Mennonite Nazi War Crim Dies in bed In Canada

[Jeff Altweg]

Helmut Oberlander Dies in 2021 in Waterloo ,Ontario Canada,where he'd been living for almost 60 years, totally unrepentant ,and spouting lies until the end ...at age 96 ...There have been other Mennonites involved deeply with Nazi crimes, but none for as long as he did...The Canadian Government tried for 35 plus years to deport him, back to Russia ,and the Russians were eager to get him back ....Up to 2015 ,The Russian government was still showing lots of interest, claiming that they still had eye-witnesses ,perhaps it was an orphan ,that somehow hid , as his killing team was known for erasing entire orphanages and their caretakers deep inside Russia ,during World War II....A lot of new evidence came out implicating ,this Russian mennonite born Nazi soldier ........Helmuth Oberlander , was never brought to justice in this world , But God will and can be his Judge .....There's a vast amount of material available that implicates him ,no question about it, Think the material goes all the way back to 1960 ,when the RCMP first started questioning him ......

[mike]

Quite interesting.

Life in Canada
Oberlander immigrated to Canada with his wife Margaret in 1954, where he ran a successful construction business and lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. He became a Canadian citizen in 1960.

Any of the Canadians here know of this man or his construction business?

[silentreader]

Quite interesting.

Life in Canada
Oberlander immigrated to Canada with his wife Margaret in 1954, where he ran a successful construction business and lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. He became a Canadian citizen in 1960.

Any of the Canadians here know of this man or his construction business?

I was aware of him. There was a lengthy article about him in the local paper shortly before he died I believe. I expect it is behind a paywall for general readers. It is possible that AM would have known him.
He was a developer in the city during a period of growth and became quite wealthy.

[Ken]

He has a big wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Oberlander that details his life history and war crimes. Here is an excerpt:

Oberlander was born on 15 February, 1924 in Halbstadt, or Molochna Colony, a Russian Mennonite settlement in what is now Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine, in 1924.[5]

As an ethnic German born and living in Ukraine (at the time part of the Soviet Union) during World War II, he was conscripted at the age of 17 and served as an interpreter for the Sonderkommando 10a (Sk 10a) which was part of Einsatzgruppe D[1] when it entered Soviet Ukraine in 1941. He was also a member of the Sicherheitsdienst and Sicherheitspolizei — the counter-intelligence and security police of the SS. He said his duties were limited to listening to and translating Russian radio transmissions, acting as an interpreter during interactions between the military and the local population, and guarding of military supplies, although the testimony of other Sk 10a members contradicted this.[14]

The Federal Court of Canada, in Oberlander v. Canada (Attorney General),[15] determined that Oberlander was part of the Sk 10a (which was part of Einsatzgruppe D) during World War II. The Federal Court of Canada characterized the group (Einsatzguppe D) as one of several death squads, responsible for killing more than two million people, most of whom were civilians and largely Jewish. According to the ruling, from 1941 to 1943 Oberlander served with Sk 10a as an interpreter and an auxiliary. In addition to interpreting, he was tasked with finding and protecting food and polishing boots. He lived, ate, travelled and worked full-time with the Sk 10a.[15] From 1943 to 1944, he served as an infantryman in the German army.[16]

[barnhart]

I wonder how his children have come to terms with their family history. My father visited Germany years ago while traveling with someone who knew Mennonites there. They stayed at their house overnight. The host mentioned some in the family had been in the Hitler Youth and had painted a swastika on the barn. After the war his father would not allow them to paint over it. He said they must learn to bear the weight of what they had done, not run or hide from it.

[silentreader]

I wonder how his children have come to terms with their family history. My father visited Germany years ago while traveling with someone who knew Mennonites there. They stayed at their house overnight. The host mentioned some in the family had been in the Hitler Youth and had painted a swastika on the barn. After the war his father would not allow them to paint over it. He said they must learn to bear the weight of what they had done, not run or hide from it.

His daughter officially defended him at one point until she began receiving death threats.

[Josh]

I wonder how his children have come to terms with their family history. My father visited Germany years ago while traveling with someone who knew Mennonites there. They stayed at their house overnight. The host mentioned some in the family had been in the Hitler Youth and had painted a swastika on the barn. After the war his father would not allow them to paint over it. He said they must learn to bear the weight of what they had done, not run or hide from it.

