Page 4 The Jewish Floridian of Tampa/Friday, May 16, 1986 Judge To Ponder Evidence In Case Against War Criminal CINCINNATI (JTA) - The two-week deportation hearing against a 62-year- old construction worker ac- cused of persecuting in- mates at a Nazi labor camp during the Holocaust recently concluded here, leaving the fate of Leonid Petkiewytsch in the hands of Judge 0. John Brahos. He is not expected to render a decision until early September. Petkiewytsch, a resident of the suburban community of Fin- neytown, is accused by the government of having concealed his past war-time activities when he applied for entry into the coun- try in 1955, and having par- ticipated as a guard at the Kiel- Hassee camp in the "persecution of persons because of their race, religion, national origin and political opinion under the direc- tion of the Nazi government of Germany." TESTIFYING in his own defense, Petkiewytsch admitted having served as a guard at the labor camp in Germany, but claim- ed, according to a report in The American Israelite here, that he never persecuted prisoners. In ad- dition, he denied that he concealed information from American authorities when he applied for a visa to enter the U.S. The Kiel-Hassee labor camp, one of the lesser-known camps run by the Nazi war machine, had an average population of some 1,800 persons. There are estimates that 550 died there; 150 by execution. The Jewish popula- tion there was relatively small, with most arriving in the last months of the war. About 160 Jewish prisoners were liberated from the camp in April, 1945. Petkiewytsch is not a U.S. citizen, and it was his attempt in 1982 to become a naturalized citizen that alerted an immigra- tion official to his past activities. He apparently indicated on the 1982 application that he had been a labor camp guard. The official alerted the Justice Department's Office Of Special Investigations in Washington. PETKIEWYTSCH, whose twin brother Goerge Perke of Western Hills also provided testimony, told the immigration hearing that he and his parents fled Poland, fear- Diva Sills Gets Top Award NEW YORK (JTA) Bever- ly Sills, general director of the New York City Opera, received the American Society for Tech- nion Women's Division's Medical Engineering Program Award, presented at its annual luncheon in New York. 1HC ing the Russian forces. His father had been serving as a mayor of a town under Nazi occupation, the Israelite said in its extensive coverage of the hearing. He and his brother were later assigned jobs by the Germans at the Kiel-Hassee camp, they said. They told the court that they were given little choice in the matter: either go as guards or as prisoners. Issued carbines and uniforms, the brothers testified that they escorted prisoners back and forth from Keil for daily work details, patrolled the perimeter of the camp, and did other chores. They asserted they never beat prisoners or participated in any executions. While the brothers said the camp was like an ordinary jail, six Jewish survivors of Kiel-Hassee provided testimony about the brutal conditions of the labor camp. BOTH BROTHERS denied concealing the fact that they fail- ed to alert U.S. authorities in 1955 that they had been arrested and imprisoned by the British for three years for possible war crimes. Judge Brahos informed Petke before his testimony that information he provided could be used against him by the govern- ment at a later date. The U.S. official whom the brothers say they presented the British imprisonment documents to is Marvin Hickman, who was vice consul in Germany in 1955. He testified at the hearing that, according to documentation on the visa application, Petkiewytsch did not present the British documentation. Hickman said he would not have approved the visa application had he known of Petkiewytsch's past activities. Brahos estimated that it will take four to five months before he reaches a decision. This time will include post-trial presentations by both sides. Afterwards, appeals can be expected, which could go to the Supreme Court. IF PETKIEWYTSCH is found guilty of persecuting persons because of their race, religion and political opinion under the direc- tion of the Nazis, there can be no "discretionary relief on the part of the judge, according to U.S. law. However, if the judge were to find Petkiewytsch not guilty on that account and guilty of having concealed information about his past wartime activities when he applied for entry into the U.S., he can apply "discretionary relief and suspend deportation, the Israelite explained. American Israelite editor Phyllis Singer, who attended and reported on the hearing, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that public reaction from both the Jewish and general communities was mixed. "Most of all, there was disinterest," she said. eJewish Floridian Of Tampa HuainraaOffirr 2XOx HoralK) Slrrl .Tampa Kb I INN Trlrptwnr M144W Publication (M(ic 120 NK 6 Si Miami. Kb .I3IJ2 KHKItK SH(K HKT KUZANNK MHOCHKT AUDKKY HAOHKNSTtX'K Kdilor and Hubliahrr Kirrulivr Kdilor Kdiloi f 'ad Snocnal Th Uwiah Klonaua Doaa Nat (iaaraata* Tar Ka.fcn.tr. Of Th* MtrraaaaW Ad vrniwd la lu Calaana Pubhahed Bi-Wackly Plua 1 Additional Edition on January 31. 1886 by Tha Jewish Klondian of Tampa Second Claaa Poalag* Paid at Miami. Fla. USPS 471-910. ISSN 8760-5063 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish Floridian, P.O. Box 012973, Miami, Fla. 33101 si MM HI\'\ ION KATKS <\ahm\ Vfa.il' War Minimum Stilt*, rip.ion 17 00. Annual M '.m 'Kit nt Town I pOD K*MjurM fhr Jewish Kloridiaii maintain* rM trw h*.i I'-opt** rermvinK th** paper *hi< ha*i* tni mihwnlnul dirrrtiv are ybflcflhm through arranjO'mt-nt *ith the .Ji-wih riilrraiiori nl Tump., w run-in v 111 per var i* drdu Helmut Kohl called criticism 'arrogant.' cused war criminal." "Today," Rosensaft said, "we demand that Waldheim be barred from entering the U.S. regardless of whether or not he is elected President of Austria." AYALL SCHANZER, the U.S. chairman of the North American Jewish Students' Network, an- nounced that his organization is undertaking an international cam- paign to divert Waldheim's $100,000 annual UN pension to several groups of Jewish and non- Jewish survivors of Nazi brutality in Greece and Yugoslavia, where the former Secretary General served during World War II. Meanwhile, Israeli and UN of- ficials said that a reply to Israel's request that the UN "take im- mediate steps necessary to insure free access of the general public" to the secret files on Nazi war criminals, might take "some time" because a decision involves more than 18 member- governments of the now-defunct UN War Crimes Commission which compiled the files on the more than 40,000 war criminals. Proceedings Dropped Against Mayor Who Had Unique Plan BONN (JTA) The State Prosecutor in Dusseldorf has dropped legal proceedings against Count Wilderich von Spee, former Mayor of Korschenbroich, who remarked to the town council s financial committee last year that the way to balance the municipal budget was to "kill a few rich Jews." THE JEWISH COMMUNITY concurred in the deci- sion to end the proceedings after von Spee was fined 90,000 Marks (about $41,000) which he donated to a children's cancer hospital. The Dusseldorf Jewish community had fil- ed charges against him for incitement to racial hatred. But the prosecution concluded that the anti-Semitic remark was an insult to Jews for which von Spee was fined but not incitement. Von Spee was forced to resign as mayor when he lost the support of his political party, the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which initially had defended him. His remark was the subject of a special debate in the Bundestag on resurgent anti-Semitism in the Federal Republic of Germany.