Julia Glover is a freelance journalist currently working in Jerusalem. Before moving to the Middle East, she worked in Canada and the United Kingdom for both print and television media. She is interested in covering all sides of the current conflict and is especially keen to cover the personal stories behind the headlines.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff's business card says he is the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem. He could also be described as a researcher or a war crimes historian. But, the title that portrays him most accurately is "Nazi-hunter."

Zuroff has been hunting Nazi war criminals for the past 25 years. He even looks like a huntsman. Standing tall, with a broad frame, Zuroff's eyes are both focused and trained behind his glasses.

But his eyes are also friendly and his loud laughter exposes him as a hunter who could not stealthily chase his prey in the field. Instead, he works in a small office off one of Jerusalem's main roads to track his targets from their crime scenes in Europe to hiding spots around the globe.

"The irony is that many of the countries that fought to end the war became safe havens for these criminals just a few years later," Zuroff says, pointing to Canada as a specific example.

In 1987, Canada passed special laws to prosecute Nazi war criminals, but no convictions were obtained and only two indictments were filed. In 1994, Canada switched to a process of denaturalization and deportation, which Zuroff says has been moderately successful.

Since then, the Canadian government has accused 19 men living in Canada of being Nazi war criminals. Five have had their citizenship revoked and are waiting to hear if they will be deported.

Three are currently defending their cases in court. Two left the country voluntarily. Three more had their cases dismissed. The remaining six all died before their cases concluded.

It's a snapshot of Zuroff's biggest problems – not just finding the culprits but prosecuting them before time runs out.

By his own estimate, he has only five years left to find the rest of the people responsible for the Holocaust. After that, Zuroff believes, the guilty parties will either be too old or too ill for legal proceedings, or they will be dead.

Zuroff believes dozens are still hiding in Canada and several thousand more are scattered worldwide.

"There are so many out there," he says dauntingly. "You have to remember that a tragedy like the Holocaust happened in 20 countries and you need a tremendous amount of manpower to kill six million people."

Zuroff says his organization is looking for "any and all Nazi war criminals," because families who lost relatives don't really care whether it was a lower officer or a commander as long as the person is brought to justice.

Operation: Last Chance is a final attempt to find them. Since it was launched in 2002, the project has spread across nine countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Offering cash bounties of up to $16,000 Cdn, the initiative has led to the identification of 329 suspects, 74 of whom have been handed to authorities for prosecution.

Zuroff has just returned from a 10-day trip to Canada where the project may eventually be launched but its most recent expansion was in Germany where the government wanted it to focus on finding a doctor from the Second World War.

Aribert Heim is believed to have personally murdered hundreds of Jews, either with lethal injections or by operating on living patients. After the war he worked as a doctor for women at Baden-Baden and has been on the run since 1962.

Authorities believe Heim is still alive because he has a bank account in Berlin with a balance of more than one million euros ($1.6 million Cdn) and the bank has not been notified of his death.

With a height of six feet four inches, Heim is described as a striking figure with an identifiable scar on his right cheek. There is an international warrant for his arrest.

But sitting at his desk, behind stacked files of research papers and notes, Zuroff shatters the illusion that most of the remaining Nazis are hard to find.

"The overwhelming majority of them never bothered to change their names," he says. "We find them by cross-referencing refugee records. We also find them through tips that come into this office as part of a never-ending flow."

Zuroff is more frustrated by what happens after the accused are located, when another search begins – this time for governments willing and motivated to prosecute.

"It's something most countries prefer not to do," Zuroff says, adding that governments often find the workload on these cases too heavy or they give priority to more immediate threats, like the most recent local murderer.

Knowing he is racing against time, the energetic 56-year-old Zuroff insists he'll continue his pursuit and, even though he is the last privately-endorsed Nazi hunter, he believes his cause has many supporters.

"I very strongly feel that I'm not alone in the desire to see these people prosecuted. I have a large constituency," he says. "Unfortunately, it doesn't include all of the presidents and prime ministers of the world."

CBC News Viewpoint, March 21, 2005