Yes, “they” did.
“During the Holocaust memorial ceremony in Brighton Beach last June, each of the neighborhood’s synagogues sent forth one of its faithful to light a candle. A stooped old man named Jacob Tannenbaum represented Temple Beth El, and those who attended the service recall that as he lit the wick he began to cry. And so did the friends who knew that Mr. Tannenbaum himself was a survivor, the sole survivor from a family of 12.
Now the same Mr. Tannenbaum is accused by Federal authorities of wartime atrocities; of viciously beating his fellow prisoners while serving as a kapo, or overseer, in a forced-labor camp. The Justice Department has moved to rescind the 75-year-old Mr. Tannenbaum’s citizenship in the first step toward potential deportation. Only three times before has the United States charged a Jew with collaborating with the Nazis, and only once was the man ordered out of the country.”
So, Mr. Tannenbaum is 75 years old now, but he was a “kapo”
in a camp?
So, was he born around 1934?
How many “kapos” were 10 years old in the camps?
BTW, I literally just got back from a unique family meeting, where my family met a couple of relatives who we did not even know existed.
We have a very rare name in the world.
Our families all came from a small province in is what is now
Ukraine.
It was the Volhynian Oblast, under Polish, and then Russian rule.
My family was able to escape from 1900 to 1915, while this other part of our “new family” that we met, only tonight,
was sent to Siberia.
That they ever made it out is amazing to me.
John Denjanjuk will be judged by an entity much more wise than a European court will ever be.
Sorry Chet, I missed the 1987 tag on your post.
It certainly puts him there, mature, at the time.
It was a horrific period, not too long ago.
I fear for our future.
(But I am prepared.)
Tannenbaum lost his citizenship but wasn't deported anywhere. There were about three other procedings in the fifties, one successful, but it doesn't look like denaturalization and deportation were very seriously pursued in more than a handful of cases. Of course "kapo" has different connotations. Not all kapos -- Jewish or gentile -- were guards or killers.
Last month, when the Ted Stevens conviction was thrown out, I did some reading about the prosecutors. One of the DOJ attorneys that was held in contempt for failing to turn over documents and thrown off the Stevens case (Patty Stemler) is the same one that was rebuked by a judge in 1992 for failing to disclose evidence in Demjanjuk’s case, specifically documents and witness statements that showed he was not Ivan as had been alleged.
no they didnt!
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1997/08/10/1997-08-10_osi_has_nailed_scores_of_ex-.html
“Kapos” were Jews who agreed to oversee fellow prisoners in exchange for favorable treatment by their Nazi captors. Tannenbaum was charged with beating Jewish prisoners, and he settled with the OSI by admitting to its charges to dodge deportation. “