Jerusalem – Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute den kompletten Text seines jährlichen Berichtes zur Strafverfolgung von NS-Tätern im Jahr 2011 ins Internet gestellt. Der Bericht erfasst die weltweit bekannt gewordenen Ermittlungsverfahren im Zeitraum vom 1. April 2010 bis 31. März 2011. Der Bericht kann jetzt auf dieser Internetseite eingesehen werden:

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the full text of its 2011 Annual Status Report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which covers the period from April 1, 2010 until March 31, 2011. The report is now available on the home page of the website:
www.operationlastchance.org

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Novi Sad, Serbia-The Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, stressed the role of memory in assuring that the crimes of he Holocaust would not be erased or forgotten in his remarks at the memorial ceremony held here today to mark the 70th anniversary of the mass murder by Hungarian forces of Jewish, Serb, and Roma civilians in this Serbian city on January 23, 1942. Zuroff stressed that the recent acquittal in July 2011 in Budapest of Hungarian gendarmerie officer Sandor Kepiro, who was one of the organizers of the massacre, and his subsequent burial as a heroic patriot, threatened to erase ths terrible crime and absolve the killers of their guilt.

Dr. Zuroff's speech deliverd today to a crowd of hundrerds in Novi Sad:

Today we mark the 70th anniversary of the horrific crimes committed by the Hungarian army and gendamerie on the banks of the Danube, not far from where we are currently standing. Those crimes were the product of politics and prejudice, an opportunistic alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany and the racism, anti-Semitism, and extremism of the Third Reich and its allies.

Seventy years is ostensibly a very long time, for many people an entire lifetime if not more, and there are those who would prefer that such terrible and tragic events be forgotten. Even worse, there are those who justify such crimes and consider their perpetrators heroes. Not long ago, Sandor Kepiro, one of these so- called Hungarian "heroes" died while his case was being appealed in Budapest, a case in which he was charged for his active role in the roundup of innocent citizens of Novi Sad-Jews, Serbs, and Roma//men, women, and children, who were marched to the river to be murdered. He claimed that his assignment was to search for terrorists, dangerous people like 10 year old Lydia Brenners, 9 year old Dorothea Pintar, and 6 year old Arthur Rosenthal.

Kepiro's funeral was attended by many people who believed that he did his duty and was a true Hungarian patriot, some of whom even came wearing the same gendarmerie uniform Kepiro wore, when he did his share to doom innocent people to death, the same uniforms worn by the Hungarian gendarmes, who two years later organized the deportation of the Jews of Novi Sad to Auschwitz. Indeed heroes and patriots. There are two acceptable responses to the terrible crimes committed seventy years ago-justice and memory. But justice, as we saw last July in the Buda District Court, can be severely flawed. Judge Varga admitted that Sandor Kepiro was not innocent, but after he outrageously disqualified all the documents and testimony against him, he decreed that the prosecution had failed to prove his guilt.

So that leaves us with memory, which is why our presence here united is so critical. And it is from here, so close to the site of the murders, that we must declare loud and clear that no flawed and
politicized verdict can change the facts and the guilt of the perpetrators, nor can it erase the memory of the victims which will remain in our hearts forever.

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today responded with dismay and consternation to a communication from EU Ambassador to Afghanistan Vygaudas Ušackes to its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, following his criticism of an op-ed by Ušackes in the Wall Street Journal in which the ambassador referred to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania as “a few years’ respite from the Communists.” In a statement issued here today, the Center noted that rather than rectifying his grossly insensitive remark about the Holocaust, Ambassador Ušackes has again insulted its victims, especially those murdered in his homeland.

According to Zuroff:

“All Ambassador Ušackes was expected to do was to admit that his original comment was inappropriate and apologize for his lack of sensitivity to the fate of Lithuanian Jewry during the Holocaust. Instead, he chose to defend his callous indifference to the murder of some 212,000 Lithuanian Jews during the Nazi occupation, by complaining about the imbalance in public opinion between “Nazi crimes which have been universally condemned by all civilized humanity,” and “the crimes of Stalin’s regime…and the tragedy of its victims,” which only received recognition more recently, as if this justifies ignoring the Holocaust. And while he did condemn Holocaust crimes in general, he did not say a word about those committed by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators.

“Ušackes’ reluctance to honestly deal with his country’s bloody Holocaust past raises serious doubts about his ability to properly represent the European Union.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the recent (December 28) memorial mass conducted in Zagreb in honor of Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić, who as head of state of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) bears direct responsibility for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, tens of thousands of Jews, and numerous Roma. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the ceremony “a grievous insult to the memory of Pavelić’s numerous victims and a mockery of the horrific crimes of the Ustasha.”

