0 commentsCanada’s stunning indifference to Nazi war criminals settling in their midst after the Holocaust has emerged as a dark chapter in the nation’s history.
In 1986, Canadian officials grudgingly released the Deschênes Commission’s initial findings, admitting Nazi war criminals had infiltrated the country. But the government has spent nearly 40 years stonewalling release of the report’s smoking gun—the section identifying these murderers by name.
Join the JBN+ WhatsApp Group“Canada was the primary dumping ground for Nazis,” former Nazi hunter John Loftus tells JNS. “It was a hideous screw-up.”
Loftus, who testified at the Deschênes Commission, estimates 100,000 Nazis who arrived in the Americas were never brought to justice. To Canada’s embarrassment, the country didn’t know until the 1980s that the service it used to screen for Nazis was so flawed that Soviet Communists had no problem infiltrating the system.
Multiple attempts to pry loose the Nazi documents through freedom of information requests hit a wall November 5 when the Library and Archives Canada denied the requests without bothering to consult Holocaust survivors and scholars who have long fought for the names’ release.
Needless to say, Canada’s decision to keep shielding Nazi war criminals has ignited fury among Holocaust survivors and Jewish leaders, with advocates blasting the government’s continued stonewalling as a betrayal of justice.
“By protecting their identities instead, the government not only insults those who suffered at the hands of these criminals but dishonors, just ahead of Remembrance Day, our brave veterans,” says Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“Canadians deserve transparency and to know the full truth of our country’s history, and they deserve a government that has the courage to confront the darker chapters of our past.”
Yad Vashem spokesman Simmy Allen also condemned the government’s continued secrecy, telling JNS that “historical information such as this must be made accessible to the public.”
“A decision to withhold undermines the principles of historical transparency and accountability that are essential in addressing the dark chapters of the Holocaust,” Allen said. “Documentation and research pertaining to the crimes of the Holocaust must remain accessible to ensure that the memory of the millions of victims is honored and that the atrocities committed are never forgotten.”
Whoever is advocating that the Nazis not be handed over, should be imprisoned for siding with these Nazi criminals
Very good and Interesting. I agree that Canada and the world should about what happened
Canada and the actual government have made so many wrong things and mistakes, it’s time for the government to stand up against these criminals and do something good!
Canada be transparent and come clean with these war criminals
Stories about “thousands” of “Nazi war criminals” hiding in Canada were conclusively refuted by the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, headed by Justice Jules Deschênes. It found that: “Between 1971 and 1986, public statements by outside interveners concerning alleged war criminals residing in Canada have spread increasingly large and grossly exaggerated figures as to their estimated number. Even leaving aside the figure of 6,000 ventured in 1986 by Mr. Simon Wiesenthal, and before a detailed examination of each of the cases appearing on the Commission’s Master List, this list already shows no less than a 400 per cent over-estimate by the proponents of those figures.”
Mr Justice Deschênes ordered the Commission’s subject files to be kept confidential. That was done to protect the privacy of hundreds of innocent Canadians and their descendants. Releasing the names of persons not found guilty of wrongdoing during the Second World War would serve no public good.
Concerning the Galicia Division, the Commission determined that:
“The Galicia Division should not be indicted as a group.
The members of the Galicia Division were individually screened for security purposes before admission to Canada.
Charges of war crimes against members of the Galicia Division have never been substantiated, either in 1950 when they were first preferred, or in 1984 when they were renewed, or before this Commission.
Further, in the absence of evidence of participation in or knowledge of specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to justify prosecution.
No case can be made against members of the Galicia Division for revocation of citizenship or deportation since the Canadian authorities were fully aware of the relevant facts in 1950 and admission to Canada was not granted them because of any false representation, or fraud, or concealment of material circumstances.”
Unfortunately, some people have forgotten Mr. Deschênes’s prescription: “The Commission has not been created to revive old hatred that once existed abroad between communities which should now live in peace in Canada.”
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