Nazi hunters find new purpose in other evils

In human history, there has been no clearer juxtaposition of good and evil than the Allies and the Axis. As the driving force of the latter, the Nazis were unarguably evil – in ethical, moral, political, and spiritual terms. On a large scale, their defeat by Allied forces was epic. On a small scale, the Nuremberg Trials, and others like them, were cathartic. But operating under the philosophy that individuals are responsible evil actions, our Department of Justice has been continuing to hunt evasive Nazi criminals.

The Office of Special Investigations has had great success, but as the temporal buffer between WWII and the present quickly grows, the mission of punishing Nazis who have remained hidden cedes to the consequences of old age. Our government has a tendency of forgetting lessons learned, so it would be conceivable that as the last few Nazis die off, the DOJ would simply close this office.

Fortunately, the ethics of accountability have transcended WWII and pushed the DOJ to pursue war criminals of equal ferociousness from other atrocities.

OSI leaders say they are aggressively shifting their focus to fresh cases, which now make up the bulk of the workload. The French historian is reading about Africa; investigators who studied Hungarian are practicing Balkan languages; and plans are afoot to hire a Swahili linguist. They are all scouring government records, diplomatic cables, refugee statements and truth commission reports for leads on alleged perpetrators from every part of the world who may have relocated to the United States.

The the Post’s article cites an office that has steadied from a previously shrinking staff, but hopefully this publicity will encourage the DOJ to step up its efforts and oblige its legal and moral duties to hold the worst human beings accountable for their actions. While the UN twiddles its thumbs and our military is bound to action appropriate for its scale, it is encouraging to know that terrible things are not simply forgotten.