No guilt, says war criminal

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 6

No guilt, says war criminal

11 NZPA - Reuter Buenos Aires I J i The weekly “Semana” I ■ news magazine, of Buenos 1 ■ Aires, claims to have found f i and interviewed a Nazi war , criminal. Walter Rauff, in r the Chilean city of Punta f ! Arenas, one of the world’s jt i southernmost settlements. ]c 11 Rauff, a former S.S. lieu-11 .tenant, is blamed for their } murders of at least 100,000)1 ' lews during World War 2.|i ; Arrested at the end of the; •'war, he was later freed, and T Ihe moved to South America. Ic I In the late 1950 s he was r l reported to have moved to t ■ Chile, where he was arrested c . briefly in 1962 on a request i [from the West German Gov- t I eminent. He was freed on t J the ground that there was t i no extradition treaty be- 1 j tween Santiago and Bonn. it

He was then reported to) have settled in Punta e Arenas, in Tierra del Fuego.'t But he had not been heard c from in years. ic “Semana” said one of its Is reporters, Cesar Pena, hadjc found Rauff in Punta Arenas I r working as the administrator' of a big fishing company.lv The magazine also published / pictures of a bespectacled, r balding, and obese man.ic identified as Rauff. !g “Semana” quoted the man as saying: “I am a war Is criminal. But I am guilty of ( nothing. In war you fight p and kill because you re- T ceived orders and because it ft is necessary to win. You I have to be in a war to know I < the real meaning of theft verbs to murder, massacre, ;t kill. They reflect only one!' thing, only one action. if

“There is no time for emotions. Only for emergencies. But all I am saying does npt justify a war. It only explains it. When the war began I was 33, and I did not think like I think now that I am 71. “But I am satisfied with what I am and what I was. And I am saying that I do not justify wars, but I feel 1 dr not carry a burden of guilt.” “Semana” also quoted him as saying that even though Germany and Japan lost the war, they were now the most advanced countries of the modern world. “They have become economic Powers. Look at Germany, it lost the war but it ] won peace, and in areas Where the bombs fell, they have built the biggest autd-

>ahns in Europe,” he said. I “Semana” said that in all eference to President}' timmy Carter, he said: I ‘Nations have to be ruled 1 with an iron hand. This is why 1 believe that Carter is naive. His policy of human \ rights is not going to lead ) tnywhere.” “Semana” said Rauff had' chosen Punta Arenas to live I because he had liked the city when he visited it for! the first time in 1925. At the. time Rauff had been a cadet aboard a German Navy ship surveying the waters of the Pacific Ocean, charting submarine routes. Rauff is blamed for setting up the method of killing Jews aboard sealed trucks, by suffocating them with carbon-monoxide fumes.