| The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to the acquittal today by a Munich court of accused Slovak Nazi war criminalsLadislav Niznansky by urging the German judicial authorities not to draw the wrong conclusions from the case. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel directorDr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center encouraged the German government to continue its support for the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators and advised it not to draw the erroneous conclusionfrom Nizansky’s acquittal that such cases should no longer be brought to trial due to the passage of time since the crimes were committed. According to Zuroff: “The passage of time in no way diminishes the culpability of Nazi war criminals and the fact that such individuals areelderly does not turn murderers into Righteous Gentiles. While it is true that the prosecution at this point of such criminals can be extremely difficult, the horrific nature of theircrimes makes it imperative to leave no stone unturned in the effort to hold such murderers accountable for their crimes. While unfortunate, today’s acquittal should in no way lessen thedetermination to bring as many as possible killers of the Holocaust to justice. Such trials continue to also serve an important function in the fight for historical truth and againstHolocaust denial of the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and others who seek to deny the facts about the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe during World War II.” |