ACCUSATIONS THAT MICHAEL KARKOK WAS IN CHARGE OF AN SS UNIT THAT KILLED POLISH WOMEN AND CHILDREN BLAMED ON PUTIN

Poland says years of evidence PROVES Minnesota man, 98, was infamous Nazi commander accused of burning villages and massacring 44 civilians including women and children

Associated Press
March 13, 2017

A state prosecutor in Poland says that evidence shows without doubt that a Minneapolis man was a Nazi unit commander suspected of contributing to the death of 44 Poles.

Robert Janicki said that years of investigation into US citizen 'Michael K' confirmed '100 per cent' that he was in charge of an SS unit accused of burning villages and killing civilians during the Second World War.

Michael K has been identified as Michael Karkoc, 98, whose family deny he was involved in war crimes. He may now face extradition.

Documents show that a Michael Karkoc, born March 6, 1919 in Lutsk, Ukraine, was the commander of a unit in the Ukranian Self Defense Legion.

The unit of which he was lieutenant allegedly participated in massacres at the Polish villages of Chłaniów and Władysławin on July 23, 1944.

The massacres - which saw women and children murdered - were ordered in retaliation for the killing of a single SS officer.

Official records don't say that he was responsible for the massacres, but statements from men in his unit and other documentation suggest he was present during the massacres.

An investigation by Associated Press (AP) also revealed evidence in 2014 that Karkoc, then just 25, had ordered the murders himself, contradicting statements by his family that he wasn't present.

Karkoc himself denies the claims, but also told the AP in 2014 that he 'couldn't explain' what he did in the war.

Speaking on Monday, Karkoc's son, Andriy Karkoc made the bold claim that claims about his father being a Nazi are 'misinformation or disinformation' from Vladimir Putin's government.

He claims his father was never in Poland and that the AP was trading in 'scandalous and baseless slanders' and 'letting itself be used as a tool for Putin's fake news.'

It is unclear why he thinks Putin's government would slander his father.

Prosecutors of the state National Remembrance Institute have asked a local court in Poland to issue an arrest warrant for Karkoc.

If granted, Poland would seek his extradition, Janicki said.

Nazi documents show Karkoc applied for German citizenship in 1940 but was declined due to a lack of German language skills, instead being given a pass stating that he was an 'ethnic German.'

He then became an SS officer, during which time the unit he oversaw also took part in suppressing the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944.

The Uprising saw the Polish resistance Home Army trying to liberate Warsaw in a 63-day siege that ended when they were crushed because expected Soviet reinforcements stopped short of the city center.

Following the war, Karkoc ended up in a camp for displaced people in Neu Ulm, Germany, according to documents obtained from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

He emigrated to the US with his two sons in 1949; his wife had died the year before.

In a background check by US officials on April 14, 1949, Karkoc said he had never performed any military service.

He told investigators that he 'worked for father until 1944. Worked in labor camp from 1944 until 1945.'

After he arrived in Minneapolis, Karkoc remarried and had four more children, the last of whom was born in 1966.

He now lives in a Ukranian-dominant area of Minneapolis.

A longtime member of the Ukrainian National Association, Karkoc has been closely involved in community affairs over the past decades and was identified in a 2002 article in a Ukrainian-American publication as a 'longtime UNA activist.'