Bohdan Koziy
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2011) |
Bohdan Koziy | |
|---|---|
Богдан Козій | |
| Born | Bohdan Kozii February 23, 1923 Pukasivtsi, Second Polish Republic (now Ukraine) |
| Died | November 30, 2003 (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Suspected war criminal |
Bohdan Koziy (Ukrainian: Богдан Козій, romanized: Bohdan Koziy; February 23, 1923 – November 30, 2003[1]) was a Ukrainian suspected war criminal and allegedly a member of the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), a Nazi German mobile police force that operated in the General Government on July 27, 1941. The name of the unit reflected its geographic jurisdiction.
Wartime activities
[edit]Koziy was born in the town of Pukasivtsi, then in eastern Poland (now in Ukraine). Between 1939 and 1944, Koziy was alleged to be a member of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. He was allegedly involved in the displacing of Jews into ghettos. He allegedly shot Bernard Kandler, who had tried to escape from a truck that was taking him to a ghetto; Lusi Rosiner, a fourteen-year-old hiding in a barn, and the four-year-old Monica Singer. [citation needed]
In 1944, fleeing the Soviet advance, Koziy and his family moved to Heide, Germany, where he worked as a farm hand. After Nazi Germany's surrender in 1945, the Koziys lived in a variety of displaced persons camps. [citation needed]
In the United States
[edit]After the Displaced Persons Commission interviewed Koziy, he was granted permission to enter the United States on 17 December 1949, under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. On 25 April 1955, Koziy filed his application to file a petition for naturalization. On 25 July 1955, he filed a petition for naturalization and on 9 February 1956, Bohdan Koziy became an American citizen.
On 20 November 1979, the United States requested the cancellation of Koziy's certificate of naturalization on the grounds that Koziy had illegally procured his citizenship by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation by failing to disclose his involvement in the occupational police in Ukraine. Koziy denied involvement in the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and contended his actions were insufficient to support revocation of his citizenship. However, his citizenship was revoked on the basis of testimonies of Polish witnesses in a court hearing on 29 March 1982.
Subsequent investigation
[edit]Koziy moved to Costa Rica in 1985. On 23 September 2002, the Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Katowice initiated an investigation into the case of a Nazi crime committed in Łysiec in the Stanisławów Voivodeship. Bohdan Koziy was accused of the murder of three Jews: Bernard Kandler, Lusi Rosiner and Monica Singer.
On 21 November 2003, the Polish authorities turned to the government of Costa Rica demanding Koziy's arrest and extradition. The Costa Rican court granted the deportation order but Koziy died soon after on 30 November 2003, while in hospital in San José, from a stroke.[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Awaiting extradition, Bohdan Koziy dies (12/07/03)". www.ukrweekly.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-01.
- ^ "Awaiting extradition, Bohdan Koziy dies". The Ukrainian Weekly. 7 December 2003. Archived from the original on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
Sources
[edit]- 1923 births
- 2003 deaths
- Holocaust perpetrators in Ukraine
- People from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
- Loss of United States citizenship and deportation by prior Nazi affiliation
- Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
- Soviet emigrants to the United States
- Ukrainian emigrants to the United States
- Ukrainian exiles
- Ukrainian war criminals
- Polish emigrants
- Immigrants to Costa Rica