94-yr-old Nazi commander found living in US since World War II end

A high-ranking Nazi SS-led unit official allegedly involved in burning villages filled with women and children has been reportedly found living in Minnesota, US since the World War II end.

Michael Karkoc, 94, had lied to US immigration department about his SS unit service that had committed war crimes in Poland in a bid to enter US soil in 1949, Sky News reports.

According to the report, the Ukrainian Nazi commander had not revealed his duties as the founding member of the Ukrainian Self Defence Legion and an officer with the SS Galician Division.

The report said that both the Galician Division and the Ukrainian nationalist organization had been secretly blacklisted by the US government and the members of both the institutes were forbidden from entering US at the time.

Although records have not confirmed Karkoc's involvement in the war crimes, but his unit members and other documentation revealed that the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, suggesting that Karkoc had led the company to these atrocities although Karkoc had refused to discuss his wartime past at his home in Minneapolis.

The US Department of Justice has used lies about war services made in immigration papers to deport several suspected Nazi war criminals and proofs about

Karkoc's wartime activities have made the German authorities express their desire in exploring the matter for prosecution.

The lead Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem Efraim Zuroff said that the evidence showing Karkoc lied to American officials and that his unit carried out atrocities is strong enough for deportation and war-crimes prosecution in Germany or Poland as Nazis with 'command responsibility' can be charged with war crimes in Germany even if their direct involvement in atrocities is not proven.