Confrontation Between Opponents and Defenders of a Nazi War Criminal

A confrontation occurred yesterday in the Washington County town of Dresden, New York, near the home of alleged Nazi war criminal Vilis Hazners, when over 20 demonstrating campers and staff from Camp Givah, Albany’s Temple Israel’s day camp, were challenged by a group of Hazners’ defenders.

Hazners, a Latvian immigrant, is charged by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service with entering the country illegally in 1956 by concealing his role in the extermination of Jews in Latvia during World War II. A deportation hearing against Hazner began in February 1977 and was recessed this spring. Rabbi Poul B. Silton of Temple Israel, who led the demonstrators, said they had chosen the ninth day of the Jewish month of Ab because it is a day of mourning for past tragedies. “We have to do something about the past, not just pray about it, “Silton said. “This is the most significant Tisha B’av I ever spent, reading Echa and Kinot in front of Hazners’ house and marching peacefully with signs that quoted from the Psalms, “he added.

PLACARDS WITH ANTI-SEMITIC SLOGANS

The demonstrators were challenged by several Dresden residents and one man whose car bore Vermont license plates who carried placards reading “Go Home, Jew Gestapo, ” “Jews Are A Vengeful People,” and “Jew Are Hypocrites and Thieves–Remember the Palestinians.” Hazners’ defenders, led by a man identifying himself as John Christian, said that the charges against Hazners were false and Communist-inspired. Hazners was described by thern as a “good and gentle man, incapable of atrocities.” Christian said he represented the “Christian Defense League.” Another man identifying himself as John said that the media had only told one side of Hazners’ story and he threatened to smash television equipment if he was filmed.

Dresden is the home of several Latvian families who fled their homeland during and after World War II. Hazners is accused of atrocities against the Jews of Riga, including identifying Jews for extermination, herding Jews into the Grand Synagogue which was then burned, and other crimes.

Last November, eight eyewitnesses against Hazners from Israel, formerly from Riga, were brought to Albany by the Immigration and Naturalization Services. Hazners was utilized by the CIA to broadcast on Radio Liberty and the Voice of America, according to evidence presented at his hearing. He is one of a group of alleged Nazi war criminals that has been employed by U.S. government intelligence agencies. The issue is now being investigated by the House Subcommittee on Immigration, headed by Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D.Pa.).