Col Johann Bach, a high-ranking officer in Hitler’s elite Waffen SS (Schutzstaffel), was absconding for more than 50 years. He had moved into Calangute in Goa a few months back and had settled down under a fake identity.

But the 88-year-old Bach’s activities in Calangute betrayed him and soon the intelligence wing of Perus Narkp, the Berlin-based German Chancellor’s Core, was on his trail.

The German sleuths, assisted by Indian intelligence men, managed to zero in on Bach on Friday morning in Bardesh region of Goa. Bach tried to give them a slip. But the German sleuths finally managed to nab Bach after a 36-hour hot chase in the Khanapur forests on Saturday.

Colonel Bach belonged to Waffen SS, the armed wing of SS as Schutzstaffel was known.

SS was Hitler’s army of Nazi stormtroopers carved out of those who personally believed in Nazi ideology and would leave no stone unturned to achieve their ends.

According to a press release issued by Perus Narkp, Bach was posted as a senior adjutant at the Marsha Tikash Whanaab concentration camp in East Berlin and was responsible for the genocide of more than 12,000 Jews in World War II.

Source : Deccan Herald 29th June 08