Neighbors have kind words to say about Osyp Firishchak, a retired North Side carpenter, but the U.S. Justice Department says he played a role in one of history's darkest chapters. On Monday, Firishchak, 86, is scheduled to go on trial in Chicago over allegations that more than 60 years ago he was part of a Nazi-controlled Ukrainian police unit that transported tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths in concentration and labor camps.
Nearly 20 cases are pending in courts around the country, including an appeal in Chicago by Joseph Wittje, a retired bricklayer from Bensenville, of a judge's decision last year revoking his citizenship for guarding prisoners at a concentration camp near Berlin. And more than 50 additional cases remain under investigation, Rosenbaum said.