Safe Haven : The United Kingdom's Investigations Into Nazi Collaborators and the Failure of Justice

The controversial 1991 War Crimes Act gave new powers to courts to try non-British citizens resident in the UK for war crimes committed during WWII. But in spite of the extensive investigative and legal work that followed, and the expense of some £11 million, it led to just one conviction: that in 1999 of Anthony (Andrzej) Sawoniuk. Drawing on previously unavailable archival documents, transcripts of interviews with suspects, and disclosures by senior lawyers and policer offers in the War Crimes Units (WCUs), in parallel with the history of bungled investigations in the 1940s, Safe Haven considers for the first time why and how convictions failed to follow investigations. Within the broader context of war crimes investigations in the United States, Germany, and Australia, the authors reassess the legal and investigative processes and decisions that stymied inquiries, from the War Crimes Act itself to the restrictive criteria applied to it. Taken together, the authors argue that these -- including the interpretations of who could and should be prosecuted and decisions about the nature and amount of evidence needed for trial -- meant that many Nazi collaborators escaped justice and never appeared in a criminal court. The authors situate this history within the legacy of the Holocaust: how, if at all, do the belated attempts to address a failure of justice sit with an ever-growing awareness of the Holocaust, represented by memorialization and education? In so doing, Safe Haven provokes a timely reconsideration of the relationship between law, history, and truth. Cover Safe Haven: The United Kingdom’s Investigations into Nazi Collaborators and the Failure of Justice Copyright Preface Acknowledgements Contents List of Illustrations Maps Figures Introduction: Whither Justice? Beyond Nuremberg The UK Faces its Past Command Responsibility and Jewish Victims Investigating the Investigators The Soviet Conundrum The Belorussian Context Conclusion 1: Law Meets War Responding to a New Kind of ‘Conflict’ Why Not a Civilian Rather Than Military Inquiry? The Discovery of Bergen-Belsen Becoming a War Crimes Investigator Whither Intelligence? The Crime Club Limiting the Scope of Investigations Conclusion 2: The Soviet Hunt for War Criminals Who Fled to the West The Moscow Declaration The Zvarich Case Avto Pardzhadnadze and the Caucasian Company Janowska Road The Goetzfrid Case Nikolai Popko Andrei Bakunovich Pavel Budarkevich Conclusion 3: The Latvian Death Commando The Svikeris Case Soldiers or Murderers? The Killings in Belorussia A Priority One Killer but no Prosecution The Written Word versus Live Witnesses Slipping through the Net The Deportable Konrad Kalejs The Horror of Salaspils The Post-WarJourney of Kalejs Conclusion 4: Gecas and the Failure of Law Scotland’s War Crimes Trial Gecevicius the Suspect The 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion and Its Crimes Gecas in Belorussia Gecas Post-Warand Under Investigation Where Were the Witnesses? Friction with the OSI The Final Act Conclusion 5: Serafinowicz, the Belorussian Nationalist from Mir Introduction The ‘Treasure’ in the Archives The Investigation Gathers Pace Serafinowicz Speaks What Drove Serafinowicz? The Evidence Why Didn’t Serafinowicz Stand Trial? The Retreat from Mir Serafinowicz Under Investigation Belorussian Emigres and Nationalism Operation Post Report Conclusion 6: Sawoniuk, the Unexpected Conviction Introduction Analysing Sawoniuk The Soviet Union’s ‘Most Wanted’ A Border Town Under Occupation Anti-Semitism The Circumstantial Evidence The Aktion Identification and Eyewitnesses The Killers Retreat Sawoniuk and the Extraordinary State Commission Enter (Belatedly) the Historians Conclusion 7: Slonim, Secrets and Spies Introduction Slonim A Stepson’s Suspicions The ‘Evidence’ Chrzanowski Post-War, the Missing Years What Role Did MI6 Play? The Belarus Secrets Conclusion Afterword: Legacies and Holocaust Awareness Introduction The Damasevicius Case Deprivation of Citizenship Holocaust Awareness Holocaust Education Bearing Witness Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources Archival Sources Hansard Hartley Library Imperial War Museum International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg (IMT) National Records of Scotland (Edinburgh) United Kingdom National Archives Storage Facility Hayes, Middlesex United States Department of Justice United States Holocaust Memorial Museum University of Southern California War Crimes Inquiries Wiener Library, London Published Primary Sources Unpublished Material Interviews, Emails, and Correspondence Internet Sites Accessed Secondary Sources Index