Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a call for survivors of the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk (Poland), as well as first-degree
relatives (child or sibling) of victims of the camp, to consider serving as co-plaintiffs in trials of Stutthof guards which willhopefully be conducted in Germany in the coming year.
The trial is a result of a change in German prosecution policy, whereby any person who served in a concentration camp with the apparatus for industrialized murder (gas chambers or gas vans) canbe convicted for accessory to murder based on service alone, which was not the case until about a decade ago. To date three individuals who served in death camps (Ivan Demjanjuk at Sobibor; OskarGroening and Reinhold Hanning at Auschwitz) have been thus convicted.
According to Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center's chief Nazi-hunter:
"At this late date, every trial is extremely important, and the role of co-plaintiffs is of unique significance. We urge all survivors of Stutthof, as well as first-degree relatives ofthose murdered in the camp, to contact our Jerusalem office (tel. 02.563.1274 / e-mail: swcjerus@netvision.net.il ) to help make the case of the prosecution as effective and convincing aspossible."
For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:
Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow@simonwiesenthal @EZurofffor news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
