The Observer, March 3, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 19
"Nazi hunter" speaks at Case School of Law
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Eli Rosenbaum, the "Nazi Hunter," spoke last Wednesday at the Case Law School about the changes that have come about in the world since WWII. Rosenbaum is a prosecuting lawyer out of Washington D.C. Since becoming director of Office of Special Investigations (OSI), his career has made him famous for the deportation and prosecution of many Nazis hiding in America and dozens of other countries. Recently, his group tried the infamous Klaus Barbie. So far, OSI has won 106 cases against Nazi and Imperial Japanese war criminals.
Students and senior citizens alike sat silently as Rosenbaum recalled truly tragic cases. He told of a case in Lithuania, which was the first country to try war criminals in post-communist Europe. In his account, many Lithuanian Jews were killed on steep cliff on the edge of a ditch. One of the victims who he researched was a six-year-old girl who was murdered and then thrown into the ditch with the rest of her people. Rosenbaum stopped and said, "I can't understand the murder of children and innocent individuals. I just can't understand it."
The trials Rosenbaum cited are very different from other criminal trials. There is only one judge and no jury, and the burden of proof is astronomical. OSI doesn't have fingerprints, nor dead bodies, nor any other evidence that most prosecutors have the luxury of possessing. They try to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt by using eyewitnesses. Since the Germans burned a large amount of documents at the end of the war, OSI relies heavily on the testimonies of survivors. As Rosenbaum puts it, "Death is an occupational hazard."
OSI, in a way, works backwards. Instead of starting with a crime and looking for a criminal, OSI has goes from the criminal to the crime. Its staff of historians, without the FBI, does all research in-house. Cases are very complex because they try high-profile individuals.
Rosenbaum and OSI work tirelessly to convict the Nazi and Japanese war criminals because, as Rosenbaum puts it, "Victims must not be forced to share their home soil with their tormentors." Many other countries have abdicated their responsibilities of bringing these people to justice. Though most of the former Nazis are still in Europe, most convictions take place in America and Canada. It has been 35 years since Austria has prosecuted a single case. After the criminals are deported from America, they are sent back to their countries of origin. Most of these countries don't accept these people back.
It has been 60 years since the Nuremberg Trials began, but history is not forgotten. Rosenbaum and OSI know that though decades have passed, the crimes of yesterday are still crimes today.
Rosenbaum came to the law school for the annual Klatsky Seminar in Human Rights at Frederick K. Cox International Law Center. He was this year's invited speaker. The law school will be hosting more exciting lecturers in the months to come. For more information go to http://law.case.edu/lectures.
