Newly formulated U.S. immigration policies and prejudice created obstacles for entering the United States by people displaced by the war.
[13][14] According to The Washington Post, the United States has successfully prosecuted more Nazis than all other countries combined and is "widely deemed to have the world's most aggressive and effective Nazi-hunting operation.
It concluded that, in addition to having obtained some measure of justice for wartime atrocities, OSI set international standards for prosecuting perpetrators of genocide and made substantial contributions to the historical record that "stand as a permanent and irrefutable response to those who would deny the Holocaust and its horrors."
Further, "the message resonating from OSI's cases is that the United States does not choose to add to its populace persons whose actions victimized innocent civilians.
The OSI was equipped with broad powers that enabled it to take all necessary steps to accomplish its mission including investigation, litigation, negotiating with foreign governments, and calling for support from other U.S. authorities.
By chance, he was assigned a case already lost by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to strip Feodor Fedorenko, of his US citizenship and deport him to the Soviet Union.
There, he was arrested and put on trial for treason, war crimes, and collaborationism for working in Treblinka extermination camp.
Initial leads came passively from existing INS cases, Jewish organizations also searching for war criminals, and individuals who by chance come across their former tormentors.
Several Holocaust survivors had traveled to America from Israel and emotionally confronted Walus, whom they believed to be their former tormentor, in court.
Case law evolved over time with various court rulings regarding legally complex matters of interpretation of statutes and sufficiency of evidence.
[47][48][49][50] Otto von Bolschwing worked for a computer leasing company in California where he rose to the level of vice president.
During the war, he had been a member of the Death's Head Battalion of the Waffen-SS acting as a guard at Buchenwald and Auschwitz, at which he was accused as an accessory in the murder of 216,000 Jews.
Denaturalization proceedings were complicated by his mother's claim that she had been born in the U.S. and that Breyer was only seventeen years old when he began service with the SS.
During the war he had been a member of the 2nd/12th Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft (Protective Detachment) Battalion, a mobile killing unit that murdered thousands of unarmed Jews and other civilians in Lithuania and Byelorussia.
During the war, he was a member of the Lithuanian Security Police (the Saugumas) that arrested Jews who attempted to escape from the Vilnius ghetto and turned them over to the Nazis.
[57] The controversy stemmed from OSI's initially mistaking Demjanjuk's identity and proceeding with denaturalization action against him in the belief that he was the notorious, sadistic guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka extermination camp.
OSI had obtained conflicting evidence from documents and eyewitnesses as to Demjanjuk's description and location during the war that led one member of the prosecution team to recommend not pursuing the case.
New evidence became available in 1991 from behind the former Iron Curtain that strongly indicated that Demjunjuk had not been at Treblinka (and therefore was not "Ivan the Terrible") but had been at other notorious camps, including Trawniki, Sobibor, Flossenburg and Majdaek.
In 1993, the Israeli Supreme court also acquitted Demjanjuk of charges related to the actions of "Ivan the Terrible," even though there was considerable evidence of his being involved with war crimes at other camps.
[65] Third, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) conducted a total of five internal inquiries into various aspects of the prosecution.
Another OPR investigation was made at the request of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr., who had presided during the Demjanjuk denaturalization hearing and was highly critical of the prosecution, including a charge that "Jewish special interest groups" had influenced Ryan and the OSI.
In subsequent actions, based on the determination of the Appeals Court, Demjanjuk's deportation order was nullified and his U.S. citizenship restored.
In 1983, near the end of Allan Ryan's directorship at OSI, he was asked to investigate the relationship between Klaus Barbie and the U.S. government following World War II.
[73][74][75] As Gestapo chief in Lyon, France, Barbie personally beat and tortured men, women, and children, reportedly laughing as he did so.
His methods included whipping, electric shocks, breaking arms and legs, and sexual abuse, earning him the title "Butcher of Lyon."
[76][77] Barbie was ultimately found in Bolivia, extradited to France, convicted of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Counter Intelligence Corp. personnel to lie to higher U.S. authorities and help Barbie escape Europe to Bolivia rather than honor an outstanding French warrant for his arrest.
[80] As a result of Ryan's report and personal recommendation, the U.S. government made a formal apology to France for enabling Barbie to escape French justice for thirty-three years.
[81] Although some politicians and commentators did not agree with all the conclusions or believe the apology was justified, reaction to the report was generally highly favorable, both in the U.S. and abroad.
The award was established in 2011 and recognizes "internationally prominent individuals whose actions embody the Museum's vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.