The hunt for Canada’s last Nazis

The small city of Rini one of the oldest communities in Lithuania was among the first places to be attacked when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and the scars still run deep local historian Lina conoa points to this arrangement of rocks forming a star of David this is all that remains

Of R’s once thriving Jewish Community marking the spot where Jewish civilians were executed lithuania’s Jewish population of 250,000 was almost completely wiped out in the Holocaust more so than in any other country only around 5% of Lithuanian Jews survived including Ellie gots this is when I was 13 the

Lithuanian Canadian was just 13 when the Nazis invaded and the Nazis announced we are liquidating the ghetto liquidation to us meant one thing they going to liquidate us two gods and his parents escaped execution by hiding in their Cellar later he was sent to the notorious DHA concentration camp and DHA

Was hell DHA was terrible people died of hunger I weighed 70b when I was liberated his family eventually moved to Canada decades later in 1982 Gods learned one of the Nazis accused of murdering thousands of Jews in his hometown was now living on his same street in Toronto hey Raa Raa was here

Had no idea he lived next to us this is helmet rala helmet rala lived in Canada for decades before he was eventually extradited to Germany where he died awaiting trial it took sat2 years to find him I could have found him for five five minutes he was in the phone book in

Toronto even at 95 Gods continues to share his story with thousands of students and others every year and part of that history lesson includes Canada’s shameful anti-semitic secret helmet rala wasn’t alone after the war many suspected Nazis escaped to Canada they hid for decades in plain sight their names and alleged

War crimes all but forgotten until now it’s necessary to teach society that you don’t get away with it this isn’t a Lithuanian story to me this is a Canadian story to bring those remaining few surviving perpetrators and collaborators to Justice accused war criminals people that the government

Claimed were not in Camp Canada I was able to locate many of Abby corbs family members were killed in the Holocaust the expert in hate and extremism has worked with police and intelligence agencies around the world and in her spare time she’s a noty hunter these people committed crimes they should be held

Accountable most of them refugees who have already fled from persecution the second world war sparked the largest Refugee CR crisis the world has ever seen Canada welcomed more than 150,000 refugees but only around 5,000 Jews were allowed into Canada during the Nazis rule the fewest of any Allied nation in

History tells us it was far easier um for a Nazi to immigrate to Canada Mark fryman’s parents survived the Holocaust and came to Canada in 1952 he says anti-Semitism was still widespread spread then and the government was suddenly more concerned with catching Communists than Nazis the Canadian government

Um uh wasn’t picky uh in terms of looking at possible Nazi past in immigrants from Eastern Europe Holocaust survivors were arriving on ships with the people who committed heinous crimes against them on the same ships people were submitting name to the police to the government you know upon arrival lists

Containing thousands of names of alleged Nazis were sent to Canadian authorities and passed down to members of the Jewish Community including Saul Litman I think this is a matter of history for over 40 years The prominent journalist and Scholar spent decades calling for investigations into Nazi war criminals

In the 1980s Corb worked for Litman as a researcher following his death and 2017 she became the custodian of hundreds of Nazi war crimes files some great men and women did an incredible amount of work 50 60 years ago but the police failed to investigate these claims properly so

Corb conducted her own investigations combing through archives in Israel Moscow and the Vatican I was able to piece together files that were poorly investigated using old phone books I’ve dived through dumpsters recycle bins I’ve really gotten my hands dirty on this and that dirty work paid off I found a lot of Them Corb says the majority of suspected Nazis in Canada have passed away but dozens are still alive many now well into their ’90s and one case in particular captured Cor orb’s attention there was a holocaust testimony from a Survivor who stated that a woman smashed Jewish babies on with

Rocks that horrific testimony came from the Lithuanian city of R we asked historian lantina about the Case she says a witness claimed to have seen two Lithuanian women beating young Jewish children to death with Rocks many lithuanians helped the Nazis to kill Jews she says corbs investigation into that alleged baby killer led her to the other side of the world and into a hallowed place the Yad vashem archives perched on Israel’s mount of remembrance opened in 1957 its home to the largest collection

Of Holocaust archival material in the world rows of shelves holding original handwritten accounts chronicling the horrors of the Holocaust and the testimony in this file is damning it’s very very important information for us this Yad vashem researcher showed us testimony written in 1945 almost immediately after lithuania’s Liberation by a survivor

Named Dina Ze flum here we can see exactly the words where Dina speaks writes about the perpetrator Dina flum described how the Jews of Rini were systematically executed when the women and children were brought to the pits flum slipped away she wrote how she hid in a barn under the hay and watched

Laying in the barn I could well see two women standing at the pit small children’s heads being hit with heavy stones or one head at the other child’s head one of the women was the student clita CL the student clita no first name was provided but those Clues gave

Investigators a place to start the same story came up in three or four different Holocaust testimonies two of which gave the same name and there was evidence that two sisters with the same last name came to Canada that last name Cita isn’t uncommon in Lithuania immigration records revealed two possible matches

Lithuanian sisters who arrived in Canada in 1948 aboard this ship carrying refugees and Soldiers the eldest sister Joanna was born in 1923 making her 18 at the time flum claimed to have seen the student clita killing Jewish babies upon arrival in Canada Joan kit listed her occupation as student and her place of

