1/1 - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

'HISTORIANS ARE, IN ESSENCE, OUR INVESTIGATORS, BECAUSE A L.
DO IS AN HISTORICAL CHASE.
as "Serge." Neighbors said he and
his wife spent much of their time
entertaining their two daughters and
six grandchildren. It was, by most
accounts, the gentle kind of retire-
Hutyrczyk as a young man
ment many workers dream of.
But the Hutyrczyks' retirement
proved to be anything but blissful.
In 1990, Sergis Hutyrczyk was faced
with a new challenge in life—an attempt
to expel him from the country
he had called home since 1954.
The reason: Hutyrczyk was accused
of helping murder more than
20,000 Jews at a Nazi concentration
camp where he had been a
guard.
The man who sought to strip
Hutyrczyk of his U.S. citizenship
and deport him was Neal M. Sher
'68, the then-director of the U.S.
Department of Justice's Office of
Special Investigations, a 40-person
department that investigates, hunts
and brings legal action against suspected
Nazi war criminals. Though
its jurisdiction ends at U.S. borders,
the OSI has become the world's
central clearinghouse for information
on those who planned and
nearly carried out the extermination
of European Jews, gypsies and homosexuals.
Among the OSΓs targets
since its formation in 1978: former
Austrian president Kurt Waldheim,
who is now forbidden from entering
the United States; Cleveland
autoworker John Demjanjuk, accused
of operating the gas chambers
at Treblinka and earning the nickname
Ivan the Terrible (Demjanjuk
was deported to Israel and convicted
of war crimes; he's now back in
Ohio after the Israeli Supreme
Court overturned his death sentence
on appeal when doubt that he
was Ivan the Terrible gained credence);
and rocket scientist Arthur
Rudolph, who was deported years
after bringing with him to the United
States the secrets of Germany's
wartime V-2 rocket program. In its
15-year history, the OSI has denaturalized
45 citizens and deported 31
residents (some individuals are
counted in both categories). More
than 500 U.S. residents, most of
them men, are currently under investigation
and about 20 are now engaged
in legal proceedings. Of the
OSΓs cases that have reached a decision
in court, the agency has lost
only two.
n March of this
year, Sher resigned
his post at
OSI to become executive
director of
the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), one of
Washington's most potent lobbying
organizations. It is, in some respects,
a drastic change for Sher, a
gifted orator who often had to let
his legal work at OSI speak for itself.
In his new position, he is the
leading spokesman for a lobbying
group that makes its mark through
high visibility and constant com-
CORNELL MAGAZINE
36
munication with leaders in Washington
(unlike political action committees,
AIPAC gives no money to
politicians and issues no endorsements).
In his inaugural address March
13 at AIPAC's annual policy conference,
Sher said the transition is a
natural one. "OSI seeks justice for
the past, even though we all know
that full justice will never be attained,"
he told the conference.
"AIPAC gives hope for the future.
It gives added meaning to the millions
of sacrifices made during the
Holocaust. AIPAC's work honors
the memory of our martyrs, while
securing a brighter future for our
children and grandchildren."
The beginning of Sher's term at
AIPAC marked the end of an historic
11-year tenure as OSΓs leader.
He had joined the agency a year after
an appeals court overturned a
denaturalization order when evidence
emerged to cast doubt on the
government's case. He left OSI with
the agency's most controversial
case, that of Demjanjuk, unresolved.
But Sher's uncompromising tenacity
set an enduring standard for
Nazi-hunting efforts in the United
States and around the world.
"What is remarkable is that the
fire never went out in his belly.
Even after nearly 15 years of investigating
and prosecuting these
cases, he could still get angry when
he saw the evidence in a new case,"
recalls Eli Rosenbaum, Sher's longtime
deputy, who is now acting director
of the OSI. "I do not think
the world has ever seen, or ever will
see a more dedicated, more able or
more successful pursuer of Nazi war
criminals than Neal Sher."
The OSΓs zealous pursuit of alleged
Nazi persecutors has given
Sher, 46, a degree of worldwide recognition
he never anticipated when
he entered the legal profession. His
numerous honors include awards
from the Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith and the Warsaw Ghetto
Resistance Organization. "He and