'Nice, Sweet Lady,' 83, Deported for Nazi Past

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 20, 2006 | By Richard A. Serrano

[Al Gator]

The former SS guard kept her secret buried, even from her Jewish husband. Now exposed, the Bay Area widow, 83, is back in Germany.

WASHINGTON — She lived alone in a tiny, top-floor apartment in one of the tougher sections of San Francisco. At 83, she was short and a bit stout. Diabetes took the sight in one of her eyes; arthritis left her leaning heavily on a cane. For long trips, she took a taxi.

Her husband had died. He was the love of her long life, a short, dapper man who had worked as a bartender and waiter at some of the city's larger hotels and was active in Jewish activities. They buried him in a Jewish cemetery outside the city.

He had been gone just a short while when two officials from the Justice Department in Washington knocked on her door. They confronted her with a terrible secret that all these years she had managed to keep from him.

In Germany during World War II, a much younger Elfriede Lina Rinkel, then single, a girl with blue eyes and striking red hair, had worked as an SS guard at one of the Nazi regime's infamous concentration camps. Called Ravensbruck, it was a slave labor prison for women, and during the year she worked there with a trained attack dog more than 10,000 women died.

Some succumbed to starvation and disease. Others were gassed. More died after cruel medical experiments. Some perished from sheer exhaustion.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that the woman with the pleasant smile and the German accent had been deported to Germany. She admitted that she had lied on her U.S. visa application.

[Al Gator]

We just CAN'T deport 12 million illegals who are rioting in our streets right under our noses, despoiling our social system and bankrupting our taxpayers.

BUT, we can spend all the money in the world to track down and destroy a little old lady who may or may not have been a BAD PERSON over 65 years ago.

What is reality?

[dfwgator]

BUT, we can spend all the money in the world to track down and destroy a little old lady who may or may not have been a BAD PERSON over 65 years ago.

Sorry, no sympathy from me. Die Nazi Scum!

[MikefromOhio]

Let's see here...

Which, to you, is worse?

Participating in mass genocide or sneaking, albeit illegally, across the border?

BTW she lied to get into this country anyway, so that, in a way, nullifies your illegals comment in the first place.

[woofie]

Take this case and multiply by 12 million

[steve-b]

We just CAN'T deport 12 million illegals

What are you complaining about? This act IS deporting an illegal alien.

[weegee]

And Gunther Grass hid his own Nazi past for much of his life until he got a contract for a tell all book.

Hope he's barred any further entry into this country.

[SF Republican]

Die Nazi Scum!
do you feel the same about the Pope?

[weegee]

She lied on her application but at least she filed the paperwork unlike many of the 11million.

[dead]

In Germany during World War II, a much younger Elfriede Lina Rinkel, then single, a girl with blue eyes and striking red hair, had worked as an SS guard at one of the Nazi regime's infamous concentration camps. Called Ravensbruck, it was a slave labor prison for women, and during the year she worked there with a trained attack dog more than 10,000 women died.

They should have made her swim back to Germany.

[Al Gator]

You have missed the point.

We have illegals thumbing their noses at us, and we just can't deport them, but this old bat, who will probably be dead in a year or two, we spend years and millions on.

This is stupid.

[steve-b]

BTW she lied to get into this country anyway, so that, in a way, nullifies your illegals comment in the first place.

GMTA. The only difference between her and any other illegal alien is that Pat Buchanan doesn't want to deport her.

[dfwgator]

We barred Kurt Waldheim from entry into the US, so I would hope we would do the same to Grass.

[weegee]

Peter Jennings lied on his application too. He was to renounce his Canadian citizenship but he still proudly declared himself to be a Canadian citizen.

[wideawake]

So, in your moral hierarchy, illegally crossing a border to work as a dishwasher is a worse offense than actively participating in the murder of 6 million innocent people.

You need to bring your conscience into the shop - looks like it might be totalled.

[weegee]

What's more, we have ACTIVE Islamonazi antisemites in this country and there isn't the same will to deport.

[ChiTownBearFan]

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na...Heyheyhey...GOODBYE!!!

[Alberta's Child]

BTW she lied to get into this country anyway . . .

So what? If she had been a Nazi rocket scientist, she wouldn't have needed to lie at all -- because the U.S. government would have done all the lying for her (and fabricated a new identity for her, too).

[dfwgator]

we spend years and millions on.

I agree there. We should have never let that Nazi into the country in the first place. But still, better late than never.

[wideawake]

The comments by the Buchananite lunatics on this thread boggle the imagination.

[CheneyChick]

Diabetes took the sight in one of her eyes; arthritis left her leaning heavily on a cane.

Definitely sounds like a threat to the community. < / sarcasm>

[Gay State Conservative]

In cases like this,the question that occurs to me is just how much choice did she have as to what she would and wouldn't do during the war.This question,IMO,could only be applied to low level people...privates rather than colonels and generals.

[weegee]

Hollyweird honored Leni Riefenstahl at the Oscars a few years back when she died. Some have repeatedly tried to make excuses for her role in the Nazi propaganda machine.

She certainly had a choice. Fritz Lang was offered the job, refused, and got the hell out of Nazi Germany. I believe he even left his Nazi leaning wife there.

[dfwgator]

Did the Pope work at a Concentration Camp?

[MikefromOhio]

So she's on par with illegal aliens AND an MSM reporter.

Glad she's gone :)

[Vigilanteman]

Yep, and we can't spend any time finding and deporting MODERN NAZIS a/k/a Islamofacists. < / sarcasm>

On the bright side, Germany HAS to take her back and give her all the benefits of the nanny state, including socialized medicine.

