ble an Asian leader, President Sukarno of Indonesia, whose regime was ultimately violently overthrown in a massive genocidal upheaval which many sources claim was engineered in part by the CIA. Even the findings of the so-called Rockefeller Commission, intentionally conceived to lessen the criticisms of the CIA, had to conclude officially that the CIA had committed crimes against American citizens. The litany of illegal acts and criminal violence done against the American people and the U.S. Constitution by the Federal Bureau of Investigation runs equally long and brazen as those of the CIA. Suffice it to note that recent revelations of the FBIS complicity in the murder of a civil rights activist by one of its KKK informers and the defiance of the current Attorney General of the United States of a court order that he comply with the law (in the Socialist Workers Party case) underscore the present state of the art, if that be the term for what many have called the American police state. Against such a background, need there be any surprise that, as I have charged and can demonstrate, some 10 U.S. Intelligence Agencies-headed by the CIA and the FBI-have over the past 33 years utilized at least 149 proveable Nazi war criminals who, taken together, are charged with responsibilities for the genocide of some 2.4 million women, children and men between 1939 and 1945? Such testimony should not elicit surprise but rather rage. There have been other consequences of such utilization. Consider, as I have testified, that 15 fascist organizations which served as Fifth Columns for Nazi Germany during the 1930s throughout Central and Eastern Europe and did in fact provide the leadership of those Nazi collaborators-who were indispensible to the Hitler Germany conquests and genocides of Europe and the USSR-have been transplanted here in the United States. My research and investigations show that some of these groups-all, without exception, practitioners of force and violence-were brought in and re-established by several of the major accused Nazi war criminals living in the United States since 1946. [Some material necessarily deleted at this point in accordance with House rule XI, cl. 2] Whether intentional or not, the net effect of the insemination of fascist genocidists and their transplanted Nazi organizations in our midst has been to add considerably to the base for mass fascism in the United States. The extremes of reaction-organized racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry in force-have been provided "natural" allies to fuel their spurious anti-communism campaigns whose usual targets for attack are the democratic struggles of the American people. From my observation and analyses of the available evidence, it is quite clear that the greater bulk of the 286 Nazi war criminals who found haven in the United States after World War II has been (and continues to be) politically active on the Far Right of the spectrum in their respective ethnic groups. [Some material necessarily omitted at this point in accordance with House rule XI Cl. 2] The CIA, FBI and certain officials of the INS told GAO investigators, in effect, that everyone has been chasing communists over the past three decades and this explains why no one took an interest in the Nazi war criminals among us. That they were chasing communists, sometimes real but more often than not, imagined, is not in dispute. But such apologists and stonewallers neglect to add that they did not neglect war criminals of the Holocaust at all; they used them in their witch hunts. And this kind of primary social evidence goes much further in helping to account for genocidists' presence here than some overwrought TV script about an Odessa operating behind the closed doors of the nation's capitol. Thus the obscene phenomenon of Nazi war criminals living in our own country must not be seen in isolation or as random aberrancies or deep-dyed plots. Rather the issue must be examined within the total context of our times; as an inevitable, consistent, even indispensable element of an institutionalized McCarthyism at home and the Cold War policies which we have mindlessly and futilely pursued from 1946 to this day. The hidden use of these criminals of the Holocaust carries, moreover, deep risks for our own health. These Nazi war criminals, each and everyone, mastered certain indescribably cruel talents; the talents of genocide, torture, mass reprisals and terrorization of entire populations. Evidence shows that is exactly what they have often been used for, as sources of information and teaching for the para-military and counterinsurgency programs of the CIA, the NSA (National Security Administration), the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) and for the combat intelligence operations of the Navy, Air Force. Such employment started in the late 1940s, as 33-762 O-79-5 evidence which I and others have uncovered demonstrate, and has continued down to the very recent past. It is a regrettable fact that the terror operations of the Nazi SS and their collaborators in the North Caucasus during 1941-1943 have been carefully passed on to our own armed forces in the 1950s. There is an intimate relationship to the rape of Krasnodar and My Lai in Vietnam though some 30 years separate them. Such cynical employment of these creatures is bound to rub off on us; indeed already has to an alarming extent as I've