According to Zuroff:
“This ceremony, which had previously been stopped by church authorities in the wake of protests by the Wiesenthal Center and others, is a disgrace to the local Catholic Church and incomprehensible in a country about to enter the European Union. We call upon the Croatian authorities to ban such ceremonies in the future and urge the religious leaders responsible for Vjekoslav Lasić and Stanislav Kos, the priests who performed the mass, to defrock them for conducting a ceremony which made a total mockery of Christian values.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lithuania’s former Foreign Minister Vygaudas Ušackas, to apologize or retract his grossly insensitive comments regarding the Nazi occupation of his country in his December 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. In an article entitled “My Long, Strange Journey to Afghanistan,” Ušackas categorized the Nazi occupation of Lithuania (1941-1944) during which over 96% of the country’s Jewish community was murdered, in many cases by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, as “a respite from the Communists while the Nazis were in control.” In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the comment “a grave insult to the victims of the Holocaust and especially to those murdered in Lithuania.”

According to Zuroff:

“It is incomprehensible that an individual who represents the European Union can refer to the mass annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry in such grossly insensitive terms, which fail to reflect the historical reality of that period. We urge Ambassador Ušachas to apologize and retract his statement and call upon the European Union to take appropriate measures should he refuse to do so.”

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Berlin -The Simon Wiesenthal Center today launched "Operation Last Chance II," a project which will focus on the men who served in Nazi death camps and the Einsatzgruppen (special mobile killing units), at a press conference held at the Bundestag press lobby here today. Modeled after its original "Operation Last Chance" project started in 2002, which focused primarily on Eastern Europe, the current initiative, which is supported by the "Targum Shlishi Foundation" of Miami headed by Aryeh Rubin, is offering financial rewards of up to 25,000 euros for information which will lead to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals. The Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who conceived and directs the new project, explained that the May 2011 conviction in Munich of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk, who is the first person to be convicted in Germany without evidence of a specific crime with a specific victim, paves the way for the successful prosecution in Germany of any person who served in one of the death camps or the Einsatzgruppen. Also participating in the press conference were: MP Dietmar Nietan, former MP Gert Weisskirchen, and activist against anti-Semitism Joerg Rensmann.
According to Zuroff:
" The Demjanjuk conviction at long last enables the prosecution of individuals who were active participants in the mass murder of Jews on practically a daily basis for extended periods of time, but hereto for legal reasons could not be prosecuted for their crimes. This travesty of justice can now be corrected, but we are in a race against time to find the individuals still alive and expedite their prosecution. My estimate is that there are at least several dozen such cases which can still be brought to trial and we want to do whatever we can to help the German legal authorities bring these Holocaust perpetrators to justice."

Zuroff explained that the rewards will be given to the persons who give the information in the following manner:
5,000 euros upon indictment of the suspect;
5,000 euros upon his or her conviction;
100 euros a day for the first 150 days of imprisonment, for a total of an additional 15,000 euros. Total=25,000 euros.

The Center's hotline for information is in Germany: (01573) 494-7307
For those those calling from outside Germany: 49-1573-494-7307

Jerusalem/Muenster-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German authorities to investigate the possibility that the same officials who either colluded with neo-Nazi terrorists or purposely ignored their criminal activities also conspired to prevent the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, and its chief researcher in Germany Dr. Stefan Klemp, the Center noted that unlike the situation in most of the other Laender, where numerous Nazi war criminals have been and/or are currently under investigation, in recent years there have no investigations whatsoever of Holocaust perpetrators in Thuringia.

According to Zuroff and Klemp:
" In the light of this week's revelations, we cannot totally discount the possibility that the same officials who colluded and/or turned a blind eye to neo-Nazi activity in Thuringia helped made sure that no Nazi war criminals would be investigated, let alone prosecuted. The urgent investigation into the serious crimes committed by the neo-Nazis should therefore also seriously consider the possibility that their activities included efforts to shield their ideological predecessors from the recently increasingly successful efforts in Germany to bring Nazi war criminals to justice."

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Jerusalem/Münster. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die deutschen Behörden dazu aufgerufen, ihre Ermittlungen zum NS-Terror auszuweiten. Sie sollten auch die Frage beantworten, ob möglicherweise die gleichen Beamten, die entweder mit Neo-Nazi-Terroristen zusammenarbeiteten oder ihre kriminellen Aktivitäten ignorierten, auch an der Verhinderung der Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechern oder NS-Kriegsverbrechern beteiligt waren. In einer Stellungnahme, die heute vom Chef-Nazijäger des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, und dem Researcher des Wiesenthal Centers in Deutschland, Dr. Stefan Klemp, herausgegeben wurde, stellte das Wiesenthal Center fest, dass anders als in den meisten Bundesländern, wo es eine ganze Reihe von Ermittlungsverfahren oder auch Gerichtsverfahren gegeben hat, in Thüringen in den letzten Jahren nicht nur keine NS-Täter vor Gericht gestellt wurden, sondern es auch keine Ermittlungsverfahren mehr gegeben hat.
Zuroff und Klemp: „Angesichts der Enthüllungen in dieser Woche können wir es nicht völlig ausschließen, dass dieselben Beamten, die mit den Verbrechern unter einer Decke steckten und/oder ihre Augen gegenüber den Neonazi-Aktivitäten in Thüringen verschlossen haben, auch dazu beigetragen haben, dass in Thüringen nicht gegen NS-Verbrecher ermittelt wurde, geschweige denn NS-Kriegsverbrecher angeklagt wurden. Die Ermittlungen wegen der Verbrechern der Neonazis sollten deshalb auch die Möglichkeit in Betracht ziehen, dass die Beteiligten darauf abzielten, ihre ideologischen Vorbilder vor der andernorts in letzter Zeit erfolgreichen Strafverfolgung zu schützen.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized Estonia’s failure to prosecute local Nazi collaborator Mikhail Gorshkow, whose case was closed yesterday by the Estonian authorities without any legal action taken. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the decision as “typical of the total failure since independence of the Estonian authorities to hold local Holocaust perpetrators accountable for their crimes.”

