‘escape’ of Nazi War Criminal to West Germany Draws Protest

Activists who support the deportation of former Nazi war criminals are at odds with the U.S. Justice Department over the departure from the United States of a Long Island man who faced ouster for his admitted involvement in World War II atrocities.

The dispute concerns Boleslav Maikovskis, 84, the former pro-Nazi commander of the Latvian police, who officials of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations acknowledged late last week had secretly fled the United States for West Germany.

While the OSI has characterized Maikovskis’ departure as “an important victory for us,” others, including the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the author of key congressional legislation aimed at Nazi war criminals, have chided the Justice Department for allowing Maikovskis to escape justice.

OSI officials confirmed Maikovskis’ departure after the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith released a statement Friday urging Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to begin “an immediate investigation into Maikovskis’ whereabouts and prompt action to bring him to justice.”

Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, said in a telephone interview Sunday that ADL went public only with information it had been able to confirm independently of the OSI.

Neal Sher, director of OSI, told The New York Times on Friday that his office would not seek Maikovskis’ return and that “as far as we’re concerned, the case is over.”

‘WHY WASN’T THE WORLD TOLD’

In addition, an OSI spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Sunday that the office had planned to herald Maikovskis’ departure with an official announcement early this week.

“Maikovskis has not escaped,” he added. “He has been deported to a country we sought to send him to originally.”

But Foxman rejected that characterization.

“If it was such a great victory, why was it kept a secret? Why wasn’t the world told?” said Foxman. He said Maikovskis’ case was “one of the most dragged out” of any handled by OSI.

In his message to Thornburgh, Foxman called the Justice Department’s “failure to follow up on the work” of the OSI perplexing. The agency, which works with a degree of autonomy not shared by other Justice Department agencies, had sought Maikovskis’ deportation for 12 years.

Brooklyn District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman was also critical of the Justice Department’s handling of the Maikovskis case. As a member of Congress from 1973 to 1981, Holtzman authored an amendment that pressed for tougher efforts in deporting war criminals.

“It’s outrageous that Maikovskis was able to escape justice,” she said in a telephone interview Sunday. “If West Germany doesn’t prosecute him, he will escape justice. Yes, he was expelled from this country. But if he is not held accountable, then the victory is only half way.”

Holtzman likened the situation to the Justice Department’s attempt during Passover in April 1987 to win asylum for war criminal Karl Linnas in Panama. That effort was unsuccessful, and Linnas was deported to the Soviet Union to stand trial. He later died in a prison hospital.

‘SENT TO COUNTRY WE DESIGNATED’

The OSI spokesman, however, expressed cautious optimism that the West Germans would prosecute Maikovskis. But he acknowledged that the West Germans had turned down all past requests from organizations that they put Maikovskis on trial there.

The spokesman said the West Germans had previously prosecuted and sent to jail Maikovskis’ immediate superior, Albert Eichelis, in 1984.

“That in itself bodes well,” he said. “Maikovskis has been sent to country that we designated, that has criminal jurisdiction and that will receive all of our assistance in its own investigation.”

The spokesman suggested Maikovskis chose to return to West Germany because he feared deportation to the Soviet Union, where in 1965 he was convicted of mass murder in absentia. Last week, the OSI won sanction from the U.S. Board of Immigration to deport Maikovskis to the Soviet Union, the only country willing to receive him.

Both the West Germans and Swiss had previously denied Maikovskis residency, leading the Justice Department to conjecture that he traveled to West Germany on false documents.

GROUP PRAISES OSI

During World War II, Maikovskis served as police chief in the village of Audrini in Nazi-occupied Latvia, where his subordinates participated in the murder of hundreds of civilians in January 1942.

Maikovskis has denied responsibility for the fate of those villagers, although he admitted in 1984 during deportation hearings that he wore a German uniform and ordered their mass arrest.

Maikovskis had been living in Mineola, N.Y., since the end of the war. Efforts to deport him began in 1976 and culminated in the Supreme Court’s denial of his last appeal two years ago.

One Jewish group did applaud Maikovskis’ departure. Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, said Sunday that “the full extent of (U.S.) law has been realized.”

He added that if it was not for OSI’s “persistence in attempting to secure a country of deportation, namely the Soviet Union, Maikovskis would never have been forced to flee.

“OSI has been absolutely dogged in their pursuit of this case,” he said.