The Simon Wiesenthal Center's third Annual Status Report on Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals points to the continuing success of several countries, particularly the United States, in prosecuting Holocaust perpetrators during the past year and the surprising potential for future prosecutions as the number of new investigations initiated (in nine different countries) during the past twelve months reached over 180. Austria was singled out as the country which has done the least in recent years to bring Nazis to justice in comparison to the efforts it should have made, and praised the Nazi-hunting activities of the Office of Special Investigations of the US Justice Department as the most successful agency of its kind in the world. The report reflects grades ranging from A (highest) to F awarded to more then two dozen countries which were either the site of Nazi crimes or admitted Holocaust perpetrators after World War II.

The author of the report, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, noted that the statistics in the report clearly show that a significant measure of justice can still be achieved against Nazi war criminals. "During the past 28 months, 21 Holocaust perpetrators have been convicted, 16 new indictments have been filed, and hundreds of new investigations have been initiated. 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 than anything 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 these criminals. 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 a serious effort to maximize justice while it can still be obtained."

Zuroff stressed the positive results achieved by countries like the United States, and to a lesser extent Germany, as well as the abject failures of countries like Austria, which has so many potential suspects but has not taken the necessary measures to bring them to justice, as well as Sweden and Norway which in principle refuse to investigate, let alone prosecute (due to a statue of limitations), and others who have either chosen to ignore the issue (Syria and Columbia) or which have consistently failed to deal with it effectively primarily due to a lack of the requisite political will (Australia, Estonia, and many others)."

" In addition, the results achieved by the Center's "Operation: Last Chance," (which offered financial rewards for incriminating evidence against Nazi war criminals in the Baltics) that led to the receipt of information on over 200 individuals who participated in the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania (174), Latvia (37) and Estonia (6) and the opening of at least two murder investigations (against more than 20 suspects) in Lithuania, clearly show that justice can still be achieved if sufficient resources and innovative methods are applied to deal with this issue," Zuroff concluded.