Kids & Family
Minnetonka Concentration Camp Survivor: Ex-Nazi Should be Tried
Sam Rafowitz, 88, was 15 when he was put in a concentration camp.
A Minnetonka man who survived four years in Nazi concentration camps is asking for the trial of a Minnesota man recently identified as a top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children, the Associated Press reported.
Sam Rafowitz, 88, was 15 when soldiers took him from Warsaw and put him in a concentration camp—and he said he hasn’t forgotten the misery he went through during that time.
Rafowitz got a fresh reminder of that misery Friday when the Associated Press broke the story of 94-year-old Michael Karkoc.Karkoc denied performing any military service during World War II when he immigrated in 1949. But evidence that the Associated Press uncovered showed that he concealed his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division.
According to the AP:
“Though records do not show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader. Nazi SS files say he and his unit were also involved in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation.”
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Rafowitz said Karkoc should face trial simply because he lied. The Minnetonka man isn't the only one who thinks Karkoc should face a tough sentence. State Rep. Steve Simon, whose district includes Hopkins and St. Louis Park, tweeted that his crimes are "worthy of death penalty."
Click here to read the full AP story.
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