OTTAWA -- OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of an elderly man whose Canadian citizenship was revoked for lying about his membership in a Second World War Nazi death squad.
The decision Thursday moves Helmut Oberlander, 95, one step closer to possible deportation.
Oberlander was a member of a Nazi squad, the Ek 10a, which operated behind the German army's front line in the eastern occupied territories during the war.
It was part of a force responsible for killing more than two million people, most of them Jews.
Oberlander, who was born in Ukraine, says he was conscripted into duty as a teenager and that the penalty for desertion was execution.
He served with the Ek 10a as an interpreter from 1941 to 1943. Living and travelling full-time with the unit, his responsibilities also included finding and protecting food and polishing boots. He later served as an infantryman in the German army.
Oberlander says he never participated in any atrocities.
He and his wife came to Canada in 1954. Oberlander became a Canadian citizen six years later. He did not disclose his wartime experience when he applied to emigrate, upon entering Canada or when seeking citizenship.
The retired real-estate developer, who lives in Waterloo, Ont., has been fighting federal attempts to revoke his citizenship and deport him since 1995.
As usual, the Supreme Court did not provide any reasons for its decision not to hear his latest appeal.
