(2 of 2)
The proceedings became the most drawn-out in postwar Dutch history. Menten had influential friends. His chief defense lawyer was the speaker of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. When the controversial trial ended in 1949, Menten got off with serving only an eight-month term for having worked in uniform as a Nazi interpreter. Later, Dutch prosecutors ignored allegations by an Israeli journalist that Menten had taken part in the East Galician atrocities. Two years later, in 1951, the Dutch government also brushed aside a Polish request for Menten's extradition.
Menten grew progressively richer by speculating in stocks and art objects, filling his 20-room mansion with more art works (his collection includes paintings by Nicolaes Maes, Francisco Goya and Jan Sluyters), and building up millions of dollars in real estate holdings. His undoing began last spring with publicity that the firm of Sotheby-Mak Van Waay would auction part of Menten's art collection in Amsterdam. The same Israeli journalist, Haviv Kanaan, who had been accumulating evidence against Menten for decades, alerted the Dutch press and, once again, the government. The press, led by Hans Knoop, editor of the weekly magazine Accent, and journalists of a television current-affairs program, Aktua TV* launched an investigative effort on a scale rarely seen in Europe. Pollak and another witness to the Urice killings were found; later, interviews were made with townspeople in East Galicia who identified Menten and described other killings in a neighboring village. Menten, denying all, was confronted, on live television, with the evidence.
Dutch officials then launched a new investigation. They decided to arrest Menten on a Thursday, but delayed the seizure until the next Monday. When police arrived at his mansion, a servant reported the Mentens had left on a long trip—destination unknown.
The furor in the Tweede Kamer was instantaneous and may not die down despite Menten's capture following a Swiss newsman's tip. Before fleeing, the art-loving SS man did some homework, if not quite enough. He calculated correctly that the Swiss statute of limitations on his offenses had expired. But the Swiss can expel those who commit "crimes against humanity." Doing so, however, requires a decision by the full Swiss cabinet, which will meet soon.
* Run by TIME Stringer Wibo van de Linde.