Tsherim Soobzokov

A Circassian, a Muslim tribe who living in Northern Caucasus, Tsherim Soobzokov born on August 24, 1924. When Hitler army march into, and occupied some areas of, North Caucasus, Soobzokov joined with one of auxiliary units under the command of the Nazi’s SD. He was allegedly participated in searching and punitive expeditions against Jews and Komsomol members during the Nazi occupation.

When Hitler’s army retreated from North Caucasus after disaster in Stalingrad, like many Northern Caucasus native collaborators, Sobzookov followed them. Having good contact with Kuchuk Ulagaj, a leader of a North Caucasus SS unit, Soobzokov later joined with the Waffen-SS, and served as a second lieutenant in Kaukasischer Waffen-Verband der SS. He married with the daughter of a colonel in the Russian Liberation Army.

After the war, despite there were some war crimes allegations against him, including his own confession, the CIA decided to use Soobzokov as theirs agent—a part of a wider post-World War II program of the CIA's of collaborating with former Nazis living in hiding. They recruited him to spy in Jordan, which has a substantial Circassian community. Because CIA valued Soobzokov for his language skills and ties to fellow ethnic Circassians living in the Soviet Union, when he was kicked out of Jordan in 1957, they brought him to New Jersey to seek out Soviet spies in the Circassian community in there. The CIA did it by misled the United State Immigration and Naturalization Service on Soobzokov's Nazi past.

During his stay in America, Soobzokov was known as “Tom the Democrat” and has many influential friends among administration because his strong anti-Communist stands. However, his harsh and corrupted lifestyle as a Circassian Godfather in New Jersey made some enemies among his own community. Some of them disclosed his Nazi past, which lead a much-publicized deportation case in 1979. He was charged with having falsified his immigration application to conceal his SS service, which ordinarily would have barred his entry. Soobzokov always denied these charges and sued CBS and New York Times. He was notably supported by Pat Buchanan and Congressman Robert Roe. The charge itself later was dropped when a CIA document turned up showing that he had disclosed his SS membership.

But Soobzokov ultimately did not escape his past. On August 15, 1985, a pipe bomb demolishes the car outside his home Paterson, New Jersey, fatally wounded Soobzokov. An anonymous caller claiming to represent the Jewish Defence League (JDL) said they had carried out the bombing. A spokesman for the JDL later denied responsibility. Soobzokov himself succumbed to his injuries on September 6, 1985, and the case has never been solved.

Further Reading
Howard Blum, Wanted: The Search for Nazis in America. Fawcett Books, 1977.
Richard Breitman, "Tscherim Soobzokov". http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/breitman.pdf
Antonio J. Munoz, The East Came West: Muslim, Hindu & Buddhist Volunteers in the German Armed Forces, 1941-1945. Axis Europa, 2001.


Copyright © 2010 by Nino Oktorino