Court upholds decision to revoke Helmut Oberlander’s citizenship

WATERLOO — For the fourth time, a court has upheld Canada’s decision to strip Helmut Oberlander of his citizenship, for serving in a Nazi death squad and lying about it.

Three times previously, Oberlander, 94, has appealed similar rulings to win back his citizenship. He plans to appeal again.

So it’s unclear if this saga is nearing its end after a 23-year prosecution that’s cost taxpayers more than $2 million in legal fees.

“His point is he’s innocent. He’s not going to give up. He’s got his family name at stake, his children, his grandchildren. He has no interest in letting this go,” said his lawyer, Ron Poulton.

Oberlander, an ethnic German born and raised in Ukraine under Soviet rule, served as a decorated, lowlevel interpreter in an SS-led death squad that murdered at least 23,000 civilians, mostly Jews, between 1941 and 1943.

After the Second World War he lied about his wartime service to immigrate to Canada, a court found. He became a successful Waterloo developer.

No evidence has been presented to a court that he personally participated in war crimes.

Federal Court judge Michael Phelan ruled Thursday that the Liberal government acted lawfully in revoking Oberlander’s citizenship for the fourth time in 2017. Phelan also ruled against Oberlander in 2008. That decision did not survive appeal.

Jewish groups applauded the latest ruling. An Oberlander supporter decried it. This follows a well-established script.

To German-Canadian groups and other supporters, Oberlander is a successful immigrant who’s being persecuted without clear evidence of wrongdoing.

“It’s horrendous what they’re putting him through,” said Helene Schramek, a longtime family friend who has known Oberlander since she was a child and sees him as a “wonderful contributor to the community.”

“I think it’s a very sad day for Canada,” she said.

To Jewish groups, Oberlander is part of a killing machine who lied his way into the country and can’t use his age or poor health to escape justice.

“It is painful to think that Oberlander and others who perpetrated heinous crimes against our families have, for so long, concealed their past and taken advantage of welcoming countries like Canada,” said Sidney Zoltak, past president of a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, called the ruling “a victory for anyone who cares about justice and human rights.”

There are new developments in the long-running prosecution.

• Oberlander no longer has the automatic right to appeal. He must ask the Federal Court of Appeal to hear his appeal of the latest ruling.

• His memory is failing and he’s now too ill to answer more questions about his wartime role, his lawyers say.

• He may face increased risks of prosecution if deported to Germany, where the Nazis gave him citizenship. In a policy change, Germany is trying former auxiliaries in their 90s as accomplices to Nazi war crimes.

Phelan ruled that the government’s decision to strip his citizenship is “justifiable, transparent, and intelligible.”

Phelan accepted that Oberlander voluntarily and knowingly made a significant contribution to war crimes, in part because his interpreter job involved him in life and death.

The judge found no evidence the Nazis would have killed Oberlander for not helping them. He accepted that Oberlander could have escaped the death squad or transferred out of it.

He dismissed Oberlander’s credibility, citing previous court findings that his statements were unreliable, highly implausible, unworthy of belief, not credible, inconsistent and selective.

The federal government was unable to comment on the ruling Thursday.