Accused Nazi war criminal [Peter Egner] dies

SEATTLE - Accused Nazi war criminal Peter Egner, who had been sought by Serbia on suspicion of war crimes committed as a transport guard on Auschwitz-bound death trains during World War Two, died before he could be brought to trial next month in an attempt to revoke his U.S. citizenship.

Egner, 88, who had been living in a retirement home in Bellevue, Washington, died there last week, according to a representative of the facility who declined to give her name or any details of the circumstances of his death.

Egner’s lawyer, Robert Gibbs, declined to comment, as did officials at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington.

Egner, an ethnic German born in Yugoslavia, entered the United States in 1960 and became a citizen in 1966. Serbia issued an international arrest warrant for Egner in April last year and formally requested his extradition on Nov. 28.

Egner had admitted he belonged to a despised Nazi-run security unit but denied that he had committed war crimes.

The Justice Department had asked a federal court to revoke his U.S. citizenship based on evidence of his role in a Nazi mobile execution unit that participated in the mass murder of more than 17,000 Serb civilians, mainly Jews, Roma and political opponents, between 1941 and 1943. The case was scheduled to start on Feb. 22.

Egner was listed by the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as the most wanted Nazi war criminal still known to be residing in the United States.

The following is a story by Hillel Fendel published on December 21, 2010 in the Israel National News and posted on www.antifascistencyclopedia.com on December 23, 2010:

Peter Egner, charged by a Serbian court with horrendous crimes during the Holocaust, currently lives in a Seattle condo

A Serbian court issued an international arrest warrant last April for a U.S. man accused of Holocaust war crimes – and now the World Jewish Congress (WJC) calls on the United States to actually deport him.

Peter Egner, 88, who lives in a retirement condo in Seattle, is suspected of active duty in a Nazi-run Serbian police unit, known as an Einsatzgruppe. The unit killed some 17,000 Jewish and Serbian women and children in early 1942 by gassing them with carbon monoxide in a specially designed van. Egner, specifically, is accused of pushing many of the victims into the vans.

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the WJC, has now issued a call on American courts and authorities to “quickly pave the way” for the extradition of Egner to Serbia. “The accusations against Egner are so horrendous that no further time must be wasted,” Lauder said. “Not only the Jewish community in Serbia, but Jews world-wide expect Nazi war criminals to be tried and brought to justice, irrespective of their age.”

An ethnic German who was born in the former Yugoslavia, Egner says he is innocent, and is even filing suit in a Seattle court to demand that further information on his alleged activities not be publicized. He moved to the United States in 1960 and became an American citizen in 1966.

“These people may be frail,” Lauder said about suspected Nazis who are still alive, “but so are many Holocaust survivors. Justice done belatedly is still better than justice not done at all.”

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