Bellevue's 'Little Eichmann'

Maybe I'm sensitized to this because I've spent the last few weeks reading about Nazis — not everyone's taste in beach reading, but it's worked for my summer vacation.

I was prowling my late father's bookshelves and re-read Simon Wiesenthal's Murderers Among Us about the famed Nazi-hunter's efforts to track down war criminals. I followed that with three books that looked at the role of the media in the rise of Hitler: reporter William Shirer's classic Berlin Diary and his novel about an American journalist-turned-Nazi-symp, The Traitor, which explores the issues of journalistic co-optation. And lastly, Howard K. Smith's memoir Last Train From Berlin, which picks up the experience of an American reporter in Hitler's capital during the last year before the U.S. was in the war. It ends with Smith luckily (and unknowingly) skipping town the day before Pearl Harbor transformed the American press corps in Germany from "neutrals" to the enemy.

So, I admit, I've got Nazis on the brain, but every day for the last few weeks, I've spotted news stories related to the very issues I've been reading about. They range from the merely curious to the truly significant, and make me think that the reverberations of the "Thousand-Year Reich" might actually be felt for that long.

In Denmark, some people have discovered what amount to Nazi time capsules: hidden, sealed, furnished bunkers from the German occupation of World War II that look today just as they did when the soldiers left them hurriedly more than 60 years ago. We hear of a lawsuit won by the son of a famous British fascist who was said to have participated in Nazi-themed orgies. And speaking of famous sons, when you sit down to watch the Beijing Olympics or read about China's human rights record (at home, Tibet, or Sudan), think about this: The Chinese hired the son of Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, to create the "master plan" for their games. Yes, these games are brought to you by Albert Speer, Jr., just as the 1936 Berlin Olympics were presented by Albert Speer, Sr. You could not make this up.

Such is the fascination with things Nazi that the New Statesman recently ran a piece about the enduring appeal of "Nazi chic."

But as the stories remind us, removed as we are from the World War II era, there are still real Nazis among us. In his 1966 book, Wiesenthal said that he felt he was working against time and that most of the big fish were caught, off the hook, or dead. But the ensuing decades have shown that there are still plenty of little fish around — even a few of not-so-little ones.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is pushing Operation Last Chance, which is the effort to track down the remaining criminal Nazi bigwigs that have escaped justice. Headlines were made in late July regarding a search for Aribert Heim, a death doctor at the Mauthausen concentration camp who is said to have decorated his office with the body parts of his victims. Heim is believed to be alive, hiding near the border of Chile and Argentina, and of age 96. The roster of death-camp higher-ups is just about wiped clean of the living. On July 22 of this year, the Los Angeles Times ran the obituary of the last known living concentration camp commander. But some of the significant henchmen, like Heim, may still be lurking.

If any of this seems remote, it shouldn't after the revelation just a few weeks ago that an 86-year-old retiree in Bellevue is alleged by the U.S government to be a former member of the Nazi SS in what was then Yugoslavia. The man's name is Peter Egner, and the government is seeking to revoke his citizenship and deport him. On Aug. 4, it was reported that the U.S. Office of War Crimes was sending its file on Egner to authorities in Belgrade and will visit Serbia in September to discuss his possible extradition. Egner says he is innocent and never hurt anyone.

Is the U.S. government simply tormenting an old man? As reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

'The Nazi unit in which Peter Egner is alleged to have participated was responsible for countless deaths and unimaginable human suffering,' said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich in a statement released Tuesday. 'By bringing this action today, we again declare our unwavering commitment to the principle that participants in Nazi crimes should not be afforded the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship.'

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, was unapologetic. 'Why go after a person who's 86? For the simple reason that there's no time limit when it comes to crimes against humanity,' he said. 'What they did from 9 to 5 every day before they sat down to dinner was murder innocent people. Every day, that was their full-time job. If you're a mass murderer and you've killed hundreds or thousands of people, and you're clever enough to hide out, you should be given a reprieve — a free pass — just because you're 86?'