According to Zuroff:
“Estonia’s refusal to prosecute Gorshkow is only the latest in a series of failures to bring Estonian Nazi collaborators to justice. Starting with Evald Mikson, who was defended by the Estonian Foreign Ministry despite his heinous crimes, and continuing with Harry Mannil, who was Mikson’s subordinate in the Political Police, Estonia has failed time after time to hold its Holocaust perpetrators accountable. One can only wonder why a person convicted in the United States suddenly has his identity questioned in Estonia?”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized Estonia’s failure to prosecute local Nazi collaborator Mikhail Gorshkow, whose case was closed yesterday by the Estonian authorities without any legal action taken. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the decision as “typical of the total failure since independence of the Estonian authorities to hold local Holocaust perpetrators accountable for their crimes.”

According to Zuroff:
“Estonia’s refusal to prosecute Gorshkow is only the latest in a series of failures to bring Estonian Nazi collaborators to justice. Starting with Evald Mikson, who was defended by the Estonian Foreign Ministry despite his heinous crimes, and continuing with Harry Mannil, who was Mikson’s subordinate in the Political Police, Estonia has failed time after time to hold its Holocaust perpetrators accountable. One can only wonder why a person convicted in the United States suddenly has his identity questioned in Estonia?”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the recent decision of Yad Vashem to rescind its original invitation to Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Darius Degutis and visiting Minister of Culture Arunas Gelunas to participate in tomorrow’s annual memorial assembly to commemorate the Jews murdered in Lithuania during the Holocaust. The decision was made in the wake of the refusal of Yosef Melamed, Chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, to attend the event in the light of a recent attempt by the Lithuanian government to prosecute him for “libeling”
so-called “Lithuanian heroes,” whom he exposed as participants in Holocaust crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the significance of Yad Vashem’s decision in the context of the ongoing battle being waged against the Lithuanian government’s energetic efforts to hide and/or minimize the active complicity of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, as well as its promotion of the Prague Declaration which seeks to establish a historically-false equivalency between Holocaust and Communist crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“Yad Vashem, which serves as the primary custodian of Shoa remembrance and the key guardian of the accuracy of the Jewish narrative of Holocaust history, is to be commended for fulfilling its historic function in a very courageous manner. Its decision is a crucial blow against the ongoing efforts of the Lithuanian government to distort the history of the Shoa in Lithuania and the role played by local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of local and foreign Jews in Lithuania, as well as Jews in Belarus and Poland.”

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Den Haag. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center erhält die Unterstützung der großen Parteien des niederländischen Parlamentes im Fall Klaas Faber. Bei einem Treffen mit dem Nazijäger Dr. Efraim Zuroff sagten die Spitzen der vier größten Parteien des Landes ihre aktive Unterstützung im Bemühen um eine Bestrafung des verurteilten SS-Mannes zu. Faber verbringt seinen Lebensabend in Ingolstadt. Er war in den Niederlanden wegen mehrfachen Mordes zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt worden. Ihm gelang jedoch die Flucht nach Deutschland. Die Bayerische Justiz lehnt weitere Ermittlungen gegen ihn ab.
Zuroff und der niederländische Investigativjournalist Arnold Karskens trafen gestern zusammen mit Step Blok (Liberale), Gert Wilders (Freiheitspartei), Emile Roemer (Sozialdemokraten) und Jolande Sap (Grüne). Sie wollen gemeinsam den Druck auf Deutschland erhöhen, damit Faber endlich seiner gerechten Strafe zugeführt werden kann. Ziel ist es, dass er seine Haftstrafe verbüßt. Entweder nach einer Auslieferung in den Niederlanden oder in Deutschland.

