Two NewZealand police officers have left for the Middle East, Europe and North America to investigate charges that Nazi war criminals have made their home in New Zealand.
The two-man investigation unit will follow up allegations against 42 New Zealand residents.
They will be traveling with their counterparts from the Special Investigations Unit of the Australian Attorney General’s Department, which travels widely for its inquiries into alleged war criminals living in Australia.
The mission was made public by New Zealand’s solicitor general, John McGrath.
The president of the New Zealand Jewish Council, Wendy Ross, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that New Zealand’s news media had not shown much interest in war crimes allegations.
Ross commented on the contrast between “the public outcry against France for not continuing the prosecution” in the case of the sinking of Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which resulted in a death, and “the reaction to the news that mass murderers and sadistic killers may have used New Zealand as a refuge.”
It “is a sad reflection of public attitudes in this country,” she said.
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.
