Posted on 09/23/21
| News Source: i24
Since 1995, Helmut Oberlander fought Canadian officials trying to kick him out for being part of death squad
A 97-year-old interpreter for the Nazis facing deportation from Canada died Wednesday, according to local media.
Helmut Oberlander died Monday after fighting the Canadian government to stay in the country since a formal investigation launched in 1995, Canadian papers The Globe and Mail said.
Born in Ukraine in 1924, the ethnic German joined Einsatzkommando 10a death squad during World War II, but he alleged he was forced to and only acted as an interpreter.
In 1952, a court found that Oberlander “significantly misrepresented his wartime activities to Canadian immigration and citizenship officials when he applied to enter," before immigrating in 1952.
Canadian officials attempted to revoke his citizenship in 2001, 2007 and 2012, with appeals reversing the decision each time before the government finally stripped him of his citizenship in 2017.
Officials said in 2017 that he “was complicit in crimes against humanity” by making "a voluntary, knowing and significant contribution to the crimes committed by Ek10a.”