22 September 2006
A German woman who for more than 60 years had kept secret her role as a Nazi concentration camp guard, never telling her Jewish husband, has been deported from America after officials uncovered her past. Elfriede Rinkel, 84, described as a "nice, sweet lady'' by neighbors in San Francisco, admitted working with an SS-trained attack dog at the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp north of Berlin, where an estimated 90,000 people, many of them Jews, died during World War II. According to the US Department of Justice, Rinkel was a guard at the camp from June 1944 until it was abandoned by the Nazis in April 1945. More than 10,000 women died during the last year of the war, some after being sent to the gas chamber or following medical experiments, others from starvation and disease. When questioned, Rinkel, who was not a member of the Nazi party, claimed she never used her dog as a weapon against the prisoners. She said she had volunteered to be a dog handler because it paid more than her job as a factory worker. Relatives of the woman, whose late husband was a German Jew who fled the Holocaust, expressed shock at the revelation, which came to light with the release of court documents. Rinkel left America three weeks ago, telling friends and family that she was returning to Germany because of problems with her San Francisco flat.
Meanwhile, proceedings in Australia to extradite to Hungary a man accused of torturing and slaying a Jewish teenager during World War II have been delayed after the man lodged an appeal. Charles Zentai, 84, has been under investigation by Hungary's Foreign Ministry since December 2004 on suspicion of murdering the 18-year-old Peter Balazs on 8 November 1944 for failing to wear a yellow star identifying him as a Jew. It is alleged that Zentai tortured and beat Balazs to death in a Budapest army barracks. Zentai, who emigrated to Australia in 1950 and became an Australian citizen soon after, has denied that claim. He appeared briefly in Perth Magistrate's Court, where his lawyer said the accused had lodged an appeal against a Federal Court ruling that dismissed his challenge to the extradition proceedings. The chief magistrate adjourned the hearing until December.
