An investigation by the Associated Press has found that a 94-year-old man who moved to Minnesota in 1949, was actually the commander of Nazi SS-led unit during World War II.
According to the report published on Friday, Michael Karkoc emigrated to the U.S. after telling immigration officials that he performed no military service during the war. However, reporters David Rising, Randy Herschaft, and Monika Scislowska say they have uncovered evidence that Karkoc was a member of two military units that were accused of massacring whole villages in Poland during the conflict.
Karkoc is a native of Ukraine who helped found the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, a unit of Ukrainian nationalist soliders who fought alongside the German army against the Soviets and received orders directly from the SS, the Nazi’s burtal security force. Other members of that unit have testified in the past that they were ordered to “liquidate” entire villages, burning homes and killing women and children. Karkoc was allegedly an officer in the SS Galician Division, which helped surpress the Warsaw Uprising in Poland. After the war, both units were placed on a government blacklist that was supposed to prevent any of its members from entering the United States.
