Govt 'smuggled Nazis to U.S'

Press, 18 May 1982, Page 9

Govt 'smuggled Nazis to U.S'

NZPA-Reuter New York United States Government officials smuggled several hundred Nazis and Nazi collaborators into the country from Eastern Europe at the end of World War Two to assist in anti-Soviet intelligence operations, C.B.S. Television has reported. Even though Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman barred entry to war criminals, and President Jimmy Carter declared in 1980 that any Nazi war criminal who had got into the country should be rooted out, C.B.S. said many former Nazis were still living in the United States. The disclosure came in yesterday’s broadcast of the C.B.S. News programme “60 Minutes.” It was based largely on information provided by John Loftus, a former prosecutor with the United States Office of Special Investigations set up by the Justice Department to track down Nazis living in the United States. Mr Loftus, now a lawyer in Boston, said he concentrated on one area of Byelorussia, a Soviet republic which was occupied, by the Germans, to find out how many officials appointed by the Nazis went to the United States after the war. Mr Loftus said the investigation found that “the entire Nazi government of Byelorussia, the president, the vice-presidents, cabinet ministers, governors and mayors, police chiefs were all living in America.” .. He alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Army intelligence, and State Department were aware of this, and in fact “recruited them because they were Nazis.” Asked if any were still in the United States, Mr Loftus replied: “I would say that as a conservative estimate there are more than 300 Byelorussian Nazis living in America today.” He said they were United States citizens, and some were still working for the United States Government. A C.B.S. correspondent, Mike Wallace, alleged that some

were working for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, American-fund radio stations which beam broadcasts at Eastern Europe.

Mr Loftus said the Byelorussian Nazis were recruited because American officials believed they could be used in a secret army operating behind the Iron Curtain, to -carry out assassinations and start a civil war. But he said the venture proved a failure because “every one of their operations had been penetrated by the Soviets.” Wallace said that two Soviet agents, Heinz Felfe, who is a former Nazi of West German intelligence, and the British agent, Kim Philby, helped convince American officials of the value of the former Nazis. Mr Loftus said that one former Nazi who worked for Radio Liberty and became an American citizen was Stanislav Stankevitch, who implemented German orders to kill every Jew in Byelorussia. He said his office drew up a case against Stankevitch, including confessions and admissions of his Nazi past. But Stankevitch, who was. living in New York City, died before the case could come to trial. Mr Loftus said his investigations were hampered by the United States Army, which he said denied having any files on the people he wanted to track down. However, his own checks of Army intelligence records turned up several such files. He said the Army had deleted many documents showing how the Government had helped former Nazis to enter the country, adding “of the 10 dossiers I looked at, three have letters evidencing Government assistance in entering the United States.” Mr Loftus said other frequent problems were that witnesses were usually behind the Iron Curtain and information on war crimes often did not comply with the rules of evidence.