Katriuk, who moved to Canada in the 1950s, was a member of a Ukrainian battalion of the SS, the elite Nazi storm troops, between 1942 and 1944, according to the AP, citing war reports.
And he was accused of taking part in a brutal massacre during World War II, the horrifying details of which were included in a 2012 Holocaust and Genocide Studies report.
Nazi troops annihilated the village of Khatyn in Belorussia — now known as Belarus — on March 22, 1943, killing nearly 150 people, most of them children and women, and burning down their houses.
“Its residents were herded into a barn and burned alive,”
“One witness stated that Volodymyr Katriuk was a particularly active participant in the atrocity,” Rudling’s paper says. “He reportedly lay behind the stationary machine gun, firing rounds on anyone attempting to escape the flames.”
By the 1950s, according to the Canadian Press, Katriuk was living in Canada, where he became a beekeeper. In 1999, the Federal Court in Canada found that he falsely represented himself and concealed facts to obtain citizenship in the country.
Years later, however, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet didn’t strip his citizenship.
Earlier this month, Russian authorities asked for Katriuk’s extradition to Moscow so he could be tried for alleged war crimes, according to the Globe and Mail. “Harper’s Conservative government ignored the request, saying it will never recognize Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its interference in Ukraine.”.
Just hours before Katriuk’s death was announced, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Toronto called on the Canadian government “to review this case and take the necessary steps to ensure that, if guilty, Katriuk be held accountable for war crimes committed in collaboration with the Nazi regime.”
The case, the Globe and Mail noted, “has upset Jewish Canadians and war-criminal hunters for years.”
The newspaper noted that in 2012, Mark Adler, a conservative member of Canada’s House of Commons, “suggested via Twitter that Mr. Katriuk needed to leave.”
more
Why one of the world’s most wanted suspected Nazis never faced justice - The Washington Post
And he was accused of taking part in a brutal massacre during World War II, the horrifying details of which were included in a 2012 Holocaust and Genocide Studies report.
Nazi troops annihilated the village of Khatyn in Belorussia — now known as Belarus — on March 22, 1943, killing nearly 150 people, most of them children and women, and burning down their houses.
“Its residents were herded into a barn and burned alive,”
“One witness stated that Volodymyr Katriuk was a particularly active participant in the atrocity,” Rudling’s paper says. “He reportedly lay behind the stationary machine gun, firing rounds on anyone attempting to escape the flames.”
By the 1950s, according to the Canadian Press, Katriuk was living in Canada, where he became a beekeeper. In 1999, the Federal Court in Canada found that he falsely represented himself and concealed facts to obtain citizenship in the country.
Years later, however, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet didn’t strip his citizenship.
Earlier this month, Russian authorities asked for Katriuk’s extradition to Moscow so he could be tried for alleged war crimes, according to the Globe and Mail. “Harper’s Conservative government ignored the request, saying it will never recognize Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its interference in Ukraine.”.
Just hours before Katriuk’s death was announced, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Toronto called on the Canadian government “to review this case and take the necessary steps to ensure that, if guilty, Katriuk be held accountable for war crimes committed in collaboration with the Nazi regime.”
The case, the Globe and Mail noted, “has upset Jewish Canadians and war-criminal hunters for years.”
The newspaper noted that in 2012, Mark Adler, a conservative member of Canada’s House of Commons, “suggested via Twitter that Mr. Katriuk needed to leave.”
more
Why one of the world’s most wanted suspected Nazis never faced justice - The Washington Post
