Poland Pursues Extradition Of 98-Year-Old Former Nazi

Authorities from the National Remembrance Institute have sought the extradition of a 98-year-old Minnesota man after they allegedly confirmed that the individual was a former Nazi commander during World War II.

After this information became apparent to German authorities, a presiding official advocated for litigating for murder charges of Karkoc.

Prosecutors from the National Remembrance Institute have already asked Polish government officials to issue an official arrest warrant for Karkoc. Such an order would give authorities cause to pursue their own punitive measures fitting Karkoc’s alleged crimes, according to the BBC.

Karkoc could be sentenced to life in prison, if he is convicted.

“[…] it’s high time that the Poles became more active seeking people who committed crimes in World War Two on Polish soil,” said Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Karkoc’s son, Andiry, expressed that current allegations of his father were false and suggested that they may be “misinformation or disinformation” created by the Russian government.

As of the Associated Press’ initial investigation into Karkoc, the U.S. Department of Justice remained mostly reticent on the subject of Karkoc.

“The Department of Justice is aware of the allegations, which have been widely published,” stated DOJ spokesman Peter Carr in an email.

“We generally do not confirm nor deny whether an individual is under investigation.”

The identity of Michael Karkoc was brought to light after a November 2013 report by the Associate Press that revealed he had been in charge of staging an attack on a Polish village, one which claimed the lives of dozens of Polish residents.

“The command was given by one of the commanders to cordon off the village and prepare for battle,” read a testimony by Private Ivan Sharko, a soldier under Karkoc’s command.

“The commander of our company, Wolf, also gave the command to cordon off the village and check all the houses, and to find and punish the partisans.”

An account of the raid gave a detailed account on the extent of the damage that soldiers caused.

“The legionnaires surrounded the homes, set fire to them with matches, or with incendiary bullets, and they shot anyone who was found in the homes or anywhere in the streets,” read Sharko’s testimony.

“Most of the houses were burned as a result of this action. How many people were killed in all, I don’t know. I personally saw three corpses of peaceful inhabitants who had been killed.”

Robert Janicki, a Polish prosecutor involved with Karkoc’s investigation, maintains that a body of evidence has confirmed the 98-year-old’s identity “100 percent.” 

Sources: BBC, AP/Daily News/Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland/Flickr