A NAZI death squad member whose unit reportedly killed TWO MILLION people has died at the age of 97 – without facing justice.
Helmut Oberlander passed away “surrounded by loved ones” at his home in Ontario, Canada, his family said.
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The former Nazi died as he faced being deported back to Germany after failing to disclose his gruesome past to Canadian officials.
The Ukraine-born ex-Nazi interpreter faced an admissibility hearing in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada earlier this month.
In 1954, he moved to Canada and became a citizen six-years later. But the government claimed that he emigrated under false pretences.
Oberlander claimed that he was forced into the Einsatzkommando10a unit in his teens under threat of death.
He insisted that he was not involved in any murders during his time in the Einsatzkommando 10a unit from 1941 to 1943.
Oberlander’s family earlier demanded that he should be regarded as a former child soldier as he was “forcibly conscripted” at the age of 17.
His death squad, described as a “mobile killing unit” by a Canadian judge, were responsible for the horrific slaughter of over two million people, most of them Jews, according to the National Post.
Others list different numbers of victims. Some reports claim that the unit may have killed as few as 40,000 during World War II.
Oberlander was not charged with any executions but he was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most wanted Nazi war criminals.
His long legal battle with Canadian authorities over his citizenship led to his new life in Canada.
In the 1990s, he was one of the first targets by a federal war crimes unit.
Oberlander was deported because of the delay and difficulty in obtaining criminal convictions.
His Canadian citizenship was revoked in 2001, 2007 and 2012. Each of these decisions were overturned by courts.
NAZI PAST
But again in June 2017, his Nazi past again came back to haunt him and the federal government revoked his citizenship for the fourth time.
Oberlander’s appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019. They accepted Oberlander’s claim that he had illegally entered Canada after the war.
They found he had “significantly misrepresented his wartime activities to Canadian immigration and citizenship officials when he applied to enter Canada.”
But his family were keen to fight deportation proceedings so that he could die in Canada and be buried with his wife Margaret.
The board was asked by his lawyer to adjourn the 97-year old’s last deportation hearing because of his declining health.
Ronald Poulton previously indicated to the courts Oberlander was unlikely to survive beyond the summer.
While the government was completing his deportation proceedings, he passed away.