Jewish leaders here and abroad have expressed satisfaction with the Argentine Supreme Court’s decision to uphold an extradition order against accused Nazi war criminal Josef Schwammberger.
The 78-year-old former SS officer will stand trial in West Germany for the killings of at least 5,000 Jews while he was commandant of the concentration camps at Przemysl and Mielec in Poland in 1943-44.
Marcos Nizevenky, president of B’nai B’rith District 26 in Argentina, said the ruling was “especially important in view of the history of delays and refusals to act on similar cases of Nazi war criminals in Argentina.”
Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Schwammberger’s trial, coming at a time when German unification seems imminent, “will provide an important lesson for German youth both in East and West Germany regarding the dangers of Nazism and totalitarianism.”
Schwammberger, who was born in Austria and received Argentine citizenship in 1965, was arrested Nov. 13, 1987, at a ranch in Cordoba province, where he had been hiding.
His detention was ordered on the basis of an extradition request filed in 1973 by a court in Stuttgart, West Germany.
In October 1987, a Wiesenthal Center announcement in Jerusalem put Schwammberger on its “10 most wanted” list, which was reported in the Argentine press, together with his photograph. Schwammberger subsequently tried to hide, but was discovered and arrested.
Since then, Schwammberger has been confined to prison in La Plata, 35 miles south of Buenos Aires, while his lawyers waged a legal struggle against extradition.
An appeals court upheld the order last August. It was appealed to the Supreme Court, whose ruling Friday is final.
‘LANDMARK DECISION’
Burton Levinson, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, called the ruling a “landmark decision.”
He said it was of historic importance because Schwammberger will be the first Nazi war criminal ever extradited from Argentina to stand trial.
Levinson noted that many Nazi war criminals found haven in that country, including Adolf Eichmann, who was apprehended by Israeli agents in May 1960 and tried in Israel.
Seymour Reich, president of B’nai B’rith International, said he hoped the extradition will signal the end of tolerance in Argentina for Nazis and followers of neo-Nazi ideologies.
“This shows that Argentina will no longer be a haven for Nazi war criminals and illustrates the validity of the functioning democracy and judicial system in Argentina,” Reich said in a statement from Buenos Aires, where he is visiting.
Schwammberger is accused of having been directly responsible for the torture-murder of hundreds of Jews.
Prison sources at La Plata said Schwammberger would be handed over to the West German authorities in a few days. But an official at the West German Embassy in Buenos Aires could not say when he would be extradited.
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