Zuroff:
“Die Unterstützung der großen niederländischen Parteien für eine Initiative zur Weiterverfolgung des Verfahrens gegen Faber in Deutschland ist ermutigend, muss aber nun so schnell wie möglich politisch umgesetzt werden. Wir haben die Parlamentarier auch dazu aufgerufen, Forschern endlich Zugang zu den Dokumenten des Falles zu ermöglichen, die in den Niederlanden unerklärlicherweise immer noch gesperrt sind.” Das Wiesenthal Center erhofft sich von den Dokumenten neues Beweismaterial

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The Hague, Netherlands-The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, met here yesterday with the leaders of the four largest parties in the Dutch Parliament to enlist their active support in the Center’s campaign to get Germany to take legal action against escaped convicted Dutch SS-executioner Klaas Carel Faber, who is currently living unpunished in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, having fled a Dutch prison, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of dozens of resistance members, Jews, and those helping to hide Jews. Zuroff, along with local investigative journalist Arnold Karskens, who heads the Dutch Foundation for War Crimes Research and has played a major role in the Faber case, met here with Step Blok of the Liberal Party, Gert Wilders of the Freedom Party, Emile Roemer of the Social Democrats, and Jolande Sap of the Greens to urge increased pressure on Germany to either extradite Faber back to Holland to serve his sentence or incarcerate him in a German prison.

According to Zuroff:
“The unanimous support of all Dutch political parties for increased pressure on Germany to successfully resolve the Faber case was heartening, but must be turned into effective political and judicial action as quickly as possible. We also called upon the MP’s to help gain access to pertinent legal records regarding Faber’s crimes which inexplicably continue to be closed to researchers in Holland and which are likely to reveal important details on additional crimes he committed, which can considerably strengthen the case against him.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center tonight expressed it sense of deep frustration upon learning of the death in Budapest yesterday morning of accused, and previously convicted, Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr.(of law) Sandor Kepiro, who was charged this year by Hungarian prosecutors with responsibilty for the murder of at least 36 persons during a massacre carried out by Hungarian forces in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on January 23, 1942. Last month a judge ruled in a Budapest court that while Kepiro was not innocent, the Hungarian prosecutors had failed to convincingly prove his guilt, but appeals had been launched by both the prosecution and the defense, and it was likely that they would be heard within the next few weeks. In a statement issued here tonight by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who discovered Kepiro and led the efforts to convince the Hungarian authorities to bring him to trial, the Center noted that it was likely that Kepiro's initial acquittal would have been overturned upon appeal and expressed its deep disappointment that his death prevented his conviction and punishment.

According to Zuroff:
" Kepiro's acquittal last month was not only a terrible travesty of justice which insulted the memory of the victims of the mass murder carried out by the Hungarian forces, and encouraged those who seek to deny Hungarian participation in Holocaust crimes, but also was in direct contradiction to voluminous historical and judicial evidence collected over the years, most of which was the basis for his original conviction in a Hungarian court in January 1944. Thus it is a fair assumption that the acquittal could well have been overturned on appeal, and Kepiro would have been once again convicted for his role in the Novi Sad mass murder. His death has unfortunately prevented such a decision, which would not only have focused attention on the active role of Hungarian Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, during World War II, but also would have ensured that the criminal responsibilty of one of the officers who was an active participant in these crimes would have been confirmed, for the first time ever, since democracy in a Hungarian court of law."

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Budapest – the Simon Wiesenthal Center described the acquittal here today of former Hungarian Gendarmerie officer Sandor Kepiro as an outrageous miscarriage of justice which directly contradicts the extensive evidences of Kepiro’s direct involvement and responsibility in the January 23, 1942 massacre of at least 1,246 innocent residences of the Serbian city of Novi Sad.
In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Kepiro had already been convicted in 1944 and 1946 in connection with his role in the massacre (although not for war crimes) and that the verdict would be appealed.

According to Zuroff: ”today’s verdict is an insult to the memory of the Novi Sad massacre and a sad day for Hungarian society. A judicial decision which brings joy to the ultra nationalists of Hungary and pain to the victims of fascist crimes is inherently flawed and the Center will do whatever he can to help to change it as quickly as possible.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the Lithuanian government for trying to hide or minimize the highly-significant role of local Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes and attributed last weekend’s desecration of the memorial at Ponar, the site of the mass murder of 70,000 Jews during the Holocaust, to the falsification of World War II history by local historians with governmental sponsorship and support. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center pointed to the denial at a recent international conference sponsored by the government at the Seimas [Lithuanian Parliament] of the lethal violence launched by Lithuanians against Jews in at least 40 different locations before the arrival of Nazi troops, as an example of the continuing efforts by the authorities to try and conceal the active participation by Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews during World War II.

According to Zuroff:
“The ongoing government-sponsored and financed distortion, minimization, and downplaying of the critical role played by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes has created an anti-Semitic atmosphere in which slogans such as “Hitler was right,” which was scrawled on the Ponar memorial, seem natural. After all, if as was claimed at the recent historical conference held at the Seimas, Jewish historians such as eminent Hebrew University professor Dov Levin purposely lied about the scope of Lithuanian criminality during the Shoa, such desecrations of Holocaust memorials become almost understandable. The time has come for the European Union to make clear to the Lithuanian authorities that membership obligates them to refrain from distorting the history of World War II for political reasons and to stop the resultant incitement against the local Jewish community