The same way I have come to terms with my own family history of my grandpa fighting in World War II.

[PetrChelcicky]

Could we please replace "war criminal" by "alledged war criminal"?

I have read the Wikipedia article. The only indication for "war criminal" I can see is the assertion that "the testimony of other Sk 10a members contradicted" his own declarations about the limits of his work. But the source is nothing more than a newspaper article, and it is uncertain in what aspect they contradicted his own declarations. This is a bit too little to call somebody a war criminal. (Interestingly the Canadian Wikipedia
does not quote any Simon Wiesenthal Center material, is there nothing?)

By the way, the Canadian Wikipedia does not tell that the German Wehrmacht liberated Oberlander from a Russian deportation camp (parts of his family were already deported to Siberia). I suppose that the Canadians don't want to have a comparison between the Russian deportation then and the Canadian deportation now (even if he himself might well have made that comparison).

On the whole, Canada (as well as Germany) could get that kind of persecution/punishment only by lowering its legal standards.

[Ken]

Could we please replace "war criminal" by "alledged war criminal"?

I have read the Wikipedia article. The only indication for "war criminal" I can see is the assertion that "the testimony of other Sk 10a members contradicted" his own declarations about the limits of his work. But the source is nothing more than a newspaper article, and it is uncertain in what aspect they contradicted his own declarations. This is a bit too little to call somebody a war criminal. (Interestingly the Canadian Wikipedia
does not quote any Simon Wiesenthal Center material, is there nothing?)

By the way, the Canadian Wikipedia does not tell that the German Wehrmacht liberated Oberlander from a Russian deportation camp (parts of his family were already deported to Siberia). I suppose that the Canadians don't want to have a comparison between the Russian deportation then and the Canadian deportation now (even if he himself might well have made that comparison).

On the whole, Canada (as well as Germany) could get that kind of persecution/punishment only by lowering its legal standards.

Oh please. He was a member of the SS Einsatzkommando https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzkommando which were paramilitary death squads operated by the Nazi SS that accompanied regular German Army forces into occupied territories for the expressed purpose of committing genocide against Jews and other groups. They were the actual instrument of genocide organized and directed by SS leader Heinrich Himmler himself as part of Hitler's "Final Solution." This is all exceedingly well documented. Innocent people did not get drafted into the Nazi SS. It was an "elite" force of volunteers. Later in the war draftees were absorbed into the Waffen SS which were the regular infantry and panzer units fighting in conventional battles, but not the SS Einsatzkommando or "death squad" units.

It doesn't ultimately matter whether there is actual proof of him pulling the trigger during the mass slaughter of Jews that his unit was responsible for. Or if he was polishing the boots of the SS officers who were pulling the trigger as he apparently claimed. He willingly joined a branch of the Nazi SS that was organized for the expressed purpose of genocide and was a part of a unit that conducted genocide on a vast and almost inconceivable scale. His particular unit was documented was responsible for the killing of over 91,728 people. Every SINGLE one of which was a war crime. That makes him culpable under international law. Does the lookout or driver in a bank robbery get off the hook simply because they did not personally pull the trigger?

[Soloist]

Oh please. He was a member of the SS Einsatzkommando https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzkommando which were paramilitary death squads operated by the Nazi SS that accompanied regular German Army forces into occupied territories for the expressed purpose of committing genocide against Jews and other groups. They were the actual instrument of genocide organized and directed by SS leader Heinrich Himmler himself as part of Hitler's "Final Solution." This is all exceedingly well documented. Innocent people did not get drafted into the Nazi SS. It was an "elite" force of volunteers. Later in the war draftees were absorbed into the Waffen SS which were the regular infantry and panzer units fighting in conventional battles, but not the SS Einsatzkommando or "death squad" units.

It doesn't ultimately matter whether there is actual proof of him pulling the trigger during the mass slaughter of Jews that his unit was responsible for. Or if he was polishing the shoes of the SS officers who were pulling the trigger as he apparently claimed. He willingly joined a branch of the Nazi SS that was organized for the expressed purpose of genocide and was a part of a unit that conducted genocide on a vast and almost inconceivable scale. His particular unit was documented was responsible for the killing of over 91,728 people. Every SINGLE one of which was a war crime. That makes him culpable under international law. Does the lookout or driver in a bank robbery get off the hook simply because they did not personally pull the trigger?

So if it’s so clear, was he prosecuted?