Toronto family who unknowingly employed war criminal fears nothing has changed

globalnews.ca:

Almost 30 years ago, Gail Bocknek turned on the evening news and watched dumbfounded as a man who had worked for her family for decades was identified as a Nazi war criminal.

Bocknek, the daughter of European Jews who had many extended family members die in the Holocaust, felt sick.

“I was just glad that my parents didn’t live to see this,” Bocknek said in a recent interview.

The stomach-churning memories of that day resurfaced for Bocknek last fall when Canadian parliamentarians of all stripes unknowingly applauded a man who had fought with a Nazi unit in Ukraine.

And they resurfaced once again earlier this month when the Liberal government agreed to declassify 15 more pages from a 1985 report on Canada’s less-than-flattering history of allowing former Nazis into Canada and failing to prosecute or deport them when their crimes came to light.

Bocknek said although decades have passed, she is not convinced anything has changed. She has little confidence that Canada’s current laws are sufficient to keep out people who committed atrocities overseas.

“I’m just saying that they’ve got to be accountable and they have to protect us,” she said.

Bocknek said she was about six years old when her parents hired a housekeeper, Emma Tobiass, who became a fixture in their lives. Emma’s husband, Erichs Tobiass, was employed as a mechanic for a car dealership but also worked for the family regularly doing odd jobs and house sitting.

“They came and stayed with my brother and I when my parents were out of town,” she recalls.

When Bocknek married and had children of her own, Erichs and Emma Tobiass continued to work for her family as well, including looking after her children.

Bocknek said he was never a “warm man” but was also never cruel.