Wiesenthal Center Urges Polish Government to seek Extradition From Austria of Unprosecuted Female Majdanek Guard

Wiesenthal Center Urges Polish Government to seek Extradition From Austria of Unprosecuted Female Majdanek GuardDiscovered in Framework of “Operation: Last Chance”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today appealed to the Polish Institute of National Memory to seek the extradition to Poland fortrial of a female guard from the Majdanek death camp currently residing in Vienna, who was discovered by the Center in the framework of its “Operation: Last Chance” project. The guard, ErnaWallisch, served in the Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camps during the years 1941-1944, but last week in Vienna Austrian Justice Minister Karin Gastinger officially informed the Center’schief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, that Wallisch’s crimes came under statute of limitations and she would therefore not be prosecuted.

In his meeting with Justice Minister Gastinger, Zuroff argued that Wallisch herself had admitted participation in the massmurder of inmates at Majdanek, and that a Polish survivor had testified that she was a sadist and had personally participated in selections, but the Austrian authorities claimed that they couldtake no legal action against her. Under these circumstances, Zuroff appealed to the Polish authorities based on Wallisch’s admission of guilt and the fact that she had committed crimes in Polandand against Polish citizens, the responsibility for which was not limited in Poland by any statute. According to Zuroff, “It is unthinkable that a person who was part of the mass murder of atleast thousands of innocent civilians should be protected by Austrian law, and we therefore urge the Polish authorities to try to achieve justice in this case.

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