Former Ontario-based Nazi Death Squad Member Dies Before Deportation | The Canadian News

Former Nazi death squad member Helmut Oberlander who had been living in Waterloo, Ontario, died in the middle of his Canadian deportation hearing.

His family say the 97-year-old man died peacefully at home “surrounded by loved ones.”

A lawyer for Oberlander recently asked the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board for a postponement of a hearing on whether Oberlander could remain in Canada or be deported to Germany.

Oberlander was a member of a Nazi death squad that operated behind the front lines of the German army in the occupied eastern territories during World War II.

He said he was drafted into the service as a teenager under threat of death and that he never participated in any murder.

Oberlander served from 1941 to 1943 as an interpreter with the Ek 10a unit, which was responsible for killing more than two million people, most of them Jews.

He came to Canada in 1954 and became a Canadian citizen six years later, but did not reveal his wartime experience to his new country.

In June 2017, the federal government revoked Oberlander’s Canadian citizenship for the fourth time since the mid-1990s.

Oberlander’s attorney, Ronald Poulton, had previously told the board that his client’s health was declining and he was not expected to survive long beyond the summer.