31 Jan 2011
thesun.co.uk
Pressure grows to jail Nazi
By BRIAN FLYNN

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.

thesun.co.uk