Australian Jewish Leader Foresees Swift Government Action on Nazis

The president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Leslie Caplan, said he expects the government of Prime Minister Robert Hawke will take steps within the next two months to implement most of the recommendations of a recently concluded official probe into the presence of fugitive Nazi war criminals in Australia.

Speaking in New York at a meeting of the World Jewish Congress-American Section, Caplan outlined the history of the war criminals issue in Australia. He noted that in 1961, Australia’s then Attorney General, Sir Garfield Barwick, had flatly ruled out taking legal action against suspected Nazis.

Barwick said at the time, “We think the time has come to close the chapter” so that Australia might “enable men to turn their backs on past bitterness and make a new life for themselves and for their families in a happier community.”

In June 1986, following more than a year of investigative reporting by the media disclosing the presence of accused Nazi war criminals in the country, the government appointed Andrew Menzies, a retired government official, to direct a comprehensive investigation into the matter. But after decades of government inaction, Australia’s Jews remained skeptical, Caplan noted. “Frankly, we feared a whitewash was being planned,” he told the WJCongress meeting.

A LANDMARK DOCUMENT

But, Caplan added, Menzies’ final report, which was made public in Canberra last month, is a landmark document “that endorses precisely what we have been calling for.” Menzies principal recommendations include:

The government should announce “that it will take appropriate action under the law to bring to justice persons who have committed serious war crimes found in Australia.

The government should establish a war crimes prosecution unit along the lines of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations.

The government should consider amending the War Crimes Act of 1945 to shift jurisdiction in such cases from military to civil courts.

In his 200-page report, Menzies also confirmed allegations made in 1985 by the World Jewish Congress that requests made by the U.S. Justice Department for information to be used in investigations of suspected Nazis in the U.S. had been regularly refused by Australian officials.

These requests, Menzies concluded, were “handled by Australian departments in an unsatisfactory manner.” Caplan’s predecessor, Isi Leibler, had raised this matter in a private meeting with Hawke in February 1986.