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Operation Last Chance was launched July 2002 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center with its mission statement being to track down ex-Nazis still in hiding. Most of them would be nearing the end of their lifetimes, hence the operation's name. Efraim Zuroff is director of the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem who serves as the Israeli liaison as well as overseer of this project, the focus of which is investigation, prosecution, and conviction of the last remaining Nazi war criminals and collaborators. Many have obtained citizenship in Canada and the United States under false pretences; usually by misrepresentation, omission, or falsification of their criminal past, specifically war crimes which rose to the level of crimes against humanity. == Prosecutions and Convictions Obtained == Operation Last Chance assisted in the prosecution and interim conviction of John Demjanjuk for his alleged role in the torture and murder of Jews in various concentration camps, among other atrocities. Demjanjuk became an American citizen in the 1950s. Demjanjuk had been previously been exonerated of genocide and crimes against humanity by Israel's Supreme Court.〔Holley, J. and A. Bernstein. John Demjanjuk, convicted Nazi criminal, dies at 91. Obituary in Washington Post, March 17, 2012. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-03-17/local/35448663_1_ralph-alt-prison-guard-nazi-war-criminals〕 Demjanjuk was later accused by Germany of being a Ukrainian collaborator (sometimes referred to by camp inmates as ''Askaris'') and camp guard at Sobibor. In May 2011, a Munich lower criminal court found Demjanjuk guilty of being an accessory to murder at Sobibór death camp, where about 250,000 Jews were put to death.〔 Demjanjuk denied all accusations and appealed the verdict. Shortly after Demjanjuk's death in 2012, the German Appellate Court announced that, because Demjanjuk died before his appeal could be heard, Demjanjuk had no criminal record, that his previous interim conviction by a lower court was annulled, and that Demjanjuk was innocent.〔Aderet, Ofer. Convicted Nazi criminal Demjanjuk deemed innocent in Germany over technicality. News article in HAARETZ Israeli News, March 23, 2013. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/convicted-nazi-criminal-demjanjuk-deemed-innocent-in-germany-over-technicality-1.420280〕 Following the Demjanjuk case, the Operation Last Chance team of investigators, attorneys, and German prosecutors began to focus on another Ukrainian national, a Nazi collaborator who had illegally sought and obtained refuge in the United States, John Kalymon. In 2007, as a result of prosecution by the Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice, a Federal District Court stripped John Kalymon of his United States citizenship for falsifying his background on his immigration documents and naturalization papers.〔See U.S. Department of Justice press release, ("Federal Court Revokes Citizenship of Nazi Policeman Who shot Jews" )〕 The District Court judge found that Kalymon had been a member of the Ukrainian auxiliary police and assisted the Nazis in the persecution of the Jewish population confined in the Lemberg ghetto until its liquidation in 1943. The Jewish population of Lemberg (Lwów, today Lviv, Ukraine) was the third largest Jewish community in Poland. In 2011, an immigration judge in Detroit found Kalymon removable for his misrepresentations, a finding affirmed on appeal. These courts affirmed the lower court's finding of fact, that during the course of his collaboration with the Germans, Kalymon had murdered at least one Jew and wounded at least one other while serving as a Ukrainian Policeman in the city. It was on this basis that his deportation was ordered. Like Demjanjuk, once the appellate process is exhausted, Kalymon "may be deported to Germany, Ukraine, Poland or any other country that will accept him..." based on the ruling of U.S. Immigration Court Judge Elizabeth Hacker. But even before that, Kalymon might sooner be facing extradition on war crimes charges as the investigation by Operation Last Chance continues and additional witnesses are being interviewed and charges are filed.〔Jakob Weiss, ''The Lemberg Mosaic'' (New York, Alderbrook Press 2011) p. 374〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Last Chance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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