The deportation hearing of Vilis A. Hazners of Dresden, New York, accused of Nazi atrocities against the Jews of Riga, Latvia during World War II, will not be continued.
After several postponements to accommodate a government witness who is a West German prosecutor and expert on Latvian war, crimes, the government and defense attorneys have agreed to a stipulation to accept a deposition from this witness. Instead of a public hearing, the government now has 30 days to file its final briefs before Judge Anthony DeGaeto. Following that Ivars Berzins, Hazners’ attorney will also be given 30 days to respond.
After Judge DeGoeto reads both briets, his deciston should be expected in two to six months, according to government officials Court proceedings against Hazners began in Albeny in January 1977 and were scheduled to resume this April 4, then May 17, before announcement of the completion.
Rabbi Poul Silton, co-chairman of the Capital District Ad Hoc Committee on Justice for Nazi War Criminals, said that the government’s decision to complete the case without further public hearings will cause much of the interest that has been generated by the Hazners case to be “swept under the rug. In the course of my 2 1/2-year involvement with this issue,” he said, “I’ve consistently been told by government officials, including Martin Mendelsohn, now deputy director of the Justice Department’s revamped unit on Nazi war criminals, that public hearings serve the important purpose of educating people about the presence of these alleged murderers here, and now we’ve lost this opportunity.”
Silton said that “many attorneys have told me that the force of a deposition, as compared to the appearance of a witness, is much less effective. After visiting Washington, D.C. on May 3 to discuss the issue of Nazi war criminals with the office of President Carter’s Commission on the Holocaust and high government officials in the White House and the Justice Department, I had some hope that the transfer of the Special Litigation Unit on Nazi War Criminals from Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department would mean progress. However, the Hazners situation and other developments have dimmed my hopes considerably.”
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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.
