the type of
case where Israel’s involvement can prove of critical assistance”.
The Wiesenthal Centre’s chief
Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff welcomed the initiative.
He said: “Germany’s failures to put Faber on trial or return
him to Holland are a travesty which must be corrected as
quickly as possible, while justice can still be achieved.”
thejc.com
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