Helmut Oberlander, Canada's last Nazi, dies without conviction

Helmut Oberlander, young and old, in a file photo Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs

The last Nazi with an open file in Canada died this Wednesday at the age of 97.

Helmut Oberlander died as he wished: at his home in Waterloo, in the province of Ontario.

Oberlander had been involved in a court battle since 1995 to avoid deportation for hiding his membership in a Third Reich extermination unit.

Ronald Poulton, his lawyer, reported the death in a statement to Canadian media and noted that he died "surrounded by his loved ones" and that he was a "charitable person and a loving family man."

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Oberlander belonged between 1941 and 1943 to an

, the Nazi units made up of members of the SS and the Gestapo that operated in areas of the former Soviet Union and killed thousands of civilians. Born in 1924 in Halbstadt, in the current territory of Ukraine, the ex-soldier affirmed before the Canadian courts that he was forced, at the age of 17, to enlist and that deserting would have resulted in being executed. He also claimed that he performed non-violent tasks, mainly as a translator. He arrived in Canada with his wife in 1954 and obtained the citizenship of the North American country in 1960. The couple settled in Waterloo and had two daughters. Oberlander built a successful career in real estate.

In 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened an investigation for having concealed this stage of their past in immigration procedures. He never faced a criminal charge. He lost his Canadian citizenship in September 2018, after three suspensions of the judgment obtained by his lawyers. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decision in December 2019, thus opening the door to deportation.

At the most recent hearing, held earlier this month before the Canadian Board of Immigration and Refugees, Oberlander's lawyers called for the proceedings to be suspended due to their client's deteriorating health. The death has come before a new decision on this matter was known. "I will fight this case to the death or until I run out of money," he had declared in an interview two decades ago with the

newspaper

.

Its history has led to accusations to the Canadian Government for years, because the country served as a refuge for victims of the Second World War, but also for criminals and Nazi collaborators who, in their vast majority, had no legal problems. Shimon Koffler Fogel, director of the Center for Israeli and Jewish Affairs, stated that Helmut Oberlander's death "ends the final chapter of his obscene abuse of the Canadian judicial system," calling for a thorough review of the immigration and refugee system regarding the alleged war criminals. "This parody of justice must never happen again in Canada," added Koffler Fogel. For his part, Michael Levitt, president of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Toronto, expressed on Twitter: “To Canada's great shame,justice was never served in this case ”.

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