Tscherim Soobzokov, the Soviet-born 61-year-old former member of the Waffen SS, remained listed in critical condition today at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center six days after being injured when a pipe bomb exploded at his home there. The blast severed his right leg.
Paterson police said their investigation is continuing with the cooperation of local and county police authorities and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Jewish Defense League and the Jewish Defense Organization, two groups that have denounced Soobzokov’s presence in the United States, denied responsibility for the bomb attack, although both groups, in separate statements, applauded the action.
BACKGROUND OF THE CHARGES
Soobzokov was charged in 1979 by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations of having concealed his past war time activities when he applied for entry into the United States in 1955. The OSI said he belonged to a Waffen SS unit of the German Nazis and served as a member of the German Army’s North Caucasian Legion of a Nazi-run police unit during the Holocaust.
But in July, 1980, the OSI withdrew the charge after Soobzokov provided a document proving he had disclosed his wartime record when he applied for a visa at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan in 1952. The Central Intelligence Agency said it had found a copy of the document in its files.
The suit was dropped by the OSI, although the documents that were provided during the course of litigation provided evidence that Soobzokov was a member of the Nazi Waffen SS. He became a U.S. citizen in 1961.
According to police accounts, a passerby spotted a car on fire that was parked outside Soobzokov’s house in Paterson at approximately 4 a.m. last Thursday morning. The passerby notified a neighbor who recognized the car as that of Soobzokov’s. The neighbor banged on Soobzokov’s door, and when he passed through it the pipe bomb exploded, police said.
Soobzokov’s wife, Hoshnasho, 59; his daughter, Susan Said, 29, and her son, Caspar, 4, were slightly injured walking on broken glass, according to police. Soobzokov lost the lower portion of his right leg and suffered other injuries to his legs and back. The explosion shattered windows in a row of homes on the street.
One week prior to the Soobzokov attack, JDO leader Mordechai Levy assailed Soobzokov during a speech to some 50 persons at the Young Israel Synagogue in nearby Passaic. He urged, during the speech, for those present to march on Soobzokov’s home this Thursday. Levy asserted yesterday that he had been denied permission to stage the march.
JDL national director Fern Rosenblatt said her group “is certainly not responsible for the bombing, but we applaud the action.” JDL members have in the last several years demonstrated in front of Soobzokov’s home.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
