Wiesenthal Center Annual Report Points to Lack of Political Will asMajor Obstacle to Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals; Praises Germany and the United States for Continued Efforts to Hold Holocaust Perpetrators Accountable and Serbia and Spain for NewInitiatives
Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the initial findings of its eighth Annual Status Report on theWorldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period from April 1, 2008 until March 31, 2009 and awarded grades ranging from A (highest) to F to evaluate theefforts and results achieved by more than three dozen countries which were either the site of Nazi crimes or admitted Holocaust perpetrators after World War II.
Among the report’s highlights are the following important developments:
The author of the report, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who coordinates the Center’s research on Nazi war criminalsworldwide, noted that the statistics in the report clearly show that a significant measure of justice can still be achieved against Nazi war criminals. “Since January 2001, seventy-sixconvictions against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least forty-eight new indictments have been filed, and hundreds of new investigations have been initiated. Despite the somewhatprevalent assumption that it is too late to bring Nazi murderers to justice, the figures clearly prove otherwise, and it is clear that of such criminals will continue to be brought to trialduring the coming years. While it is generally assumed that it is the age of the suspects that is the biggest obstacle to prosecution, in many cases it is the lack of political will, more thananything else, that has hindered the efforts to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice, along with the mistaken notion that it was impossible at this point to locate, identify, and convict thesecriminals. The success achieved by dedicated prosecution agencies, and especially by the US Office of Special Investigations, should be a catalyst for governments all over the world to make aserious effort to maximize justice while it can still be obtained.”
Zuroff went on to explain that the Report’s purpose was to focus public attention on the issue and thereby “encourage all thegovernments involved to maximize their efforts to ensure that as many as possible of the unprosecuted Holocaust perpetrators will be held accountable for their crimes. In that respect, we seek tohighlight both the positive results achieved by countries like the United States and Germany, as well as the abject failures of countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine whichhave continuously failed to bring any Holocaust perpetrators to justice, as well as Sweden which in principle refuses to investigate, let alone prosecute (due to a statue of limitations), andothers who have either chosen to ignore the issue (Syria) or which have consistently failed to deal with it effectively primarily due to a lack of the requisite political will.”
INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION REPORT CARD
As part of this year’s annual status report, we have given grades ranging from A (highest) to F which reflect the WiesenthalCenter’s evaluation of the efforts and results achieved by various countries during the period under review.
The grades granted are categorized as follows:
Category A: HighlySuccessful Investigation and Prosecution Program
Those countries, which have adopted a proactive stance on the issue, have taken all reasonable measures to identify thepotential suspected Nazi war criminals in the country in order to maximize investigation and prosecution and have achieved notable results during the period under review.
Category B: OngoingInvestigation and Prosecution Program Which Has Achieved Practical Success
Those countries which have taken the necessary measures to enable the proper investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminalsand have registered at least one conviction and/or filed one indictment during the period under review.
Category C: MinimalSuccess That Could Have Been Greater, Additional Steps Urgently Required
Those countries which have failed to obtain any convictions or indictments during the period under review but have eitheradvanced ongoing cases currently in litigation or have opened new investigations, which have serious potential for prosecution.
Category D:Insufficient and/or Unsuccessful Efforts
Those countries which have ostensibly made at least a minimal effort to investigate Nazi war criminals but which failed toachieve any practical results during the period under review. In many cases these countries have stopped or reduced their efforts to deal with this issue long before they could have and couldachieve important results if they were to change their policy.
Category E: No knownsuspects
Those countries in which there are no known suspects and no practical steps have been taken to uncover new cases.
Category F-1:Failure in principle
Those countries which refuse in principle to investigate, let alone prosecute, suspected Nazi war criminals because of legal(statute of limitation) or ideological restrictions.
Category F-2:Failure in practice
Those countries in which there are no legal obstacles to the investigation and prosecution of suspected Nazi war criminals, butwhose efforts (or lack thereof) have resulted in complete failure during the period under review, primarily due to the absence of political will to proceed and/or a lack of the requisiteresources and/or expertise.
Category X: Failureto submit pertinent data
Those countries which did not respond to the questionnaire, but clearly did not take any action whatsoever to investigatesuspected Nazi war criminals during the period under review.
