Germany nixes trial for Queens Nazi

December 18, 2009

http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/germany-nixes-trial-for-queens-nazi/

Nazi war criminal Jakiw Palij will remain in Queens for at least a while longer after Germany decided not to accept him, in order to avoid the appearance of giving him “shelter and protection.” Palij has been stripped of his United States citizenship and ordered deported.

Last month, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a group of students from Shalhevet High School for Girls demonstrated outside Palij’s home in Jackson Heights. That afternoon, students from Rambam Mesivta picketed the German Consulate and extracted a promise from a consular legal official, Andreas Zimmer, to bring up the matter of Palij’s status with superiors in Berlin.

The answer came this week: no, Germany will not accept Palij.

“As to the question of admitting into Germany persons with a Nazi past who are to be deported from the United States, the German government, after careful consideration, has come to the conclusion that this can only be considered under narrow circumstances, in particular when the person in question holds German citizenship. This is not the case with Mr. Palij,” Zimmer wrote in an email to Rabbi Zev Friedman, Rambam’s Rosh HaYeshiva.

Since Germany is currently trying Ukrainian national John Demjanjuk for war crimes, the decision is “disappointing and inconsistent,” Rabbi Friedman replied.

“We fully intend to do a ‘full court press’ and lobby Congress to call upon Germany to act,” he said, and the effort would include the entire student body.