The Review - Justice Abandoned

January 2000

Justice Abandoned
American TV and Australia's Nazi shame

On December 3, US ABC’s "20/20," one of America’s top rating national current affairs shows, screened a report critical of Australia’s record in bringing to justice Nazi war criminals. The report sparked considerable controversy here and a demonstration outside the Australian Consulate in New York on December 16, but was never shown in its entirety in this country. Below is a transcript of key excerpts of the report.

CHRIS WALLACE (reporter): When you think of Nazi war criminals finding a safe haven, Argentina comes to mind... But it turns out that Australia took in many more alleged war criminals, thousands of them, and critics say it has done less than any other country to bring them to justice. This is the story of our journey to track down some of these men and to find out why the Australian government is doing nothing about them.

They’re old men now but the crimes they’re accused of committing echo across the decades. Half a century after the Holocaust, men who allegedly took part in some of history’s worst atrocities are enjoying retirement, some living in luxury. And there seems no chance they’ll ever face any charges.

ELI ROSENBAUM: Any Nazi war criminal who lives in Australia, and there must be at least hundreds of them there, knows that he is "home free" so to speak.

For three months, 20/20 has investigated how Australia which fought against the Nazis in World War II decided not to pursue hundreds of these men. We questioned the Minister of Justice, Amanda Vanstone....

WALLACE: Has Australia become a safe haven for Nazi war criminals?

AMANDA VANSTONE: Certainly not in my view. Any suggestion that we’re half hearted about pursuing this matter I, frankly, find quite offensive.

But Australia’s former chief Nazi hunter Robert Greenwood says the government shut down his unit just as it was building cases against dozens of war criminals.

ROBERT GREENWOOD: They felt there was no political advantage to them by continuing with it.

WALLACE: A cynical decision by the government you’re saying?

ROBERT GREENWOOD: Yes.

WALLACE: That there was no political gain in pursuing these men?

ROBERT GREENWOOD: As simple as that.

The country’s most notorious alleged war criminal is Konrads Kalejs an Australian citizen deported from both the US and Canada. A US Appeals Court concluded Kalejs was a "key officer" in the Arajs Kommando, a mobile killing unit of Latvian soldiers who were Nazi collaborators. Kalejs arrived at this Australian immigrant camp in 1950. After World War II, the country opened its doors to European refugees. Among them, experts say, were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Nazis and their collaborators. But Kalejs would eventually leave for the US where he made a fortune in real estate. Later he lived at this complex in Canada. By 1997 both the US and Canada had kicked him out. But there was one nation where he was still welcome. Kalejs flew back to Australia. The government provided a security escort to whisk him away from reporters.

There is one more fact that makes this story even more dramatic. As Australia built up its population after World War II it wasn’t just alleged Nazi war criminals who came to live here but also some of the people they tormented.

WALLACE: When you heard the name Konrad Kalejs on the news... Did you know who it was?

DAVID BENEDIKT: Of course I knew who he was.

David Benedikt is one of ten thousand holocaust survivors who now live in Australia. Benedikt was a prisoner at the Salaspils concentration camp where the Arajs Kommando stood guard. More than 50 years later he still can’t forget one mass execution.

DAVID BENEDIKT: The victims were lined up about 20 feet away and shot... I was told this was an execution squad under the command of Konrads Kalejs.

It wasn’t just Kalejs who sought refuge in Australia. So did Karlis Ozols, another Latvian lieutenant in the Arajs Kommando. Ozols has denied knowing about any executions. But war crimes investigators concluded he was personally responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Jews…in Belorussia. Still, when he moved to Australia in 1949, Ozols became a star. He won the national chess championship, representing the country in world competitions.

Harry Redner survived the Holocaust as a child. He also moved to Australia and as a teenager played chess against Ozols at a Jewish club. Forty-five years later, Redner would learn that the champion he admired was also the highest ranking alleged war criminal in Australia.

HARRY REDNER: The idea of someone who would have shot me dead ten years back, then sitting across the board and playing chess with me was pretty horrifying.

While the men accused of being war criminals built new lives here in Australia some of them never forgot their old lives fighting for the Nazis in Europe. There is no more compelling evidence than at this cemetery outside Melbourne. On some of the markers here, you can see insignias of the units in which they served, units responsible for the slaughter of civilians.

Arvids Upmalis, an officer alleged to have supervised the murder of eight hundred Jews. A witness said he laughed that the victims dug their own graves.

Argods Fricsons allegedly tortured Jews and ordered more than 5000 to be executed.

For more than 50 years, Australia has done almost nothing about these men. In the 80’s, the government did set up the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, headed by Robert Greenwood, to look into war crimes. But after spending 20 million dollars and getting no convictions the Unit was shut down, a decision the current Minister of Justice defends.

