The Simon Wiesenthal Center has urged the Canadian government to immediately reopen the case of former Nazi war criminal Jacob Luitjens and those of at least 125 other former Nazi criminals currently in Canada. The request was made in a telegram yesterday to Canadian Solicitor-General Robert Kaplan following his disclosure that Canadian authorities are considering new legal avenues in dealing with former Nazi war criminals residing there.
Luitjens left his science post at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver when it became known that he fled after World War II to avoid serving a 15-year sentence for collaborations with the Nazis. The 74-year-old Luitjens has successfully avoided extradition to The Netherlands due to a loophole in the existing treaty between The Hague and Ottawa.
Kaplan indicated that Canada may be able to move against former Nazi war criminals if it can be established by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that they hid their Nazi criminal past when they applied for “landed immigrant” status (often the first legal step taken toward acquiring Canadian citizenship). Deportation could then be considered.
“If this course of action is pursued vigorously and successfully, it would mark an important step forward in the battle to remove Canada from the list of nations providing safe haven for these criminals,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He added that, in addition to Luitjens, at least 125 other extradition requests for former Nazis in Canada have been made by Western democracies, including France, Belgium and Denmark.
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.