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center harshly criticized a memorial service held today in the Estonian city of Viljandi by the “Union of Estonian Soldiers” to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of their country, which according to the organizers, who were quoted in the Estonian newspaper Sakala, made “Estonians’ situation…normal again.” In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the statement “a malicious revision of the sad reality of Estonian history, in which one occupation was replaced by another, and a heartless affront to the memory of the Estonian Jews murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators.” The Center expressed solidarity with the Estonian Jewish community, which spoke out against the event, and called upon Estonian political leaders to publically denounce the initiative and make sure that no public funds were spent on this hatefest,

According to Zuroff:

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to refrain from honoring the “Lithuanian Activist Front” which sought to reestablish Lithuanian independence following the Nazi invasion of the country launched seventy years ago on June 22, 1941. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the vicious incitement against the Jews of Lithuania by the Lithuanian Activist Front prior to the invasion and their appeal for Lithuanians to take measures on their own against Jews considered suspect of betraying the country. These calls, it should be noted, led to widespread physical violence which claimed the lives of at least hundreds of Jews by local vigilantes, before the arrival of the Nazis in at least forty different locations.

According to Zuroff:

“Any attempt to glorify the Lithuanian Activist Front is not a tribute to Lithuanian patriotism, but rather a ringing endorsement of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and a horrific insult to the numerous victims of the Holocaust murdered by Lithuanians. The seventieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion should be an occasion for repentance and reflection on the role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes, and a day to honor those brave Lithuanians who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors. They were the true Lithuanian patriots, not the anti-Semites of the Lithuanian Activist Front .”

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“The recent death of Milivoj Ašner in Austria unprosecuted for his crimes, is a travesty of justice which reinforces the total failure of the Austrian judicial authorities to adequately deal with the issue of Nazi war criminals during the past more than three decades.

Ašner’s role in the persecution and death of hundreds of Serb, Jewish, and Roma residents of the city of Požega, Croatia in his capacity as local Ustasha  police chief was critical and his criminal responsibility for their tragic fate is absolutely clear.

To Croatia’s credit they act for his extradition from Austria in 2005 but Ašner was able to escape justice due to faulty handling of his case by the Austrian authorities, who instead of doing everything possible to bring him to justice allowed sympathetic doctors to prevent his prosecution by declaring him unfit for trial although he gave numerous media interviews in which he described his past in a very lucid manner.

“On this occasion it is important to reiterate the critical role of political will in bringing Holocaust perpetrators to justice and to call upon all the countries who face this issue to make an urgent final effort to bring these murderers to justice before it is too late to do so.”

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Budapest-Judge Viktor Vadasz of the District Court of Pest this afternoon acquitted the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff of libel charges filed against him by accused Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr. Sandor Kepiro, whom Zuroff exposed in 2006 and who will be facing criminal charges in a Budapest court this coming Thursday, May 5. In his verdict Judge Vadasz noted that Zuroff had acted in good faith by first contacting the Hungarian prosecutors after discovering that Kepiro had returned to Hungary from Argentina, before notifying the media.
According to Zuroff:
Needless to say, I am relieved to have been acquitted, but the most important issue is Kepiro’s guilt which will be hopefully established by a criminal court in his trial which begins Thursday morning. This has been a long and frustrating process, which began in the summer of 2006, but I am hopeful that justice will finally be achieved. That is what the victims of the massacre in Novi Sad deserve and that is what I have been fighting for from the very beginning of this process.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center has labeled a neo-Nazi march of approximately 1,000 participants held this past Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly condemned a proposal submitted by the family of Latvian mass murderer Herberts Cukurs to bury their father’s remains in the “Brothers’ Cemetery” in Riga, the site of the burial of Latvia’s most important heroes. In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center denounced the proposal as an attempt to absolve one of the biggest Latvian Nazi war criminals of his horrific crimes, which is an unforgivable insult to the memory of all the victims of the Holocaust and an affront to all Latvians with any sense of honesty and morality.

According to Zuroff:
“Hrebert Cukurs was the deputy commander of the notorious “Arajs Kommando,” which actively participated in the mass murder of tens of thousands of Latvian and foreign Jews in Riga and the provinces, as well as in Belarus. Cukurs was a zealous volunteer for the Nazi cause and its program of the annihilation of all the ostensible enemies of the Third Reich. Numerous testimonies in the Yad Vashem Archives document Cukurs’ crimes and the fact that he personally murdered numerous Jewish men, women, and children. The fact that he was never prosecuted in a court of law is no proof whatsoever of his innocence; unfortunately many of the biggest Holocaust perpetrators were able to escape justice. The burial of his remains in the “Brothers’ Cemetery” will be an eternal badge of shame for Latvia.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to make every possible effort to apprehend and punish the individuals who last night vandalized the site of the “Ninth Fort,” one of the most important sites of Holocaust mass murder in general, and in Lithuania, in particular. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center expressed grave pain and indignation that a place which currently commemorates, and during World War II had been the site of, such horrific Holocaust crimes in which tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators, was vandalized with swastikas and inscriptions calling for the expulsion of Jews, and memorial plaques were forcibly removed from their places.

