TORONTO
(JTA) -- The Simon Wiesenthal Center's latest list of the world's
10 most-wanted Nazi war criminals contains three new names, all with
Canadian connections, and the center claims to have new evidence
against one of them.
The new names names contained in the SWC's "Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War
Criminals" replace three alleged Nazi war criminals who died over the past year. The report
was released Wednesday.
Topping the SWC's list of suspected former Nazis who
are still alive and have evaded prosecution is Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary,
who allegedly helped organize the deportation to Auschwitz of approximately
15,700 Jews in 1944.
He escaped to Canada after World War II. He was stripped
of his Canadian citizenship in 1997 and voluntarily left the country.
It is believed he now lives in Hungary.
At the no. 4 spot this year is Vladimir Katriuk, said
to have commanded a Ukrainian army unit that committed mass murder
of Jews and civilians in Belarus.
Katriuk, now 91, also escaped to Canada after World
War II and was stripped of his Canadian citizenship in 1999. In 2007,
his citizenship was reinstated, a decision upheld by a court in 2010.
The SWC says "new research" by
a German historian has revealed Katriuk's "active role in the mass murder of the residents of the village of Khatyn, Belarus," and "provides a firm basis to overturn the decision not to strip Katriuk of his Canadian
citizenship."
If new research provides insights into the war-time
activities of Katriuk, "we encourage the researchers to provide that information to the war crimes unit
of the Department of Justice so that the status of the dossier can
be re-evaluated," said Len Rudner of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
In the no. 10 position this year is Helmut Oberlander,
believed to have served with an Einsatzkommando unit in Ukraine and
Crimea that murdered more than 23,000 people, mostly Jews.
Oberlander fled after the war to Canada and was stripped
of his citizenship in 2001. In 2004, his citizenship was restored
but it was revoked a second time in 2007, a decision that was overturned
by a court two years later. The case is still pending.
The SWC has assigned Canada a failing grade for its
prosecution of suspected Nazi war criminals. jta.org
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