At a seaside coffee shop last week, the world's pre-eminent Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff sipped lattes with three children of a man he has been pursuing for decades.

The conversation was at times strained. The children of accused war criminal Charles Zentai, all aged in their 50s and 60s, sat opposite Dr Zuroff and pleaded the innocence of their father.

Dr Zuroff said that he didn't agree to a meeting with Charles Zentai's children readily, and described the discussion as agonising and emotional one.

"It really shook me up just from the human side," he told The Sunday Telegraph this week.

"It was a very difficult internal deliberation about what to do, but I thought it would be best for my cause to hear his children out.

"I didn't want to appear as if I'm afraid of anything or hiding anything. I actually feel sorry for his kids.
"We are trying Zentai for what he did in Hungary, not for his life as a good father in Perth."

Hungary has requested the extradition of Zentai, 84, after evidence surfaced implicating him in the murder of Jewish boy Peter Balazs, aged 18, in Budapest, in 1944. Zentai denies the accusations.
"It's a terrible shock for his children," Dr Zuroff said.

"All sorts of people, who were law-abiding citizens, committed the most atrocious crimes during World War II. I believe Zentai has to be brought to trial."

Dr Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem branch of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, is trying to prosecute former Nazis living in Australia -- Melbourne pensioner Lajos Polgar, 89, and Zentai. If Zentai is extradited to Hungary, it will be the first time Australia has successfully pursued a Nazi war criminal. Zentai's children say their father is too sick to face extradition.

They claim he can only walk short distances, using an electric scooter to move around, and has to keep his skin covered to avoid aggravating a skin condition. Other Nazi war criminals residing in Australia have been freed from facing trial and their dark past in Hungary.

A former Nazi accused of murdering 19 children was freed because his doctor argued that he was too weak and not fit to stand trial, but he went on to live another eight years. In another case, Carlos Ozols was about to be prosecuted in Melbourne when the case was passed to the AFP. He has also died.

"It makes me feel angry, frustrated, disgusted at the Australian Government and loss of political will," Dr Zuroff said.

There are those who argue Nazi war criminals are too old to face the demons of their past -- it has been 61 years since the end of World War II, in which time the ability to accurately recall events, names and faces has faded.

But Dr Zuroff believes that age does not free a man from the evils he has committed.

"The passage of time is no defence," he said.

"Think for a minute -- how would you feel if your grandmother or grandfather was murdered in the Holocaust ? Would you say, `let the guy go, he's 84?' "His age and the fact he has got away with his crimes for 60 years is irrelevant. The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt. It's hard to explain to people how serious these crimes are."

The hunt for Nazi war criminals began when a man named Simon Wiesenthal emerged from the Mauthausen concentration camp in early May 1945.

Emaciated and weak, he weighed just 50kg. He was not expected to live. He gave American soldiers a list of the names of Nazis who had committed war crimes on Jewish people and others in the Holocaust.

Mr Wiesenthal recovered and set up a centre that has identified thousands of Nazi war criminals and helped bring an estimated 1100 Nazis to justice.

Mr Wiesenthal dies in September last year, aged 96, and now, Dr Zuroff is carrying on his legacy. Dr Zuroff met with Attorney- General Philip Ruddock and Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison last week, to discuss the Zentai and Polgar cases. Dr Zuroff said pursuing war criminals was no easy task.

"It's a constant struggle and time is running out."

When the last of the Nazi war criminals have died, Dr Zuroff said he will still have work to do in helping new generations remember the lives of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

"I've devoted 25 years to finding Nazi war criminals. This has been the work of my whole life," he said.
"Even after the last of the war criminals have died, the spin-offs, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, will continue. So, our work will continue."