noted briefly in summarizing the deleterious roles of the CIA and the FBI. Ultimately this issue must be resolved as a profoundly moral challenge. The recognition of the broader social and political contexts is indispensable to sorting the fact from fiction and assessing exactly the culpable individuals and Agencies in our Government in determining how and why Nazi war criminals have found a refuge in the United States. It is in our own best interests that we identify precisely those individuals, those institutions and those forces which have secretly, behind the backs of the American people, used Nazi genocidists. There is an inevitable corollary here: they would most assuredly fasten an American form of fascism on us if they could. But the ultimate resolution is moral. Our moral commitment is to the martyred Six Million, systematically murdered solely because they were Jewish. A crime against humanity that is unique in the annals of humankind. Our moral commitment is to the additional millions, put to specific fascist death by these war criminals and their Nazi masters who assault all sense of decency by their brazen presence among us. Our moral commitment is to the innocents of the past because we know, from history, that the past is never dead, that it is not even past. Our moral commitment is to the warning of the philosopher, Santayana: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." If we fail to heed this injunction, we condemn millions of innocents yet unborn to the ultimate goal of fascism: war. We must learn before it is too late the conclusion of a survivor of Aushwitz who did instruct us: "The globe is too small to hold both mankind and fascism." We must determine that there will never be a second Holocaust. That there will be no war flowing from policies which employ Nazi war criminals and the methods of these criminals, or their goals. We must determine that there shall be no posthumous victory for Adolf Hitler. Now-before it is too late, while there is still time (and there most certainly is the time!)-we must determine to expunge this sordid scandal from our midst, to take all due processes to bring these Nazi war criminals to justice and to rout the individuals and instruments of government responsible for their employment and protection. To make certain that they pay for their crimes against the American democratic tradition. [Whereupon, at 1:18 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] ALLEGED NAZI WAR CRIMINALS THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1978 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joshua Eilberg (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Eilberg, Holtzman, Hall, and Evans. Also Present: Garner J. Cline and Arthur P. Endres, Jr., counsel; Raymond P. D'Uva, assistant counsel. Peter Regis, legislative assistant; and Alexander B. Cook, associate counsel. Mr. ÉILBERG. The subcommittee will come to order. Today the subcommittee continues its hearings into the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the third agency involvement in the prosecution, or lack thereof, of alleged Nazi war criminals residing in the United States. Yesterday, we heard from witnesses representing the General Accounting Office and others on this topic and some very interesting disclosures were made. Today, we will hear from former INS officials who were closely involved in the handling of Nazi war criminal investigations and litigation. We will also hear from Immigration and Naturalization Service and State Department officials involved in administering the Displaced Persons Act and Refugee Relief Act, under which many of the alleged Nazi war criminals entered the United States. As yesterday, my only request of all of the witnesses is that they be open, frank, and candid in their testimony. Also as yesterday, the use of specific case names must be avoided pursuant to the House rules and so as not to prejudice any ongoing investigations or prosecutions. Our first witness will be Mr. Anthony DeVito, former INS investigator, who was intimately involved in the investigation of a number of these cases. Please step forward, Mr. DeVito. We look forward to your testimony with interest. First, we will ask you to take the oath as we are asking all witnesses. Mr. DeVito, do you swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. DEVITO. I do. Mr. EILBERG. Thank you. (63) Mr. DeVito, we apologize to you for not being able to take you yesterday as we had planned, and we would welcome your comments on the GAO report we started off with yesterday, and any other observations you might make, particularly in the area of interference with the investigations into alleged Nazi war criminals in the United States. You may proceed in your own way. TESTIMONY OF ANTHONY DEVITO, FORMER IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE INVESTIGATOR Mr. DEVITO. First of all, I want to thank the committee for inviting me here. I looked forward to it. And I certainly don't want to trouble the committee with some old stories which have appeared in press publications, et cetera, but if you would care for me to go over it lightly, I shall be glad to do so to enlighten you more. I think I will do just that. Feel free to interrupt me at any time. Contrary to general belief, my interest in Nazis did not stem from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It stemmed from other experiences, and