According to Zuroff:
“The disgusting desecration of one of the most important sites of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry is a clear message of implacable hatred for the Jews living in Lithuania and a insult to the memory of the innocent Jewish victims brutally annihilated by the German and Austrian Nazis and their Lithuanian helpers, who carried out most of the killing at this site of infamy. It is high time that Lithuanian students and children will be taught the truth about the role of their countrymen in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and many thousands of Jews outside the country, and that the government stop trying to minimize local collaboration with the Nazis and promote the canard of equivalency between Communist and Holocaust crimes.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the dismissal of the case against
Holocaust denier Petras Stankeras and the failure of the Lithuanian prosecutors to publicize the decision. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the constant failure since independence of the Lithuanian judiciary to punish Lithuanians who commit crimes related to the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:
“While the crimes of Holocaust denial is not comparable to the terrible Holocaust war crimes committed by Liliekis, Gimzauskas and Dailide, the Lithuanian judiciary has once again demonstrated its total inability to punish locals who commit crimes related to the annihilation of European Jewry. I have no doubt that a Lithuanian who committed Communist crimes or tried to deny them would never be treated with such leniency. Perhaps those accused of Holocaust crimes have to be prosecuted elsewhere?”

Background: The November 16 issue of the popular news weekly Veidas published an article by Interior Ministry specialist Petras Stankeras in which he called the Holocaust a "legend." The Wiesenthal Center called for his prosecution under a Lithuanian law which makes the denial of Holocaust crimes a criminal offence. An investigation was initiated against him, but we recently learned that no charges had been filed against him, and Stankeras, who had resigned from his post under pressure from the Center and seven European ambassadors who had also protested against his denial of the Shoa, had applied to be reinstated to his original job.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision of the Vilnius Municipality to permit a march by local neo-Nazis and ultranationalists through the center of the Lithuanian capital this coming March 11, to mark the restoration in 1990 of Lithuanian independence. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic slogans and signs of the participants in last year’s march on the same day, and called upon the local authorities to change their misguided decision.

According to Zuroff:

“Freedom of speech does not include the right to incite hatred of Lithuania’s minorities and foreigners. The fact that racist and anti-Semitic slogans could be shouted with impunity on the main avenue of a capital of a member state of the European Union is incomprehensible. One of the primary factors for the rise of ultranationalist sentiments in Lithuania has been the abysmal failure of successive governments to teach the truth about the extensive complicity of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes and to punish local Nazi war criminals. Had the truth been admitted, there would be virtually no support in Lithuanian society for racism and anti-Semitism, but instead the government is spending hundreds of thousands of euros on falsifying the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania and seeking support for the lie that Communist crimes were just as terrible as those of the Nazis.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its deep satisfaction that the number one suspect on its list of most wanted Nazi war criminals, former Hungarian gendarmerie officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro, was officially charged with war crimes today in Budapest in connection with his role in the mass murders of hundreds of innocent civilians carried out by Hungarian military and gendarmerie forces in the area of the Serbian city of Novi Sad in late January 1942. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who tracked down Kepiro and in August 2006 informed the Hungarian justice authorities that he was residing in Budapest, the Center noted the significance of theindictment and its importance for the victims of Kepiro’s crimes and their families, as well as for Hungarian and Serbian society.

According to Zuroff:
“My thoughts today are with the people of Novi Sad and their families, the victims of the mass murders carried out by the Hungarian forces in January 1942. It is they who so deserve that justice finally be achieved in this case, so that they can finally achieve a measure of closure, even if it is many years after the crimes. The indictment of Kepiro also sends a powerful message that the passage of time does not diminish the guilt of the killers and that old age should not protect those who committed such heinous crimes. For the past more than four years, I have waited for this news and now we finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon the German authorities to make a final effort to bring to justice two convicted but unpunished Nazi war criminals living in Germany and to open the files of the BND (German Secret Service) regarding the postwar escape of notorious Holocaust perpetrators. In an op-ed piece published today in the important German daily Sűddeutsche Zeitung, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff noted the recent revelations which indicate that the BND knew of the whereabouts of arch Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann long before his capture in Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents, as proof of the significance of the files to which access has hereto been blocked. In addition, he emphasized the unresolved cases of Dutch Nazi SS executioner Klaas Carl Faber (living in Ingolstadt, Bavaria) and Danish SS officer Soern Kam (Kempten, Bavaria), both of whom were convicted in their countries of origin for murder, but have hereto eluded justice after escaping to Germany and being granted German citizenship.

According to Zuroff:

The visit to Israel today by Prime Minister Merkel and members of the Cabinet
is an excellent opportunity to thank Germany for its improved record in bring Nazi war criminals to justice, but also to point to two important issues which require the attention of the German government. We very much hope that Faber and Kam, both of whom committed hands-on murder in the service of the Nazis, will not escape punishment and that the critical files on the postwar escape of major Nazi war criminals will finally be opened to historians and researchers.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German Security Service (BND) to open its files on escaped Nazi war criminals in the wake of recent revelations that the German authorities already knew of the whereabouts in Argentina of Adolf Eichmann in 1952, eight years before he was abducted by the Mossad to stand trial in Israel for his critical role in the implementation of the Final Solution. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the importance of such information, which clearly shows the utter indifference of the German authorities at that time to the necessity of bringing such key Holocaust perpetrators to justice.

