MONTREAL - Fifty-five years later, Adalbert Lallier came face-to-face with the man he had witnessed cold-bloodedly shooting to death seven Jewish prisoners as they dug a ditch near the Theresienstadt concentration camp. It was March 1945 and the Soviet army was advancing. The Germans used the ready supply of slave labour from the camp to build a tank trap.
Lallier was a 19-year-old Waffen SS officer-in-training with the detail overseeing the work party in Leitmeritz, Czechoslovakia. Suddenly and without provocation, his immediate superior, an SS lieutenant, Julius Viel, raised his rifle and randomly shot the seven Jews.
Last month, Lallier, now 75 and a retired Concordia University professor, was in Stuttgart, Germany, to testify for the fourth time in two years before the Nazi war crimes prosecutor about what he saw.
Lallier is the principal witness in the case against Viel, 82, who was arrested last October on the strength of Lallier's evidence. As a result of Lallier's latest testimony, Viel was charged in July with the killings of the seven men. No date has been set, but the trial is expected to begin this fall.
An unusual step was taken in having Viel meet his accuser, Lallier, before the case goes to court. Lallier said their meeting, in the presence of the chief prosecutor and Viel's lawyer, lasted about two hours.
"There was no mistaking this was the same man. Viel had been my direct superior for 31/2 months [before the shooting] at the officers' academy," Lallier said in an interview.
While he is not permitted to talk about specifics of what was said, Lallier described the atmosphere as "incredibly tense," but "no one raised their voice." Both men were permitted to directly ask questions of the other.
"Viel is not an old broken-down man. I instantly recognized him. He is in good physical and mental shape. He is ram-rod straight and has a very determined, stern face," Lallier said. "I put him on the spot. He could not look at me. He only glanced at me a couple of times." Viel showed no shame or remorse, he said. Viel has denied he shot the Jews and that he was even in Leitmeritz when the deaths occurred.
"I'm elated that the Germans have finally charged Viel. I think at first they thought I was crazy: Who is this professor from Montreal making accusations? Now they are convinced there is proof," said Lallier, who has "agonized" for decades about what happened and has borne a tremendous sense of guilt for not having been able to stop it. "My nightmares have ended and I am finally at peace with myself." (No action was taken against Viel at the time, although the incident may have been witnessed by hundreds. Germany brought charges against Viel in 1964, but the case was dropped when the chief witness died before the trial.)
Lallier made his latest trip to Germany with Steven Rambam, the New York private investigator who in 1997 came to Canada to expose suspected Nazi war criminals living with impunity here. Rambam was also trying to gather evidence against Viel.
Lallier, who was still teaching at Concordia, came forward to tell Rambam his story. Lallier had believed Viel had been killed before the end of the war, and was surprised to learn from Rambam that he was living as a respected citizen in the village of Wangen im Allgau and had been a successful journalist with the Stuttgarter Zeitung. In 1983, Viel received the Federal Service Cross, the German government's highest civilian honour. His defence lawyer is a former parliamentarian.
"Lallier's last testimony was absolutely critical in finally getting Viel charged," Rambam said. "Four days afterward, Viel was indicted." Rambam had been concerned that Viel would be let go for lack of a corroboration, but one other person, a former Theresienstadt inmate with relevant information, although not an eye-witness, came forward recently. Additional documentary evidence has also been gathered.
"Adalbert Lallier is a terrifically brave individual. He had no legal obligation to come forward. He is not even remotely suspected of any improper act. He has acted on the dictates of his conscience and has continued to co-operate despite what he has gone through.The Jewish community owes him a real debt of gratitude," Rambam said.
Lallier says the price he has had to pay includes his unplanned "retirement" from Concordia, loss of friends and living under a cloud of suspicion for having an SS past. He is also worried about his physical safety.
Hungarian-born Lallier, who is of French Huguenot origin, says he was forcibly inducted into the SS at 17. Taken as a POW by the British at war's end, he says he told a U.S. general named Brown, who was with the counter-intelligence corps, about the shootings. "He advised me that I could help more Jews by working for the International Refugee Organization, which I did for 11/2 years. During that time, I sent hundreds of Jews to Canada." With his contacts at the Canadian consulate in Vienna, Lallier secured a visa to study here and immigrated in 1951, having disclosed his SS affiliation. Lallier, who has two children and two grandchildren, taught at Concordia from 1960 until last year. "I have no regrets about coming out. I will spend the rest of my days as a living reminder of what happened in the Holocaust." One tangible contribution he wants to make is to erect a monument on his farm in the Eastern
Townships to the victims.
The seven dead and their birth years are: Ladislav Kras, 1917; Wilhelm Kaufmann, 1915; Victor Shutz, 1902; Victor Stern, 1891; Joshua Baruch, 1921; Severin Klastimel, 1896; and Robert Friedmann, 1899.