Ukrainian police formation where Kalymon served. Photo: Deutsches Bundesarchiv
John Kalymon (born Ivan) served in the Nazi regime’s Ukrainian Auxiliary Police during the wartime occupation of Poland.
Kalymon, who is alleged to have shot Jews, volunteered for the Nazi forces in the city of Lwow (today Lviv, Ukraine).
The defendant served with the police from 1941-1944, following the Nazi expulsion of the Red Army, which had occupied Eastern Poland since September 1939.
The defendant claims that he did nothing more controversial than standing on patrol along various streets within the city, as well as guarding rooms in police stations.
Nevertheless, prosecutors cite a hand-written report of 14 August 1942, allegedly written by Kalymon, confirming the shooting of two Jews, one of whom was certified as a fatality.
The defendant had not declared that he had served in the Nazi police force when he emigrated to America from Germany in 1949.
“John Kalymon and his Ukrainian Police accomplices were indispensable participants in Nazi Germany’s campaign to exterminate the Jews of Europe during World War II,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at the hearing.
As one of Poland’s major cities, Lwow had housed approximately 110,000 Jews prior to the war.
The numbers swelled at the beginning of the conflict, with Jews fleeing the advancing German army.
The city was occupied first by the Soviets, but the arrival of the Nazis in 1941 sounded the death knell for Jewish Lwow. Only a few thousand Jews survived the ordeal, the majority of whom perished in death camps or in mass shootings outside the city.
Theoretically, Kalymon could be deported to Poland, Germany or Ukraine, depending on which country makes a committed case to put the former policeman on trial.
Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which is charged with investigating crimes against Polish citizens, is currently gathering evidence on the case.
If the trial goes ahead in Poland, it will be held in the south eastern city of Rzeszow. (nh/jb)
Source: Rzeczpospolita/CNN