What is the difference between the SS and Isis? A big one, it seems, in the eyes of Canada, where this week a federal court refused to review a decision to strip the Canadian citizenship of Helmut Oberlander, a Ukrainian immigrant with alleged ties to a Nazi killing squad in World War II.
According to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), Oberlander served as an interpreter in the Einsatzkommando, mobile death squads that swept through Eastern Europe in the early years of the war, liquidating men, women and children, mostly Jews, but also homosexuals, gypsies and communists. It is estimated that the squad Oberlander allegedly belonged to, Einsatzkommando 10a, killed 23,000 civilians during the war.
Oberlander arrived in Canada in 1954 and six years later became a citizen, having made no mention of his wartime service. When it eventually came to light, he claimed that he served only as a translator in the unit and never participated in any killings.
Oberlander has been stripped of his citizenship four times in a quarter of a century for having lied about his past, but he has successfully appealed each ruling.
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