Birth was about 70 kilm from Rini on one hand for security purposes in 1985 under pressure from Jewish groups the federal government formed the desen commission an independent inquiry to investigate claims that Canada had become a Haven for Nazis an RCMP war crimes unit was also created it launched hundreds of

Investigations into suspected Nazis in Canada including Cita Corb obtained some of the documents from the clita investigation through access to information the goal of the police probe into the murder of Jewish babies was to determine if clite was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and

To ensure her entry into Canada was not through fraudulent means but their investigation proved problematic they didn’t pursue things properly they didn’t do conduct proper Investigations in 1993 a Canadian government researcher was sent to Lithuania to investigate the suspected Nazi cases but according to police documents they never traveled here to resig due to time constraints and higher priority files it appears investigators never found the key witness Dena flum who claimed to have seen the student

Clita who smashed the heads of Jewish children with rocks a year later in 1994 police wrote nothing has been done on this file the allegation provides a last name only and no other information to confirm the Canadian is the subject of the allegation without further historical

Research we will not be able to tie the suspect to these atrocities she was was accused of infanticide those are heavy duty claims for a file that went nowhere in 1995 one of the investigation’s last available entries a Department of Justice official wrote the RCMP should be asked to try or continue

Attempts to locate clita in Canada or find out whether she is dead it’s unclear if police ever located or spoke with CA Global News recently tracked down a Lithuanian woman named Joanna made name clita who lived in Ontario but by then it was too late okay I’m Jeff I’m with the global news her family told us she died a couple of years ago she was 99 her children said they know nothing

About the allegations in Rini much of the file remains redacted the government citing privacy concerns I I don’t understand how you can balance uh the rights of a deceased person against the rights of um people to know the truth Mark Fryman a former deputy attorney general for Ontario has

Been working with Corb for years lobbying the government to release Canada’s Nazi war crimes files the names and many details from the police investigations and the final desen commission’s report remain redacted secret locked away inside library and Archives Canada I think a lot of the files contain embarrassing Revelations about the Canadian

Government the Canadian police the Canadian prosecution service of the more than 1,500 RCMP investigations none of the suspected Nazis have ever been successfully prosecuted records show many of the investigations were stopped stopped before they even started because the suspects were deemed too elderly one investigation into the highest ranking

Nazi in Canada was recommended for closure due to the advanced age of the 87-year-old subject that is what Canada has become 95-year-old Holocaust Survivor Ellie gots says it’s never too late to do the right thing the need reason it’s necessary to do justice is not because

Of them they are too old it’s necessary to teach society that you don’t get away with it helmet rala who is said to have murdered thousands of Jews in gods’s Hometown is the only Nazi to ever be extradited from Canada on the issue of of of identifying and Prosecuting Nazi

Suspected Nazi war criminals how would you describe the Canadian government’s work in their record on very poor are the track record of Canada on condemning the war issues the war criminals is very poor very poor and last fall that poor track record provoked International outrage a Canadian Ukrainian said to

Have fought for the Nazis received a standing ovation in Parliament urav hunka honored in the House of Commons during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Z on behalf of all of us in this house I would like to present unreserved apologies following the incident the Prime Minister said he had instructed

Senior bureaucrats to determine whether Ottawa should release more of its Nazi war crimes files this month the government Declassified 15 pages of the Redal report produced with the desen Commission in 1985 but no names and few new details were revealed and there was the moment of embarrassment promises were made to

Look into the entire war crimes issue and that’s the last I heard of it do you think that moment of embarrassment will spur any more action from the government I’m not holding my Breath then two weeks after parliament’s embarrassing history lesson came the deadliest attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust October 7th the day Hamas attacked Corb happened to be in Israel with her daughter it was probably the scariest time of my life 1200 Israelis were killed and hundreds more taken hostage

Including Alex danik the 75-year-old historian worked at The yadvashem Archives the attack and affront to Yad bem’s Mantra never again Corb spent the coming days and weeks ducking in and out of bomb shelters hi Junior there and volunteering at this donation center in Jerusalem providing Aid and supplies to families forced from

Their homes Jews come together we’re a strong group of people and we have to let the world know but suddenly Jews around the world found themselves under attack my synagogue in Montreal where I grew up my father was a founding member was firebombed bullets were through the door the school where

My family members my daughter went to school here had bomb threats it’s scary you can’t walk around without feeling unsafe Corb says the new wave of attacks on Jewish communities only underscores the importance of Holocaust Education and accountability look what’s going on in the world we keep saying never again but

It’s happening every single day we have to uncover the truth we have to Canada is a is a land of immigrants and all of them came from all over and we lived quite well here until relatively recently now there is a new hatred and that hatred is terrible I never thought

I would see that in Toronto God says the moral of his own story which she shares with anyone who will listen is the importance of letting go of hate after the war I was full of hate when I came out of hospital I was looking for a gun I was going to kill

Germans but one day I said to myself what are you thinking stop hating you you are poisoned and I gave up hate I started to study so when I stopped hating I started Living For The First Time

After the Second World War, hundreds of suspected Nazis escaped to Canada and have never faced prosecution for their alleged war crimes.

A Canadian Nazi Hunter is now making a final push to bring the few surviving suspects to justice, armed with evidence of atrocities.

Jeff Semple has the exclusive details of this Global News investigation.

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