Charging that the record of the Justice Department’s Special Litigation Unit on Nazi War Criminals has “shown very little progress since its creation, “Nathan Goldberg, commander of the Jewish War Veterons, said to a Jewish War Veteran group here that “It’s time to put the unit on notice. Unless some concrete action is taken to prosecute accused Nazi war criminals in the next six months, it’s time for a new director and a new cast of characters.”
After almost two years of ” practically no effective results, “the unit has been switched from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, and the unit was assured that it would receive its full funding of over $52 million, Goldberg said. ” The staff of this Special Litigation Unit will increase unit it reaches 38 lawyers investigators, historians and legal aides, instead of the current staff of 13. Now let them produce some results, “he said.
The Special Litigation Unit was created in August, 1977 as part of the INS, under the Justice Department, to investigate and prosecute alleged Nazi war criminals. In October of that year, Martin Mendelsohn was appointed as unit chief.
“Since that time, not one single new case has been brought to court, “Goldberg said. “Only two cases have been completed, those of Frank Walus in Chicago and Feodor Federenko in Miami, both now to be appealed. Even those two cases were not instituted by the Special Litigation Unit, but by the U. S. District Court,” he explained.
RAPS SPECIAL LITIGATION UNIT
“To date the history of the Special Litigation Unit has not been especially impressive Authoritative legal sources who have monitored hearings have even claimed that the twelve cases now active have been mishandled because of lack of experience and ‘bungling.’ In some instances, these sources state, the government has been represented in court by attorneys who had absolutely no previous trial experience.”
Continuing, Goldberg stated: “Even more amazing, there have been only five attorneys and two investigators working on some 175 active, files. And although Congress authorized $2.052 million for the Special Litigation Unit for the 1979 fiscal year, up until the end of March, INS had allocated only about $900,000 for the unit’s operation.”
Goldberg said he was far from satisfied. “Already, Justice Department Associate Attorney General Michael J. Eagan stated on March 28 that he believes that $2million is ‘more money than can be used’ to investigate and prosecute 175 cases,” Goldberg said. “This is Ironic when one compares that amount of money with the defense fund of accused Nazi war criminal Archbishop ### Trifa of Grass Lake, Michigan, who reportedly has $1 million just for his own case.”
The JWV commander recalled that President Carter, in proclaiming April 28-29 as Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust said that “we must never forget these crimes against humanity.” Goldberg said he applauds “our President’s statement, but I also cry out to him to remember these ‘crimes against humanity’ by bringing to justice the alleged Nazi war criminals and collaborators who are now living freely in America.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
