Ex Nazi death squad soldier’s deportation appeal dismissed by Canada’s top court

A Canadian court declined to hear the appeal of a former Nazi who gained citizenship deceitfully and is facing deportation.

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear the appeal of Helmut Oberlander, 95, of Ontario, leaving him with no further recourse.

Oberlander saw his Canadian citizenship revoked and won back four times since 1994, when the Canadian government first sought to strip him of his citizenship after he was found to have lied to enter Canada in 1954.

Canada’s Federal Court last year ruled that it was “reasonable” he be stripped of his citizenship.

Oberlander was an interpreter for mobile killing squads that targeted Jews in the former Soviet Union during World War II, although he was never charged himself with killing Jews.

“This is a very positive decision from the court,” said David Matas, legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights. “The federal government must now take the next step towards removing Oberlander from Canada immediately.”

An ethnic German born in Ukraine, Oberlander claims to have been a low-level interpreter conscripted under duress, that he never took part in killings and he would have been shot had he tried to escape.

He served with the squad as an interpreter from 1941 to 1943. He later was an infantryman in the German army.

Oberlander immigrated to Canada in 1954 and became a citizen in 1960 without disclosing his wartime record. His case rose to prominence in 1995.