Part Of An Elite Nazi Death Squad, Now, Canada Cannot Get Rid Of Him
One of the most unusual cases is that of Helmut Oberlander. He was born in 1924 in Halbstadt, Ukraine, where at the age of seventeen he was either forced — by circumstances — or through free will, to join Nazi German Einsatzkommandos, which worked as death squads. With killing as a core purpose, Oberlander must have shown a propensity or attribute that caused the Nazis to decide he belonged there. This is where his story gets tricky. Although born in the Ukraine, Oberlander was ethnically German. His Russian and German language abilities were put to use by the Einsatzkommandos. He was a translator, and used this job description when in court to temper the idea he was involved in the killing of anyone as a secondary or primary function.
The Einsatzkommando group to which he belonged was one of five subgroups. All of them branched from Einsatzgruppen. Collectively, the squads were composed of around 3,000 soldiers. They were a fierce, agile, specialized squadron. When not directly combating the Soviets, Einsatzkommandos’ mission was to above all purge the world of any and all Jews. Along with Jews, their function was to kill anyone Polish or Romanian, or anyone who was a Communist. Also, homosexuals and anyone part of the intelligentsia.
Oberlander argued that his Einsatzkommando duties were limited and included only translating radio transmissions broadcast in Russian, acting as an interpreter during interactions between the military and the local population, and outside that he had the mundane task of guarding of military supplies. This contrasts with the functionality and purpose of his unit. Oberlander’s Einsatzengruppen was “D.” It was created in 1941 and ran operations for two years until early spring of 1943. The territories they worked in included northern Transylvania, Cernauti, Kishinev, and across the Ukraine and Crimea. During those two years, Einsatzgruppe D was responsible for the killing of over 91,728 people.
What Oberlander did from the time the Second World War ended until 1954 is not clear. From 1954 onward his whereabouts and daily routine are well documented as a result of an ongoing court case. He immigrated to Canada along with his wife. There, he worked in construction and within six years obtained Canadian citizenship. It took Canada until 1995 to acknowledge their mistake. Canadian courts have attempted unsuccessfully many times to deport Oberlander and to revoke his citizenship. In February 2000, a Canadian judge concluded that there is no evidence that Oberlander was involved, directly or indirectly, in committing any war crimes or any crimes against humanity. This was later overturned, until November 2009, when the Federal Court of Appeals struck down a decision to revoke Oberlander of his citizenship.