According to Zuroff:
“The time has come to reveal the truth about the efforts, or lack thereof, of Germany to apprehend and bring to trial the individuals responsible for the mass murder of European Jewry and millions of other innocent victims. There is important historical research which must be done on this topic, but which cannot proceed without the opening of the pertinent archives. We call upon the BND to finally grant full access to its records and to allow the full story, as problematic as it might be, to be made known to the public. The Nazis’victims, as well as the rest of the world , deserve no less.”

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Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute den Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) dazu aufgefordert, seine Akten über flüchtige NS-Verbrecher zu öffnen. Diese Forderung sei um so dringender, nachdem jetzt berichtet wurde, dass der deutsche Geheimdienst schon 1952, acht Jahre vor der Verhaftung von Adolf Eichmann im Jahr 1960, wusste, wo sich der Organisator des Holocaust in Argentinien aufhielt. In einer Stellungnahme unterstrich der Nazijäger und Leiters des Jerusalemer Büros des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, die große Bedeutung solcher Informationen, die das Desinteresse deutscher Stellen bei der Strafverfolgung von NS-Tätern in den 1950er Jahren belegen.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff: „Die Zeit ist gekommen, um die Wahrheit über die Bemühungen oder eben das fehlende Interesse Deutschlands an der Bestrafung derjenigen zu schreiben, die für den Massenmord an den europäischen Juden und Millionen anderer unschuldiger Zivilisten verantwortlich sind. Wichtige historische Recherchen müssen zu diesem Thema unternommen werden, aber ohne eine Öffnung der Archive werden sie verhindert. Wir fordern den Bundesnachrichtendienst dazu auf, endlich freien Zugang zu den Dokumenten zu gewähren, um die ganze Geschichte schreiben und veröffentlichen zu können, wie schwierig das auch sein mag. Die Opfer der Nazis und der Rest der Welt verdienen es.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised Australian Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O”Conner for appealing the recent decision by a Perth court which would have prevented the extradition to Hungary of suspected Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai, who has been accused of murdering an 18 year old Jewish boy named Peter Balazs, whom he caught on a Budapest streetcar without the yellow star required of all Jews. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center praised the perseverance of the Australian and Hungarian authorities in this case and noted that the decision reinforces the important principle that the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of Holocaust perpetrators.

According to Zuroff:
“Minister O’Conner has wisely not been persuaded by the disinformation campaign launched on behalf of Mr. Zentai by his family and supporters who are determined to prevent him from facing justice. There is an abundance of evidence which points unequivocally to Zentai’s active participation in the murder of Peter Balazs, which originally convinced the Hungarian government to initially seek his extradition in the late forties. Rather than regarding Zentai as a frail pensioner, he should be considered as a person who at the time of his physical prime devoted all his strength and energy to the persecution of innocent Jews.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the rejection by the European Commission of a call by the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to introduce a “double-genocide law” which would make the denial of Communist crimes a criminal offense.
In a statement issued today by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center welcomed the decision as an important milestone in the critical struggle against attempts by post-Communist countries to rewrite the history of World War II and the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:
“Today’s decision marks the first concrete step taken by the European Union to oppose the ongoing recent campaign by the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe which seeks to promote the canards that the crimes of Communism are equivalent to those of the Nazis, and that the Soviet Union is equally responsible with Nazi Germany for the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust. Rewriting the history of that tragic period in this manner, which also seeks to minimize the important role played by East Eastern local Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust, will not honor the memory of the victims of Communism, but will only shame those supporting this misguided initiative.”

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Budapest-The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed today’s decision by the District Court of Pest [Budapest] to reject a libel suit launched by convicted but unpunished Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr. Sandor Kepiro against its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, in the wake of Kepiro’s failure to appear at a hearing scheduled for this morning. In a statement issued today by Zuroff, the Center expressed its satisfaction that this “diversionary tactic” by Kepiro and his legal team had been disposed of, but emphasized that the key issue-Kepiro’s role in helping to organize and carry the mass murder of at least 1,250 innocent residents of the Serbian city of Novi Sad on January 23, 1942-still remained to be dealt with.

