SS death squad veteran must be put on trial, demand protestors at 100th birthday - The Jewish Chronicle

Protestors outside the home of an SS “death squad” veteran on his 100th birthday have demanded he face justice for alleged crimes against humanity.

The demonstration at the house of Herbert Wahler in an idyllic small German town came amid growing fury over the failure of prosecutors to put him on trial.

Living in the historic German town of Meslungen, he is believed to be the last surviving veteran of Einsatzgruppe C. A sub-unit from Einsatzgruppe C, Sonderkommando (special commando unit) 4a systemically slaughtered 33,771 innocent and defenceless Jewish children, women and men in just 48 hours in September 1941 in a ravine outside Kiev called Babyn Yar.

He has admitted being stationed in Kiev at the time but denies taking part in the massacre and says he served as a medic.

Among those gathered outside his home was Lasse Schauder,22, a member of the German Israeli Society. He told the JC: “Today is about standing up for those who can’t be here to do so and didn’t get to enjoy a long life and reach their 100th birthday because they were murdered.“

Also there were members of the Documentary Theatre of Berlin, which has staged a production both in Germany and Ukraine about the Babyn Yar slaughter.

Director Marina Schubath told the JC she felt compelled to act after interviewing 250 young Germans and discovering not one had heard of the massacre.

She said: “It was awful to realise that something so sinister had been forgotten. The situation at Babyn Yar was just monstrous. It was non-stop shooting of the innocent.” Ms Schubath brought enlarged photos of Jewish victims of Babyn Yar to hold up by the house.

Pointing to a photo of a young mother with her child, she said: “To save ammunition, the SS made mothers like this one hold up their young ones so one bullet would pass through the mother and into the child also.”

Pointing to an photo of SS soldiers smiling around a table, she said: “At six pm, the guards were then finished with their mass murder for the day, and would celebrate with hot soup and Schnaps.”

As the protest began, a young bearded neighbour of Wahler came out shouting: “What’s this supposed to be? Are you the latest Antifa demonstration or what?”

Explaining he was married to Wahler’s niece, he became increasingly agitated, saying: “Why are you here? I know about the claims you are making - but I see it differently. This is a frail old man, who can’t even move and here you are agitating about something that happened over 70 years ago.

“There are so many important things happening now in Germany, so much crime. It surely makes sense not to focus on the past, rather on catching criminals today.”

“That’s exactly what we are doing,” replied one demonstrator.

Five police cars were parked in a nearby side street, with a sixth outside Wahler’s home, and three officers standing guard. An officer filmed the protest using a mobile phone.

German prosecutors have said Wahler and other SS death squad veterans will not be put on trial without direct evidence of them taking part in crimes.

The policy is in stark contrast to that for ex-concentration camp personnel, who have been found guilty of complicity in acts in which they were not directly involved.

An investigation into Wahler was closed in 2020 by the public prosecution office in nearby Kassel without his presence or testimony.

At the demonstration, historian Stefan Stracke from the Vulnerable Traditions group of Nazi-crime historians in Wuppertal said: “If the authorities continue to do nothing, then providing Wahler lives this long, then we will still be here in ten years. We demand a resumption of the proceedings against Herbert Wahler. Acts of murder and aiding and abetting murder do simply not expire.”

Frederik Joel Willing, 25, from the Liberal Jewish Community in nearby Felsberg told the JC he fears Germany has shown itself incapable of correctly dealing with Nazis.

He said: “We can’t rely on the German state to fight Nazis now – we see this with the rapid rise of neo-Nazis in Germany, and the failure of the authorities to clamp down on it.

“But we also cannot rely on Germany to deal with its Nazi past either. Cases like this show that even when there is evidence, Germany is just not prepared to bring people to trial who have been member of groups committing the most inhumane and heinous of crimes.”

In a message of support sent to the protestors, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, said: “As long as any of the men and women from the Einsatzgruppen are alive, they cannot be allowed to live their lives in peace and tranquillity. That is a privilege they denied their victims.”

Heinz Josef Seher, chairman of the Documentary Theatre of Berlin sent an application for the resumption of the investigation against Wahler to the public prosecutor’s office in Kassel.

The Kassel office told the JC it will check the application before the General Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt am Main makes a decision, adding that if it decides against a prosecution an appeal by relatives of victims is still possible.