By: Daniel Nardini

The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently provided documentation to the Hungarian authorities about a Hungarian who collaborated with the Nazis in the deportation of Jews from Hungary in 1944. The accused, named Laszlo Csatary, was the chief of police of the Royal Hungarian Police in charge of the Budapest Jewish ghetto. He helped the Germans organize and ship all of 15,700 Jews from the ghetto to the Auschwitz death camp where they were all killed. In 1948 Csatary fled Hungary for Canada where he pretended to be a Yugoslav refugee. He eventually gained Canadian citizenship in 1955, and he settled in Montreal where he became an art dealer. In 1997, his true identity was discovered by the Canadian government, and he was stripped of his citizenship and deported back to Hungary. Until 2012, Csatary had disappeared until his whereabouts were discovered by the British Sun newspaper.

Csatary was born between 1913 and 1914, so he is close to 100 years old. However, I have no problem with him being prosecuted for crimes against humanity no matter how old he is. But the sad truth is that no Communist leader or even foot soldier has ever been prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Why? One reason is, sadly, there are Communist regimes that are still very much in existence. As long as they stay in existence then they will make sure that no one, and I mean no one, will ever touch those Communists guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, or atrocities committed whether in war or peace. The U.S. government itself has tried, convicted and deported many former Nazis and those who collaborated with the Nazis, but never with the Communists. While strangely enough there is a provision in U.S. immigration law that those who belonged to Communist organizations can be stripped of their U.S. citizenship, this provision (a relic from the 1950’s) has never been implemented. Think of all the Chinese who came to America and became U.S. citizens. All of these people were of course forced to join some Communist organization such as the Young Communist League. But I can also bet that some of them joined the Chinese Communist Party and may have held important positions in that Party! Personally, I do not blame those Chinese who were forced to join Communist organizations—what choice did they have? But I do blame those who voluntarily joined the Chinese Communist Party and are guilty of crimes against the innocent. These people should be prosecuted.

The crimes committed by the Communists is on a scale that dwarfs whatever the Nazis did. Worse, crimes against humanity and atrocities are still being committed by the Communists today. Think of all the labor camps still in existence in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. Think of all the innocent people who have been and are still being put away for their political or religious views. Think of all those who have been executed just because they simply disagreed with the Communist regime in power. And think about the wars that we fought against the Communists (Korea and Vietnam) where American soldiers were taken prisoner only to be tortured, brutalized and killed by their Communist captors. Not one Communist leader or Communist soldier has ever been charged with a war crime by the United States even though there are documented cases of war crimes having been committed by the Chinese and North Koreans (in the Korean War. All evidence gathered by the United Nations), and by the Vietnamese Communists. I find it a double standard that this country still goes after Nazi war criminals who committed atrocities a long time ago, but will not do anything about Communists who are still committing crimes against humanity today (never mind long time ago). It truly makes me sad.