Wiesenthal Center Welcomes German Police Action Against Nine Suspected Auschwitz Guards

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the steps taken by the German police in Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse, and North Rhein-Westphalia against nine suspected Auschwitz guards, three of whom have already been arrested andimprisoned near Stuttgart. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center welcomed the police action and urged that the recommendationannounced last September by the Zentrale Stelle to prosecute thirty guards who served in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp would be expedited to maximize justice while stillpossible.

According to Zuroff:

"It is important to remember in these cases that:

1) The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers;

2) Old age should not protect those who helped run the largest death camp in human history;

3) Each and every victim of the Nazis deserves that an effort be made to hold accountable those who victimized them;

4) These are the last people on earth who deserve any sympathy since they had no sympathy whatsoever for their innocent victims, some ofwhom were older than they are today.

"We congratulate the Zentrale Stelle and the German prosecutors involved and urge that these efforts be fully expedited so that as many aspossible Holocaust perpetrators can be brought to justice."

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in theUnited States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).