[thoughtomator]

Psst... she is an illegal alien. Ex-Nazis are not allowed to come to the USA, and were not allowed when she arrived, either.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that participating in the Nazi extermination programs should continue to have consequences, even 60 years later.

[dfwgator]

People didn't get drafted into the SS, they volunteered. A little bit different than serving in the Wehrmacht. I make the distinction there.

[MikefromOhio]

So what? If she had been a Nazi rocket scientist, she wouldn't have needed to lie at all -- because the U.S. government would have done all the lying for her (and fabricated a new identity for her, too).

Oh yeah. Rocket scientist vs. guard at a death camp. No I don't see a difference there at all....

[ChiTownBearFan]

No, anybody who reports or believes this is flat out lying,he was a member of the Hitler Youth, which most young German boys were forced to be apart of, he fled the Nazis in 1943 I believe

[Al Gator]

Man are you dense.

We are NOT talking moral equivalence here.

We are talking about national security priorities.

12 million illegals rioting in our streets threatening our country are far more deserving of immigration resources than some old lady at the end of her life.

How many illegal islamofascists, who want to kill us, could we have deported with the money we spent deporting a decrepit invalid who couldn't harm us is she tried?

Seems you're the one who needs an adjustment.

[dfwgator]

German boys were forced to be apart of, he fled the Nazis in 1943 I believe

When he was 15.

[oyez]

Somethings we get stuck in the past, thinking that capturing and deporting/convicting an old Nazi is going to make things better. We need to get stuck in the present and future. There far more dangerous specimens here that are plotting and waiting to strike, while our law enforcement agencies have worry about their civil rights than the evil they spin... ,

[Samwise]

Called Ravensbruck, it was a slave labor prison for women, and during the year she worked there with a trained attack dog more than 10,000 women died.

Who has missed the point?

[weegee]

We let ex-Nazis into this country. It is a mistake to believe that our government had a zero tolerance for Nazis. Even for Nazi criminals.

Certainly our space program benefited from the work of German rocket scientists.

Mildred Gillars was American born but served the Nazi propaganda machine as a vile radio broadcaster who aired her show in English from Nazi Germany. She was arrested after the war and detained for several years before being put on trial (and convicted) for treason.

She served a number of years (7 of 12?) and then worked as a private school teacher in America.

AND THIS WAS SOMEONE CONVICTED OF TREASON FOR WORKING WITH THE NAZIS.

This woman wasn't a saint but the focus may be misdirected.

[Rutles4Ever]

She hasn't paid her debt to society. I'm not saying she should be executed at this point, but deportation is a walk-in-the-park compared to what the monsters at Nuremberg got.

Calling her a sweet lady is obscene.

[COEXERJ145]

The only difference between her and any other illegal alien is that Pat Buchanan doesn't want to deport her.

ROFLMAO! So true.

[ChiTownBearFan]

Exactly, people who judge him for that are horribly misguided and everytime I hear some cynical liberal talk as though he were a direct advisor to Hitler, well lets just say its hard to restrain myself.

[wideawake]

A small team of Nazi rocket engineers were allowed to emigrate to America by the US government in order to prevent their expertise from falling into Soviet hands.

None of them had fake identities, but lived in the US under their own birth names.

Their immigration documents were not fabricated but fully disclosed their work for the Wehrmacht, their membership in the Nazi party, their participation in the denazification process, and their work in developing the V-2.

There's no reason to slander the US government for intelligently moving, with complete transparency, to secure the best defense technology that Germany had to offer.

[FightThePower!]

The only good ex nazi is a dead ex nazi, I say hang her!

[dfwgator]

Somehow I don't think exporting this witch is going to make a single bit of difference one way or the other in regards to the other threats. Deporting her was the right thing to do, period.

[weegee]

CNN kept quiet about torture and abuse under Saddam Hussein to maintain their Baghdad bureau. I sincerly hope the new Iraqi government puts those Saddamites at CNN on trial for aiding evil.

The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read] (The New York Times - 04/11/03 - EASON JORDAN)

[threeleftsmakearight]

I once heard a story that one of Buchanan's relatives died at a Nazi concentration camp.............he fell from a guard tower.

[weegee]

What about the Japanese doctors who performed medical attrocities at Camp 731?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

After Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupation.

At the end of the war he secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological weapons. The United States believed that the research data were valuable because the allies had never publicly conducted or condoned such experiments on humans due to moral and political revulsion . The U.S. also did not want other nations, particularly the Soviet Union to acquire data on biological weapons, not to mention the military benefits of such research.

[weegee]

Do we take the same position on Soviet guards who worked at political gulags?

[Samwise]

I was looking for that link the other day. I bookmarked it this time.

[weegee]

Well the NSA does like to profile gray haired old ladies...

[weegee]

Read the thread for numerous examples of ex-Nazis, including those CONVICTED by our own government, residing in America.

[dead]

So what? If she had been a Nazi rocket scientist, she wouldn't have needed to lie at all -- because the U.S. government would have done all the lying for her (and fabricated a new identity for her, too).

They did not get new identities ("Oh this guy, he didn't used to be a rocket scientist, he used to be a bartender. We brought him to America, and now he's just happens to be the best rocket scientist in the world. But, really, he used to be a bartender in Germany, not a rocket scientist.")

Besides, we had another war to win.

[weegee]

The "rocket scientists" were making the missiles that were bombarding Europe.