L'affaire Belarus

As a young man in the 1970's I watched the occasional episode of Kojak. While I have always liked Telly Savalis as an actor, I was not a regular viewer of the Kojak series; thinking it just another of the ubiquitous "cops and detectives" shows that were so common at the time.

In this movie, viewers get a history lesson in one of the little-known aspects of World War II. Specifically the fact that many in the Nazi-conquered countries collaborated with the Germans.

The most notorious of these collaborators were among the "White Russians" (today the country of Belarus--hence the title of the movie) and the Ukrainians. Both countries have a long history of anti-Semitism, and when the Nazis began the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" there were plenty of locals who participated enthusiastically in the rounding-up and killing of Jews.

After a series of murders of elderly Russian men in New York, Kojak discovers that the victims were actually Nazi collaborators who were living under assumed identities. But the plot thickens as Kojak uncovers further evidence that the U.S. government was involved in helping these Russian Nazis get into the country in the first place. And there is a surprise at the end when the murderer is revealed.

This movie makes great use of its New York locations, especially emphasizing the various ethnic enclaves in the city. Savalis steps effortlessly back into the role he left 8 years previously. It's great to see George Savalis in a good supporting role. Susan Pleshette as government-employee-turned-Kojak's-partner is always good. Swedish actor Max Von Sydow as a Jewish witness to the "Russian Holocaust" and Herbert Berghoff as a German Nazi round out the cast with great performances.

Hopefully this move comes out on DVD. So far there has only been a limited release on VHS in the 1990s. It's gripping, moves at a fast pace, and tells about a bit of WWII history that few people know about.

One fine day elderly concentration camp survivor Max Von Sydow spots Herbert Berghof in Manhattan. With what Berghof did to Von Sydow back in the day you don't forget that face. In fact Berghof leads Von Sydow to a lot of other familiar faces from those bad old days in a concentration camp run by White Russian collaborators with the Nazis.

When several elderly men start getting abruptly dead that brings Lt. Theo Kojak on the scene. He's got a new young detective to take the place of Crocker in Alan Rosenberg. And in checking immigration files he has to deal with the State Department in the person of Suzanne Pleshette.

Nice work if you can get it, but Pleshette is to misdirect Kojak and she makes a good try. But Telly Savalas has been around the block a few times.

It all has to do with a scheme hatched in the minds of some fervent anti-Communists in the beginning days of the Cold War. When Berghof and Von Sydow meet with Savalas and Rosenberg it's quite the climax.

Just who gets to fulfill his mission.

With the exception of Kevin Dobson all the other detectives from Manhattan South are there along with Dan Frazer as Captain McNeill. But that would be it for them.

It's a good made for TV movie about the most passionate law and order cop that television ever invented.

Lollipop-loving, follicle-free. There, that's those cliches out of the way. Kojak investigates the mysterious murders of several elderly Russian emigres to America. Turns out they were all inmates at a Nazi concentration camp. Looks like Theo's got some digging to do, and it's all a government cover-up, of course.

This important TV movie has never been issued on DVD, but only as a 1980s video, so that it is very difficult to obtain. It may be the only accurate portrayal of one of the shadier aspects of American post-war foreign policy ever filmed. It is based upon the 1982 book by John Loftus, THE BELARUS SECRET, which is a historical work, not a novel as stated by IMDb. The film was made as a stand-alone TV movie spin-off of the famous KOJAK detective series, starring Telly Savalas. This film tackles a profoundly controversial and disturbing subject, namely the protection of Nazi war criminals by the security establishment of the United States Government. As Savalas and Suzanne Pleshette, the female star of the film, both say, it is a total disgrace and insult to what America is supposed to stand for. The reason why the title refers to the country of Belarus is that it concerns SS officers from there who have made their way under American official protection to new lives under false identities in the USA. Belarus at the time this film was made was part of the Soviet Union. Today it is an independent, but far from free, country, headed by the man widely called in the press today 'the last dictator in Europe'. Belarus in an earlier age was known as Byelorussia, and also as 'White Russia'. During the War it was under German occupation, and many locals enthusiastically did the Nazis' dirty work for them, just as the Vichy French did, only more so. So keen were the Belarusians to aid the Nazis that some of them were initiated into the SS and carried out their murderous duties as SS officers. Hundreds of thousands of people died at their hands. After the War, many of these horrible mass-murderers were brought to America secretly and evaded trial. Thousands of SS officers came to America after the War, some as part of Operation Paperclip, and others under various other programmes, many of them given protection by those great Nazi-lovers, the Dulles Brothers, who were the American lawyers for the Gestapo's front organisation in America in the 1930s. Interesting, isn't it, that two men whose salaries came indirectly from the Gestapo before the War ended up respectively as American Secretary of State and Director of the CIA? What does that tell you? And everybody thought Germany lost the War! The Belarus part of this disgraceful story has been extensively exposed, and the book by Loftus has been reissued in recent years, giving all the gory details. It is readily available as a paperback and is based upon contemporary documents and is full of proof, not merely assertions. In this film, Max von Sydow plays a former inmate who suffered under the Belarus SS and is trying to expose them and bring them to justice. Savalas, as Detective Lieutenant Kojak of the New York Police Department, becomes involved as the investigator of the murders of various strange elderly men living under false names, one with a false grave, whose files are all kept under wraps at the State Department in Washington, and who he discovers all came from Belarus. This is not just a film, it is an education.

Probably pro-Kojak sentiments coupled with the courageous story line led to my exaggerating a "fair" rating for this movie. Probably a fair rating of this movie should be 8. But the inexplicable weighted average by others of 5.3 is neither fair nor understandable.

The action and style is classic Kojak; even "Styros" (Terry Salvalas' real life brother) acts in this movie. I think Salvalas and Susan Pleshet did a good job of carrying the story of a Nazi concentration camp survivor tracking down aging Nazis to execute them by taking justice into his own hands. The one glaring flaw is that Pleshet's character (an ambitious State Department attorney on her way up ... who is supposed to derail Kojak's murder investigation) is not likely to have faced a lifetime prison term by handing over to Kojak "Top Secret" files ... just to prove to Kojak that she can be trusted. But otherwise, I think the movie made its point that mass murderous Nazis were (and continue to be) protected by various branches of the United States government. So making an action-adventure "crimmie" about it takes some guts and deserves some glory.

This movie is worth seeing for entertainment and for educational values.