I held onto that thought throughout the years. It was only up to 1972 when I got assigned to the female Nazi case up in New York that I really got interested and actually did some work on it. From that point on, it was my feeling that my superiors and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were not interested in pursuing Nazi war criminals here in America. It certainly can be said without any question that this was not what you would call a team effort. I encountered obstructions galore, left and right, wherever I went. As you know, the file cabinet that maintained the records on a case I was working on was broken into overnight. It was reported to the District Director and he did nothing about it. Witnesses who testified were threatened. Three females, and then my wife received threatening phone calls. We had two distinguished witnesses from abroad who were depleted of funds and although funding was readily available both at the New York office and the regional office, this funding was withheld and it is true I made a collection at the New York office. The success the investigation had in that case was not what you would call an organizational move. It was done in a sneaky manner, I admit. Mr. EILBERG. Which case are you talking about? Mr. DEVITO. The Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan case. The achievement in that case must be credited to a lot of small people who took chances really to initiate and motivate the interest of both the German and the Polish Governments. But, nevertheless, in view of the atmosphere, drastic steps were needed. The result, extradition. Now, while working that case a member of the public provided me with another Nazi case, and a member of the New York Times was present there; he was aware of what was going on. I went to retrieve the file on that matter and I found out it was buried in Detroit. Whatever was going on from that point on was well aware of to the New York Times reporter who helped retrieve this buried Nazi case in Detroit. Mr. EILBERG. What is the name of the Times reporter? Mr. DEVITO. His name is Max Siegel, of the New York Times. He covered the Ryan case. When I retreived the file, first of all, it was not at the New York Office where it should have been. Aliens, files are normally kept in the district where the person resides. While I was knocking my brains out for the file in New York and Detroit, thanks to Max Siegel, he said, "Tony, stop knocking your brians out in Detroit, your man lives out in Mineola." Sure enough, he lived out in Mineola, he never lived in Detroit, so the question was, what was that file doing in Detroit for 62 years? Now, there have been a lot of immigration echoes; also it comes from the General Accounting Office investigators, files get lost. It's not true. This file was a secret file. When files move about, whether it's within the district or outside of the district, throughout the country, signatures are required. That case was secret, and there had to be a record at the New York office where it went to once it left the New York office. And to give you the genesis of that case, that case really started back in 1965 when the Soviet Union filed an extradition request for the man. As you know, it was denied based on no treaty. As a result of the publicity, Immigration decided to conduct an investigation, and that probe had hardly gotten off the ground when it was ordered terminated from an official in the central office. Now, I had received instructions along those lines throughout the years. What this investigator did, he indicated that in the file, pursuant to instructions so forth and so on, investigation is terminated, and from that point on you could just imagine what happened to the file. Eventually it wound up in Detroit. So, 61⁄2 years later I examined the file, and I wanted to find out what is this file doing in Detroit. Mind you, this is ongoing at the same time that the female Nazi case is going on, and I couldn't find any evidence or any justification for that buried file in Detroit. Eventually it was determined that he lived in Mineola. Well, I was busy with the female case, so we didn't give the second case too much attention. It was stored in the female Nazi file cabinet and for added security the whole cabinet was relocated inside the trial attorney's office. During December 1972, I had to take some annual leave, and the trial attorney absented himself from his office on that date. On this day, the chief of investigations at the New York office saw fit to invade the trial attorney's office in our absence, and remove the Detroit Nazi case from the file cabinet. When I came back to New York, incidentally, I was telephoned that evening by the trial attorney telling me of the recent develoments and when I came back on duty after annual leave I was told by the chief clerk in the trial attorney's office and the trial attorney again what had transpired in my absence. I immediately looked through the file, and I saw that it had been reassembled. Incidentally, I did not recover the file at that point. I didn't see the file for some 22 months thereafter. I would like to correct myself. Once the chief of investigations removed that file I didn't see it for 22 months later. The only reason why I saw it 21⁄2 months later is because Max Siegel, of the New York Times, decided to write an expose on the matter, and he forewarned the U.S. |