Canadian immigration authorities have ruled that former Nazi rocket scientist Arthur Rudolph is free to stay in Canada until his hearing resumes Aug. 1.
According to the Toronto Globe Mail, Rudolph was told that when the hearing begins again, he will have to prove that he is admissable to Canada, and not that Canada has to prove why it will not let him remain.
The hearing to determine whether to give Rudolph visitor’s status in Canada began Wednesday, but was adjourned for 30 days to allow for the translation of a 70-page German document.
Barbara Kulaska, Rudolph’s lawyer, said the document will exonerate her client.
Manuel Prutschi the Canadian National Congress’ national director for communications, said the document is the result of an investigation taken by West German officials into Rudolph’s wartime past.
No charges were filed after that investigation was completed, he said.
Rudolph, 83, and his wife, Martha, 84, arrived in Canada on July 1, saying that they wanted to stay for a month to visit their daughter, who came from San Francisco to see them.
PARTICIPATED IN WAR CRIMES
Rudolph is barred from the United States because of allegations made by the U.S. Justice Department that he participated in war crimes during the World War II.
Rudolph voluntarily gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1984 and moved to West Germany rather than face deportation hearings.
According to the Canadian Jewish News, Dog Tillet, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said that when confronted with the evidence, Rudolph freely admitted “he participated in Nazi-sponsored persecution of unarmed civilians while serving as operations director of a missile facility and that he acquired his (U.S.) citizenship illegally.”
He also agreed never to return to the Untied States.
Both the CJC and B’nai Brith Canada have expressed their concern that Rudolph is now being allowed to visit Canada freely until the hearing resumes.
“While Mr. Rudolph is entitled to a fair hearing, we are obviously very disappointed about the length of the adjournment,” Paul Marcus, the national director of the Institute for International Affairs at B’nai Brith said Thursday.
“Meanwhile, the circus continues as Mr. Rudolph continues to use Canada as a platform to clear his name in the United States,” he said.
Since his arrival, Rudolph has been holding news conferences to deny all allegations made against him by the U.S. Justice Department, and has charged that U.S. officials “used dishonest methods and pressure tactics to railroad me out of the country.”
On Wednesday, B’nai Brith wrote a letter to Justice Minister Kim Campbell calling for criminal charges to be laid against Rudolph.
Marcus said his concern is that Canada is making it too easy for alleged war criminals to visit this country.
“What’s to stop the other 30 people that the U.S. has deported from coming here also?” Marcus said.
In a related development Wednesday, immigration official Milton Best announced that plans are under way to charge Lufthansa airlines for ignoring an alert to stop Rudolph from boarding airliners bound for Canada.
If the charge is laid, Lufthansa will face a $5,000 fine and will have to take Rudolph back to West Germany if he is deported.
“We are vindicated in terms of our claim that somebody goofed at the point of his embarkation in Germany,” CJC spokesman Prutschi said of this announcement.
On Wednesday, the CJC called on the Canadian government to launch an investigation as to why Rudolph was allowed to board the plane to Canada when the Royal Canadian Mountain Police had issued an alert to all airlines to prevent this from happening.
The CJC is also protesting the fact that Rudolph was allowed to go free upon his arrival while posting a $500 (Canadian) bond.
“If he had been detained, he wouldn’t have been able to run around and hold press conferences and he might have returned to Germany,” Prutschi said.
In a letter to Minister of Employment and Immigration Barbara McDougall on Tuesday, CJC President Les Scheininger wrote, “It is galling to us that solicitousness is being shown for the alleged frailty of an elderly Nazi when he never remotely was concerned for the fragility of the slave laborers under his care and direction.”
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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.
