Canada Delays Hearing of Alleged War Criminal

The deportation hearing for alleged war criminal Joseph Nemsila has been delayed here so that he would be able to obtain legal counsel, Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board has decided.

The hearing for the 85-year-old has been postponed until May 31.

“Today’s delay will further compound the frustration being felt by the Jewish community. However, Nemsila is entitled to counsel, and today’s proceeding was not unexpected. We urge the government to move as expeditiously as possible on this case,” said B’nai Brith Canada spokesman Paul Marcus.

Nemsila, who lives in Toronto, is a citizen of the former Czechoslavkia with permanent-resident status in Canada. He is accused of misrepresenting himself to immigration authorities when he entered the country.

He was allegedly a district commander in the notorious Hlinka Guard in the Nazi vassal state of Slovakia. He also reputedly participated in the roundup of the country’s 100,000 Jews and their deportation to Auschwitz and other death camps in Poland.

At the end of the war, Nemsila is believed to have abandoned his family in Slovakia and fled to Canada.

During the war, Slovakia paid Nazi Germany for each Jew deported. In turn, the Nazis allowed Slovak officials to keep the confiscated property of the deportees.

This is not the first case involving former officers of the Hlinka Guard and Canada.

Joseph Kirschbaum, another former officer in the Hlinka Guard who later served in the Slovakian Embassy to the Vatican, continues to live in Toronto. He is prevented from entering the United States because he is one the U.S. Justice Department’s Office Of Special Investigation watchlist.

Another alleged was criminal, Karol Sidor, the commander of the Hlinka Guard, lived quietly in Canada until his death in 1953.