Simon: Recently Identified Nazi ‘Worthy’ of Death Penalty

Hopkins and St. Louis Park Rep. Steve Simon tweeted that the death penalty is a worthy punishment for a Minnesota man recently identified as a top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children.

Michael Karkoc, 94, denied performing any military service during World War II when he immigrated in 1949. But evidence that the Associated Press uncovered showed that he concealed his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division.

According to the AP:

“Though records do not show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader. Nazi SS files say he and his unit were also involved in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation.”

After the story broke, Simon, who is Jewish, retweeted a link to the story and added, “Worthy of death penalty.”

An hour later, the DFL legislator pointed to the story’s mention of a 1995 Ukrainian-language memoir in which Karkoc said he helped found the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion in collaboration with the SS intelligence agency and that he served as a company commander in the unit.

Simon tweeted: “Nazi SS cmdr living in Mpls seems proud of WWII record, since he wrote a memoir. Surely he wouldn't mind having home address published.”

The state legislator’s tweets received a mixed response from followers. User JB Borenstein responded: “anything we can do?” But user Michael Bachrach tweeted: “No one deserves the death penalty. No one. #capitalpunishment#abolition”

According to the AP, German law allows for the prosecution of Nazis with ‘command responsibility’ for war crimes even if their direct involvement can’t be proven. Prosecution in Poland is also possible because that is where some of the crimes occurred. The U.S. Department of Justice has deported suspected Nazi war criminals who lied about their role in the war.