After an exhaustive investigation by the Special Investigations Unit of the Attorney-General’s Department into Nazi War Crimes (SIU) it was alleged that Wagner had, between May and July 1942, been responsible for the murder of some 104 Jewish residents in the Ukrainian village of Izraylovka (now known as Berezovatka) in the Kirovograd region of the Ukraine. Amongst the grisly roll call of Wagners alleged victims was Lyuda Potyakova aged 6, and her sisters Vova aged 4 and Valentina only 9 months old - all taken to open pits outside the village and executed.

In a second charge the DPP claimed that Wagner had also "murdered approximately 19 children aged between 4 months and 11 years including both boys and girls, whose fathers were Jewish and mothers Russian /Ukrainian" as part of his efforts to liquidate the entire Jewish population of another Ukrainian village.

Now, almost six years later in late December 1997, a former Nazi guard charged with manslaughter and the deaths of 19 children in the Ukraine in 1942 was convicted and sentenced to one year and eight months probation by the Cologne State Court in Germany.

Judge Paul Schwellenbach declared that Ernst Hering, 75, had been guilty of helping to murder Jewish children.

"Although he witnessed the increasing fear of the crying children, he stayed at his post," the judge said before sentencing Hering.

Hering participated in the massacre of Jews in the Ukrainian village of Izraylovka - the same village in which Wagner was accused of having carried out massacres of children. In the summer of 1942 German units together with local Ukrainian forces rounded up the entire Jewish population of the town and liquidated them. For 53 years the identity of those responsible could not be determined by investigators. But in 1992, the Office for the Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dortmund, Germany, received a series of questions from members of the Australian SIU. They were conducting investigations into Wagner and had learned that Ernst Hering, a junior member of Wagner’s unit the "Gendarmerie Ustinova" (the Ukrainian auxiliary police squad attached to the German SD) was alive and residing in Germany.

For 53 years Hering had quietly lived out his life in Leverkusen, Rhineland as a factory worker. But following the SIU inquiry, local Dortmund authorities began to investigate Hering. Dortmund public prosecutor Klaus Schacht travelled to the Ukraine where together with colleagues he not only found enormous documentary evidence, including eyewitnesses, but also learned that several members of the squad had already been brought to trial and convicted by Soviet authorities.

On May 18 1995, the doorbell at the 75 year-old pensioner’s flat rang and authorities arrested Hering on the grounds of aiding and abetting murder. Efraim Zuroff from the Simon Weisenthal Centre argues that in fact it was a victory for the staff of the SIU whose research into the Wagner case led directly to Hering, one of his junior unit members.

As for Wagner, a far more senior member of the killing unit, the charges against him were withdrawn by the Commonwealth DPP before the matter came to trial and after Wagner developed medical difficulties. He is still alive today, living in Adelaide.

It is now more than six months since Konrad Kalejs returned to Australia and the case continues to take interesting twists and turns. Last year the Australian Government announced that every effort would be made by the Federal police and Attorney Generals department to rapidly review the Kalejs file and determine whether or not a case exists against him for prosecution. Since then, well nothing, actually.

There has been no decision or statement on whether the Federal Police will charge Kalejs.

In December 1997, Prime Minister John Howard wrote to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. "If the evidence warrants the preparation of a brief by the Australian Federal Police to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the DPP will then consider prosecution," he said. Since then, total silence from the AFP.

In the meantime, even the Latvian government has initiated action on the Kalejs case. Last month representatives of the Prosecutor-General in Riga visited the US Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigation in Washington to prepare a case for possible extradition of Kalejs to stand trial in Latvia. The Latvian authorities also approached the Australian government for assistance.

According to a letter to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry from the Minister of Justice, Senator Amanda Vanstone, dated 10 December 1997, the Australian Government received a request from Latvia for assistance over the Kalejs case. "The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Latvia has now made a formal request for assistance in relation to Mr Kalejs," the letter, signed by Senator Vanstone, states.

So, is Canberra assisting Latvian authorities, providing them with information or whatever unspecified assistance the Vanstone letter refers to? Sorry, we don’t know. For two months now, the Ministers office has failed to respond to repeated requests for information about the Latvian request. The Latvian Prosecutor-General’s Office are now publicly stating that they have received no assistance from the Australian Government.

But hope springs eternal. Last month the Prime Minister’s son , Richard Howard, a member of the Australian student debating team, travelled to Israel to take part in the World Schools Debating Championship.

The Australian team won the competition, arguing against Scotland in the final round that Nazi War Criminals should continue to be prosecuted. Young Richard and the Australian team spoke passionately in favour of continued prosecution and carried the day. Perhaps he can have a word to dad when he gets home.