Argentina Considering Extraditing Ex-nazi War Criminal to W. Germany

Jewish Telegraphic Agency published 07/07/1977 by Asher Mibashan

Buenos Aires, Jul. 6 (JTA) – The Argentine government has agreed to consider a request from West Germany that it extradite a German accused of Nazi war crimes who has been living in Argentina since 1948. The German, Eduard Roschmann, allegedly was the commander of a death camp in the Riga area in which 40,000 Jews were killed.

The government had first issued a statement on July 4 which said it "decided to accept the request" from West Germany to extradite Roschmann. But yesterday, a second statement was released saying "the national government has only agreed to give due process" to the request. Police sources said the 69-year-old Roschmann has not been arrested.

According to official sources, Roschmann entered Argentina in 1948 with a passport in the name of Fritz Wegner. During the war, he was in the Riga area first as an SS assault leader, head of the Jewish section of the security police and then commander of the Riga Ghetto. He was tried in absentia in Hamburg and found guilty of multiple murders carried out between 1941 and 1944.