by Dan Forrest
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Europe
BERLIN, Germany - A German prosecutor filed three murder charges today against an admitted Nazi hit man. Heinrich Boere, now 86, stands accused of killing three Dutch citizens in 1944. This case, if brought to trial, could be the last Nazi war crimes trial ever to take place in Germany.
In 1944, Boere was part of an SS hit squad that targeted Dutch civilians in reprisals for attacks on Nazis by Dutch resistance fighters. Boere's job was to eradicate the Dutch resistance by shooting civilians deemed sympathetic to it. Describing his duties, Boere told Spiegel Online last August that, "We didn't know the men [we were sent to kill.] The security service of the SS just gave us the name and off we went."
Documents reveal that, along with SS companion Jacobus Petrus Besteman, Boere killed a pharmacist, a bicycle dealer, and another Dutch civilian. All three were unarmed at the time they were shot.
Boere confessed to killing the men when he was captured by American forces at the end of the war. But he escaped from an Allied prison camp soon after and fled to Germany, where he has avoided extradition to the Netherlands for the past six decades.
Boere was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court in 1949, a sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Describing how he felt about the murders to a Dutch newspaper last year, Boere said, "Orders were orders, otherwise it would have meant my skin. Later it began to bother me, now I'm sorry...it was another time, with different rules." He admitted that he was a 'fanatic' at the time, and that he prays the victims of his brutality. "I'm sorry about what happened in 1944" he commented. "I pray for the dead every night and for everyone who died in the war."
Boere also admitted that he only realized after the war that he was misguided in his allegiance to the Nazis.
Jewish Nazi hunters couldn't be happier with the decision to formally charge Boere. In an interview from Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi hunter, remarked, "It's high time that this happened, and I'm very pleased that the German prosecutors have finally moved against Boere. We're running out of time and every day that goes by without these people being put on trial is another chance they have to elude justice."
For now, Boere remains at an old-age home near Eschweiler while the process takes its course. It will likely take some time to determine whether he is fit for trial, and in what manner the trial will proceed.
For more information, please see:
Spiegel Online - 86-Year-Old SS Killer Faces Murder Charges - 14 April 2008
The Washington Times - Germany charges admitted Nazi hit man - 16 April 2008
Yahoo(AP) - German prosecutor charges admitted Nazi hit man in 3 murders - 16 April 2008
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