A NAZI killer sensationally unmasked by The Sun could be
behind bars within weeks as pressure grows on German officials
to extradite him.
Outraged Dutch authorities filed an international arrest
warrant after we told how evil SS executioner Klaas Faber,
88, was living quietly under the protection of German officials.
Justice chiefs in Bavaria have confirmed a decision on whether to carry out the
warrant will be made within four weeks amid growing international
clamour for action.
The Dutch-born monster was caged for life for killing 22 victims in occupied
Holland after volunteering for a roving death squad during
World War II.
But he escaped jail 58 years ago and fled across the border, where officials
helped him to vanish into German society and shamefully shielded
him from justice for decades.
The Sun confronted Faber — now the
world's third most-wanted World War II Nazi fugitive — as
he strolled through parkland near his plush flat in the Bavarian
market town of Ingolstadt.
The father-of-three is living anonymously
in cosy retirement with wife Jacoba, protected by officials
after years as an office worker at a nearby Audi factory.
We revealed how he had escaped justice
in Germany by claiming protection under a warped law created
by Adolf Hitler giving foreign SS volunteers citizenship.
But our expose of the scandal sparked
worldwide fury led by Israel's Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman,
who wrote to his German counterpart demanding Faber was brought
to justice.
Holocaust campaigners and more than
150 Jewish lawyers also campaigned to haul him into court
to pay for his crimes in the wake of our expose.
And in a crucial step, the Netherlands
formally issued an international arrest warrant requesting
his extradition to serve the rest of his life term.
The document listed Faber's nationality
as "stateless", arguing he is not protected by the so-called "Fuhrer's Law" because his citizenship was never fully authorised after World War II.
Under German law, it is regional justice
chiefs in Bavaria rather than ministers in Berlin who now
control his fate because they are the officials who must
act on the arrest warrant.
They confirmed yesterday they would
make a final decision on whether to execute the arrest warrant
in the next four weeks after months of legal wrangles.
But pressure on them is growing with the German national government announcing
that it too now wants to see Faber arrested for extradition
as the scandal tarnishes the nation's image.
Nazi hunter Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, insisted
it was the last chance for Germany to rescue its international
reputation.
He said: "We have
seen very positive developments in Germany in recent years.
"But the case of Klaas
Faber stands out as one in which Germany has really failed
in its obligations to bring the perpetrators of Holocaust
atrocities to justice.
"The Dutch arrest warrant
is a final opportunity to do the right thing for the victims,
and for German society and their own international reputation."
Legal expert David Schonberg, who
led 150 Israeli lawyers campaigning for Faber's extradition,
added: "The correct thing would be for the arrest warrant to be complied with.
"The full extradition is
necessary to restore Germany's international reputation.
"An arrest warrant has
been issued and Germany should not interfere with international
justice. There is no decent excuse."
Faber claims he became a German in
1943 under the "Fuhrer's Law".
But Bavaria's Ministry of Justice
confirmed yesterday that the warrant was being checked to
see whether he could be legally classed as stateless and
arrested for extradition.
A spokesman added: "Many
conditions concerning Faber have to be checked to be able
to say whether he is now stateless or a German citizen."
The Bavarian prosecutor's office said
the delay was caused by changes to Hitler's law after the
end of the war which meant SS foreigners had to get the formal
consent of another administrative public office to become
German citizens — meaning Faber may not be protected at all.
A spokesman added: "Right
now the European warrant for Faber is being checked by administrative
authorities."
Faber's original trial heard he was
an enthusiastic Nazi who volunteered to join the SS in 1940,
then roamed occupied Holland ruthlessly slaying civilians
deemed "anti-German".
He rose to become an officer with
the notorious SD secret police and worked for the Gestapo
as an executioner at Westerbork concentration camp, where
teenage diarist Anne Frank was held.
He was convicted of murdering at least 22 victims, but the court heard he personally
carried out mass shootings and experts believe the real toll
was much higher.
Faber was then one of seven Nazi officers who escaped from Breda prison on Boxing
Day 1952.
They fled to Germany, where they were
welcomed at the border and given coffee and cakes by sympathetic
customs officials.
The gang were given token fines for
illegally crossing the border, then set free.
But his days enjoying a freedom denied
those whose lives he viciously cut short could now be numbered
if Germany finally acts to end the scandal and send him back
to Holland to see out his life behind bars.
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