Editorial: Blinken must open the Nazi files: State Department has to heed demand of Reps. Nadler, Meeks and Goldman

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken was in Ethiopia stressing, “the importance of accountability for the atrocities perpetrated by all parties” during fighting in the country’s north that may have constituted war crimes or genocide.

Also Wednesday, several congressmen wrote Blinken demanding that the State Department own up to its own accountability in protecting Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and genocide. For decades, under his predecessors, both Democrats and Republicans, the State Department blocked the deportation of Holocaust death camp guards and other Nazi criminals that the Justice Department had uncovered.

Reps. Jerry Nadler and Greg Meeks wrote to Blinken almost a year and a half ago, when they were the chairmen of the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, along with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, now the minority leader. As their new letter says, “We are disappointed that we did not receive a reply.” Joining the effort is freshman Rep. Dan Goldman, a longtime federal prosecutor who was shocked to learn about State’s sordid history of protecting Nazis.

Both letters cite the nine Nazis criminals we listed who were ordered deported by the courts but were never expelled and died here. But there are more. Neal Sher, the Department of Justice’s top Nazi hunter told us, using words about intransigent State Department diplomats that we can’t print in a family newspaper. Sher died in 2021, but the facts and the documents remain in the files of Justice and State.

The congressmen want Blinken to order the State Department historian to do the probe. We say add in Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.

Did our ambassadors to Germany, like New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, know about State’s refusal to remove these stateless undesirables from America? We hate to say it, but the only time State acted correctly was under Donald Trump, who forced Germany to take back Jakiw Palij from his retirement in Queens.

The congressmen seek “a complete accounting of this profound injustice.” Let’s see it all.

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