A: United States
B: Germany, Serbia, Spain
C: Italy, Poland
D: Canada, Denmark, Netherlands
E: Croatia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway
F-1: Australia, Austria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine
F-2: Sweden, Syria
X: Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Luxemburg, Paraguay, Romania, Russia, Slovakia,Slovenia, Uruguay, Venezuela
MOST WANTED NAZI WAR CRIMINALS
As of April 1, 2008
| *. Alois Brunner – Syria Status – living inSyria for decades; Syrian refusal to cooperate stymies prosecution Alois Brunner is the most important unpunished Nazi war criminal who may still be |
*. Dr. Aribert Heim - ?
Doctor inSachsenhausen (1940), Buchenwald (1941) and Mauthausen (1941) concentration camps
Murdered hundreds of camp inmates by lethal injection in Mauthausen
Status – disappeared in 1962 prior to planned prosecution; wanted in Germanyand Austria
New evidence suggests that he may have died in Cairo in 1992, but serious doubts regarding these findings and the fact thatthere is no corpse to examine, raises doubts as to the veracity of this information.
1. Ivan Demjanjuk – USA
Participated in massmurder of Jews in Sobibor death camp; also served in Majdanek death camp and Trawniki SS-training camp and additional concentration camps
Status – denaturalized in USA; ordered deported from USA; recently indicted in Germany for role in mass murder in Sobibor
2. Dr. Sandor Kepiro - Hungary
Hungariangendarmerie officer; participated in mass murder of over 1,200 civilians in Novi Sad, Serbia
Status – discovered in 2006 in framework of “Operation: Last Chance;” wasoriginally convicted but never punished in Hungary in 1944 and apparently in absentia in 1946; Hungary refused to implement his original sentence but has opened a new criminal investigationagainst him which has not yet been completed more than two years after its initiation.
3. Milivoj Ašner – Austria
Police chief ofSlavonska Požega, Croatia
Active role in persecution and deportation to death of hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies
Status – discovered in 2004in framework of “Operation: Last Chance;” indicted by Croatia which in 2005 requested his extradition from Austria which initially refused the request because he ostensibly held Austriancitizenship; when it emerged that he had lost his Austrian citizenship, his extradition was refused on medical grounds. Serious doubts as to results of his examination have prompted a decision toinvite a foreign expert to reexamine Ašner, but almost a year later, he still has not been reexamined.
4. Soeren Kam - Germany
Participated in the murder of anti-Nazi Danish newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen; stole the population registry of theDanish Jewish Community to facilitate the roundup and subsequent deportation of Danish Jews to Nazi concentration camps, where dozens were murdered.
Status – Kam was indicted in Denmark for the murder of Clemmensen, but a Germancourt refused to approve his extradition to stand trial in Copenhagen. The Danish judicial authorities are conducting an investigation of his role in the deportation of the Jews at the request ofthe Wiesenthal Center.
5. Klaas Carl Faber - Germany
Served in German SD in the Netherlands; Sentenced to death in Holland for murders of prisoners of Westerbork transit camp andGroningen prison in the Netherlands in fall 1944; sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 1948; escaped from prison to Germany on December 26, 1952.
6. Heinrich Boere – Germany
Murdered three Dutch civilians as a member of the Silbertanne Waffen-SS deathsquad Status - sentenced to death in absentia in Holland in 1949 after his escape to Germany, which until recently refused to extradite him orprosecute him; in April 2008 indicted in Germany for his crimes.
7. Karoly (Charles) Zentai – Astralia
Participated in manhunts, persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944
Status – discovered in 2004 by “Operation: Last Chance;” Hungary issued an international arrest warrant against him and has asked for hisextradition from Australia in 2005; Zentai is currently appealing his extradition to Hungary
8. Mikhail Gorshkow –Estonia
Participated in murder of Jews in Belarus
Status: denaturalized in USA, under investigation in Estonia
9. Algimantas Dailide – Germany
Arrested Jews murdered by Nazis andLithuanian collaborators
Status: deported from USA; convicted by Lithuania, which refused to implement his sentence of imprisonment; upon appeal sentence cancelled onmedical grounds without Dailide being personally examined by the doctors
10. Harry Mannil – Venezuela
Arrested Jews and Communists executed by Nazis and Estoniancollaborators
Status: cleared by investigation in Estonia; barred from entry to US