AMANDA VANSTONE: It had achieved its purpose. It had gone through as much as it could and achieved as much as it could.

*****

WALLACE: At the time the SIU was shut down, how many cases do you believe were still worth pursuing?

ROBERT GREENWOOD: Over 20. I think at the time I said 27.

*****

WALLACE: How many of the 27 cases have been prosecuted?

AMANDA VANSTONE: Well, you know the answer to that. They haven’t.

The US has deported 50 alleged Nazi war criminals. European countries are winning criminal convictions. But Australia has yet to deport or convict a single one. Political columnist Gerard Henderson says Australia has never had much interest in chasing Nazis.

GERARD HENDERSON: This is not a society that has a great sense of history of what occurred in Europe in the ‘40’s. And there’s the view that people come in here, they’re living their lives here, they’re pursuing their life peacefully here, why worry about it?

Eli Rosenbaum, the top Nazi hunter for the US Justice Department says every country has had problems investigating crimes a half century old. Rosenbaum says the difference is Australia has given up.

ELI ROSENBAUM: It’s obvious that Nazis who live in Australia realise that they have little, if anything, to worry about now.

There is one case that haunts Robert Greenwood more than all the others, the case of Heinrich Wagner, allegedly part of a death squad that collaborated with the Nazis in the Ukraine. [A] member of the killing unit said that Wagner helped round up 19 children from the village of Izraylovka, ranging from 11 to just 4 months.

ROBERT GREENWOOD: He said that he was present at the pit and saw Wagner execute some of those children at least. Shoot them, including one very small child who Wagner was alleged to have thrown up in the air and shot in mid-air.

Greenwood took a personal interest in the Wagner case. He flew to the Ukraine and found villagers who confirmed what happened to the children. Then Greenwood discovered this mass grave just outside of town. On top were the bodies of the 19 children. Wagner was set to stand trial for murder in 1993. But then he had a heart attack. The government could have asked for a postponement. Instead, they dropped all charges.

ROBERT GREENWOOD: Having that prosecution withdrawn on such a, what to me was just such a flimsy basis, it was ludicrous.

A doctor testified that Wagner’s chances for recovery were "remote". But six years later we discovered he was still alive, now 77. We tracked Wagner to this upscale community. We saw him taking a walk and... given his medical history, we were shocked to see Wagner unloading shopping bags.The man who was allegedly so sick in 1993 was now leading a remarkably active life. Wagner emigrated to Australia in 1950 using what prosecutors say was a fake name to get into the country. He told us he was just 16 years old when he was forced to join the German army.

HEINRICH WAGNER: They took me and put me in the army in Austria.

WALLACE: And you were never in the Ukraine?

HEINRICH WAGNER: No. I wasn’t in the Ukraine.

He said he never heard of the unit that massacred the Jewish children, but what about that eyewitness report that Wagner threw an infant into the air and shot it?

ROBERT GREENWOOD: We had enormous corroboration of the fact that it was true because we took all the statements from the women of the village who were able to remember.

WALLACE: As an investigator, you thought you had a hell of a case against this guy?

ROBERT GREENWOOD: That’s right.

And as we questioned Wagner, his story began to change, as he let it slip that he grew up in the Ukraine.

WALLACE: Do you know this town, Izraylovka?

HEINRICH WAGNER: I heard of it because I lived in Springfeld.

It turns out that Wagner lived just five miles from the town where he allegedly helped slaughter those 19 children. Wagner insisted he’s still too sick to stand trial. But the day we showed up we found him gardening in his front yard. And we saw him do all those chores.

HEINRICH WAGNER: Oh no, I’m not carry the groceries.

But of course, we’d seen him do just that.

Alleged war criminals like Wagner have nothing to fear because Australia is doing nothing about them. Australia’s critics worry that the country is sending a dangerous message to a new generation of war criminals in places like Kosovo.

As for Australia’s holocaust survivors, they worry about justice, that men accused of such crimes grow old in peace while their alleged victims are dead more than half a century.

HARRY REDNER: There’s a sense of pollution about the society if there are known killers still walking our streets... At least they should be made to answer for themselves in one way or another.

*****

WALLACE: Not only has Australia failed to take action against alleged Nazi war criminals, it has also refused to extradite them back to Europe. Next week, the Australian parliament considers legislation that would make extradition easier. But there are still no plans to prosecute Heinrich Wagner or any other alleged war criminal living in Australia.

Barbara Walters (host): Chris, you have some brand new information on one of the accused men in your report.

WALLACE: We have learned more about Konrads Kalejs, the alleged commander of a death squad. Sources tell us that Kalejs was recently stopped trying to get back into Canada. And just two days ago—after months of work—we found Kalejs living, and living comfortably, in Rugby, England. Not surprisingly, he refused to talk with us.