Germans Find Hidden Nazi Gold

Klaas Carel Faber can continue to live in freedom in Germany

(AP) - An 89-year-old German man considered one of the most prominent Nazi war crimes suspects alive won't be extradited to the Netherlands and can continue to live in freedom, according to German officials. Klaas Carel Faber was convicted in 1947 of complicity in 22 murders and for aiding the Netherlands' Nazi occupiers during World War II. He was handed a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison, at least until he escaped in 1952, and fled to Germany where he has lived in freedom ever since. More»

88-year-old who killed Dutch civilians faces German court

(NEWSER) - A Dutch Nazi collaborator who killed his countrymen in reprisals for anti-German actions has gone on trial in Germany. Heinrich Boere, 88, has admitted gunning down three civilians as part of a Waffen SS death squad. He fled to Germany after the war and dodged extradition attempts for years. Prosecutors took a renewed interest in the case after Boere boasted to a documentary filmmaker: "I don't feel guilty. That's why I have always made sure they couldn't catch me." More»

Hitler ordered Porsche to replicated Josef Ganz's prototype

(NEWSER) - Adolf Hitler took the original design for the Volkswagen Beetle from the brainchild of a Jewish engineer, the Jerusalem Post reports. Historian Paul Schilperoord claims in his forthcoming book The True History of the Beetle that a prototype Josef Ganz designed in the late '20s had many of the Beetle’s distinctive features, such as a rear-mounted engine. He even called the completed prototype, constructed in 1931, the Maikäfer, or "May-Beetle." More»

Leaders gather at Polish fort where Nazis launched blitzkreig

(NEWSER) - Polish leaders gathered at dawn today at the fort the Nazis attacked to begin World War II exactly 70 years ago, the BBC reports. A German battleship attacked Westerplatte on September 1, 1939, as German troops launched a blitzkreig attack on three fronts. The invasion triggered declarations of war from Britain and France and within a month, Poland had been split between Germany and the Soviet Union. More»

(NEWSER) - A former commander in Adolf Hitler's army has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a massacre in Italy he ordered 65 years ago, the BBC reports. In what is expected to be one of the very last Nazi trials, a Munich court found Joseph Scheungraber guilty of murder in the killing of 10 Italian civilians in reprisal for partisan attacks. The victims were herded into a barn, which was then blown up. A 15-year-boy survived and testified at Scheungraber's trial. More»