The majority of the Dutch delegation currently participating in the sixth assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver in British Columbia has demanded that the University of British Columbia which is hosting the conference dismiss convicted Nazi war criminal Jakob Luitjens from its faculty.
Luitjens was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch special tribunal in 1948 for his participation in the death of Dutch resistance members during World War II and for his collaboration with the Nazi occupation forces. After the war, Luitjens settled in Canada where he got a job as a botany lecturer at the University of British Columbia.
Holland has repeatedly asked the Canadian government to extradite him, but to no avail since he is a Canadian citizen. The university also refuses to dismiss him. Robert Kaplan, Canada’s Solicitor General, in refusing to extradite Luitjens, said the charges on which Luitjens was tried and convicted were not covered by the extradition treaty between Canada and Holland.
A spokesman for the university said the institution’s position was that any action was up to the Canadian government and that the university considered Luitjens innocent until proven guilty. He added that the university dismisses employes on legal grounds and not because of the demands of “outside organizations.” He was referring to demands by the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles which sent a letter to George Pedersen, president of the university, declaring that Luitjens “cannot be allowed to maintain a position of honor” at the school.
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