Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textfile/antisem.zip/NAZI.TXT

Text File | 1993-08-04 | 6KB | 103 lines

        Reprinted from The Jewish Advocate, Boston MA, June 28, 1990

        STOUGHTON NAZI WILL REMAIN A 'QUIET NEIGHBOR'
        By Judith Antonelli
        Advocate Staff

             Albert Ensin, a member of the SS Death's Head Battalion  who
        served in Auschwitz from December 1941 to July 1943, will not  be
        deported but will be allowed to remain in his home in  Stoughton,
        a U.S. immigration judge ruled last week.
             Although  Ensin, 68, confessed to being a "perimeter  guard"
        at  Auschwitz-Birkenau,  and Judge Annette  Elstein  ordered  him
        deported,  the order was suspended after a doctor told the  judge
        that moving ensin could be life-threatening. Ensin has had  three
        strokes  and kidney failure, and requires a dialysis machine.  He
        is a native of Lithuania and has never become a U.S. citizen.
             Joseph  F. O'Neil, Ensin's lawyer, said he is  pleased  with
        the  verdict.  "Ensin did not participate in  the  persecutions,"
        O'Neil  asserted.  "He was a perimeter guard-he guarded  the  en-
        trance and exit [of the camp]. But current immigration law sweeps
        broadly, and says someone is deportable for assisting in persecu-
        tions just because they were in the environs of the camp."
             Asked if being a perimeter guard meant Ensin would have shot
        people  who tried to escape from the camp, O'Neil replied,  "That
        never happened."
             "That's  bunk,"  stated  Allan Ryan, Jr.,  director  of  the
        Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the Justice  Department
        from  1980-83.  Ryan,  author of Quiet Neighbors  (a  term  which
        precisely  fits the description of Ensin by  Stoughton  residents
        who  knew him) is now serving as general counsel at Harvard  Uni-
        versity.
             "Perimeter  guard is a common defense," Ryan told the  Advo-
        cate.  "It's like the bakery defense-'I was only baking bread  in
        the bakery at Auschwitz.' We heard that a lot.
             "But there is no such thing as a passive observer at  Ausch-
        witz-Birkenau," Ryan continued. "If you were stationed there, you
        were  part  of the process of murder. It's all part of  the  same
        process of killing that Auschwitz-Birkenau was so good at.
             "People like Ensin say that they were just doing their duty,
        that if they had refused they would have been shot. That's  crap.
        Soldiers  who didn't want to be [concentration camp] guards  were
        sent  off to the front. Nobody was shooting at the  soldiers  who
        were  camp  guards, so their life expectancy was longer  than  it
        would have been at the Russian front."
             Ryan disputed the notion that Ensin's illness is a reason to
        permanently  waive  deportation. "It's not the way I  would  have
        done it. I would not agree that he could indefinitely stay in the
        U.S.  I would require that he have a physical  examination  every
        six months and that the results be provided to us.
             "I  would want a certified medical opinion that putting  him
        on  an airplane would risk his life. If his situation changed  or
        improved, deportation should be carried out. I have never felt it
        was  appropriate  to provide a guard  at  Auschwitz-Birkenau  the
        right to stay in this country." he declared.
             The Death's Head Battalion "had the skull and crossbones  on






        their  caps,"  Ryan noted. "Their whole purpose was  to  run  the
        death camps. They weren't the Boy Scouts."
             Those who call the punishment of elderly Nazi war  criminals
        "revenge"  are those who are "least qualified to talk about  it,"
        Ryan  added. "The only people with that right are the  survivors,
        and  in my 10 years or more of working in this area, I  can  only
        say what little interest the survivors have in revenge. They  are
        committed to justice.
             Commenting  on  the recent House of Lords  decision  not  to
        prosecute Nazi war criminals living in Great Britain, Ryan  stat-
        ed, "The House of Lords does not have the slightest right to talk
        about revenge, because they were not the victims. But the British
        have  been  doing this one way or another since 1945.  They  have
        been  very  uncooperative with OSI. They prefer  that  the  whole
        issue would just go away. It is shameful that Britain has gone on
        record as refusing to prosecute Nazi war criminals."
             Rabbi  Harold  Schechter of Congregation  Ahavath  Torah  in
        Stoughton also disagrees with the ruling on Ensin. "Some  punish-
        ment  should  be meted out," he said. "'Never again'  has  to  be
        emphasized. I am not very happy about this. But it's not a singu-
        lar  case.  It's  found all over the world.  You  never  know  if
        there's a Nazi war criminal living on your street."
             Schechter said the case was discussed by his congregation at
        the synagogue's Friday night services. He added that some of  the
        people  are considering a protest with placards in front  of  En-
        sin's  house  on Summer Street, to be done "in a  manner  keeping
        with  the  spirit of the Jewish community." But, the  Rabbi  said
        they  are waiting "to hear the ADL's  [Anti-Defamation  League's]
        views of what should be done."
             The  ADL  was on staff retreat early this week and  was  not
        available for comment.

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