Jewish Leaders Protest Alleged Nazi Guard in Queens

By JAMIE DELIZ

Kristallnacht, otherwise known as the Night of Broken Glass, is said to be the beginning of the Holocaust. On the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938, German paramilitary forces and civilians  terrorized thousands of Jews throughout Germany, killing hundreds and forcing over 30,000 into concentration camps. The name stems from the broken glass that littered sidewalks in the wake of attacks on Jewish-owned shops.

Fast-forward 79 years on the anniversary of the event, and that terrorizing memory still lingers for many.

Led by Assemblyman David Weprin, Jewish community members on Thursday called to extradite the last-remaining ex-Nazi war criminal in the U.S.. massing outside  his Jackson Heights, Queens home, and later at the United Nations German House in Midtown Manhattan.

“Your hands are drenched in blood,” shouted about 160 high school male students from the Rambam Mesivta Yeshiva, just across the street from where Jakiw Palij’s, 94, resides.

Palij worked as a guard at the Trawniki labor camp in Poland, and after World War II, he came to the U.S. “Under the same name,” he claimed to be a farmer, and was granted citizenship in 1957.

“How he lives here is beyond all of us,” said Rabi Zev Friedman, the dean of Rambam Mesivta.

In 2014, the Department of Justice revoked his citizenship because it was “issued under false pretenses,” according to the press report. The DOJ ordered to deport the Polish-born Palij to Germany, Ukraine, or Poland, but none of the countries were willing to take him.

“They [Germany] have a moral responsibility to take him back,” Friedman added. “Who gave them the weapons? Germany.”

The report states that all three countries have refused to take him in, but Germany, “who is ultimately responsible for perpetrating the Holocaust,” has the “moral if not legal responsibility” to put “their soldier on trial.” Palij received instructions from German higher-ups, wore the uniform, and used German weapons.

According to public record, in the case of the DOJ vs. Palij, Trawniki was created to “train men to assist Nazi government of Germany in implementing its racially motivated policies, including and in particular “Operation Reinhard”.

The rally takes place almost every year, according to some neighbors.

“It’s old. Get over it,” said neighbor Jonny Heras, who has been living in the area for almost 17 years. He also added that Palij’s son allegedly picked him up from his home last night.

“The fact is, this Nazi, Jakiw Palij, has lived off the back of the American land,” said associate principal of Rambam Mesivta, Hillel Goldman. “His views are not our views. His values are not our values. And, yet, here he is free, when the souls of those he exterminated cry out for justice.”

Across the East River, the students and Weprin rallied outside of  German House, joined by Republican Hempstead Councilman Bruce Blakeman, calling for the German Counsel to New York to take Palij.

The reason they won’t accept Palij is because he is not a “German-born nationalist,” according to Friedman.

“My mother joined the army in World War II,” said Blakeman. “I shudder to think what her opinion would be about this monster living here.”

No German official addressed the rally.

Congressman Joseph Crowley of Jackson Heights and the “entire”– 29–New York State delegation, including Democrats and Republicans, “insist that the German government take back the lone remaining Nazi camp guard living in the United States,” according to the report.

“There are NO good Nazis,” said Weprin. “Your time is up!”