On Wednesday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken was in Ethiopia highlighting“the importance of accountability for atrocities committed by all parties” during fighting in the north of the country that may have amounted to war crimes or genocide.
Also Wednesday, several congressmen wrote to Blinken demanding that the State Department take its own responsibility in protecting Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and genocide. For decades, under its predecessors, both Democrats and Republicans, the State Department blocked the deportation of Holocaust death camp guards and other Nazi criminals the Justice Department had uncovered.
Reps. Jerry Nadler and Greg Meeks wrote to Blinken nearly a year and a half ago, when they were chairmen of the foreign affairs and judiciary committees, along with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, now a minority leader. As the new letter from him says, “We are disappointed that we did not receive a response.” Joining the effort is freshman Rep. Dan Goldman, a longtime federal prosecutor who was shocked to learn of State’s sordid history of protecting Nazis.
Both letters cite the nine Nazi criminals we listed who were ordered deported by the courts, but were never deported and died here. But there is more. Neal Sher, the Justice Department’s top Nazi hunter, told us, using words about hard-line State Department diplomats that we can’t run in a family newspaper. Sher passed away in 2021, but the facts and documents remain in the files of Justice and State.
Congressmen want Blinken to order the State Department historian to do the research. We want to add the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Ellen Germain, and the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.
Did our ambassadors in Germany, like New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, know about the state’s refusal to remove these undesirable stateless people from the United States? We hate to say it, but the only time the state got it right was under Donald Trump, who forced Germany to take Jakiw Palij back from his Queens retreat.
Congressmen seek “a full accountability for this profound injustice.” Let’s see it all.