According to Zuroff:
“While I am naturally relieved that this legal harassment by Kepiro has been rejected by the court, the real issue of Kepiro’s guilt has still not been addressed properly by the Hungarian prosecutors who have been investigating his case for over three and a half years. Given the fact that Kepiro was convicted by a Hungarian court in 1944 in relation to the massacre in Novi Sad and the extremely strong evidence available regarding his role in the arrests and roundups of numerous residents of the city who were murdered by the Hungarian forces on January 23, 1942, Kepiro should have been brought to justice long ago. In view of the fact that Kepiro was already 92 years old when I initially submitted the information regarding his residence in Budapest to the prosecutors on August 1, 2006, it is particularly unfortunate that his case was not expedited by the Hungarian authorities. We therefore urge the prosecutors in Budapest to do everything possible to finally bring this Holocaust perpetrator to justice.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that it would continue its efforts to press for the extradition to Hungary of Charles Zentai for his role in the November 8, 1944 murder of 18 year old Peter Balazs, a young Jew whom he is accused of murdering, after catching him without the yellow star on a Budapest streetcar.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, in the wake of today’s proceeding in Perth in which the same judge who accepted Zentai’s appeal against his extradition ordered the government to pay his court costs, the Center indicated that it was determined to continue its efforts to bring the accused to justice.

According to Zuroff:
“The Center will do its utmost to help achieve justice in this case. I am in contact with Hungarian Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics, who was indicated that there is no statute of limitations on such crimes and that the request for Zentai’s extradition remains in force. During my visit next week to Budapest, I will continue to pursue this matter with the relevant local officials in order to facilitate justice. The Balazs family, Hungarian society, and all persons of morality and conscience deserve no less.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian government to prosecute Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior senior specialist Petras Stankeras, who called the Holocaust a “legend” and denied the murder of six million Jews in an article he published in the November 14 issue of the news weekly Veidas. In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff , the Center welcomed Stankeras’ resignation today, but noted that Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Lithuania and urged the implementation of the law in this case for the first time ever.

According to Zuroff:

“As shocking as the article by Stankeras was, it is hardly surprising to see Holocaust denial in a popular mainstream publication, in a country in which the government itself is actively promoting Holocaust distortion by seeking to gain recognition that Communist crimes are equivalent to those of the Nazis. If we add the abysmal failure to punish a single Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrator and the tendency to minimize or hide the role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, Stankeras’ article is only the tip of a very dangerous iceberg of lies and distortion.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German authorities to accede to a Dutch European arrest warrant issued yesterday for the incarceration of escaped Dutch SS-executioner Klaas Faber, currently residing in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, who is currently third on the Center’s list of “Most Wanted” Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Faber, who was convicted in Holland for his role in the murder of 22 persons after the war, escaped in 1952 to Germany, which has hereto rejected Dutch extradition requests, since Faber was the beneficiary of the infamous “Fuhrer directive” of 1943 which granted automatic German citizenship to foreign Nazi collaborators.

According to Zuroff:

“We welcome this step by the Dutch government and urge the German authorities to arrest Faber immediately so that the can finally serve his well-deserved punishment. The fact that this murderer of so many innocent people has been protected by Germany for so many decades is a travesty and sends a message that even those convicted of multiple murders can escape justice. Faber’s victims, their families, and Dutch and German society deserve that he finally be punished for his crimes.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

JJerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement in response to the death near Bonn of former Belzec death camp guard Samuel Kunz, who was indicted and awaiting trial for his role in the mass murder committed at the camp. The Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, expressed the deep frustration of having justice thwarted shortly before Kunz was scheduled to be brought to trial.

According to Zuroff:

“The fact that Samuel Kunz lived in Germany unprosecuted for so many decades is the result of a flawed prosecution policy which ignored virtually any Holocaust perpetrator who was not an officer. It was only the recent, long-awaited change in this policy which led to Kunz’s indictment and the opportunity to hold him accountable for his crimes. We urge the German authorities to expedite all such cases, given the advanced age of the suspects, so that a measure of justice can still be achieved.”

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Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center gab heute eine Stellungnahme zum Tod des ehemaligen Aufsehers des Todeslagers Belzec, Samuel Kunz, bei Bonn heraus. Kunz war angeklagt worden und wartete auf das Verfahren wegen seiner Teilnahme am Massenmord in dem Lager. Der Nazijäger und Leiter des Jerusalemer Büros des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, brachte seine tiefe Frustration darüber zum Ausdruck, dass Kunz der Gerechtigkeit kurz vor Beginn des Gerichtsverfahrens entkommen ist.

Efraim Zuroff:

„Die Tatsache, dass Kunz Jahrzehnte ungestraft in Deutschland leben konnte, ist das Ergebnis einer fehlerhaften Ermittlungsstrategie, die praktisch jeden Holocaust-Täter ignorierte, der kein Offizier war. Nur der jüngste, lange erwartete Wechsel der Ermittlungspraxis führte zur Anklage und hätte die Möglichkeit geboten, ihn für seine Taten zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen. Wir fordern die deutschen Behörden dazu auf, ähnliche Fälle wegen des hohen Alters der Beschuldigten schnell zu bearbeiten, damit Gerechtigkeit hergestellt werden kann.“

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Jerusalem- A defamation suit launched last year by Hungarian Nazi collaborator Dr. Sandor Kepiro against the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the person who discovered and exposed the former gendarmerie officer, who played an important role in the January 23, 1942 mass murder of at least some 1,250 civilians in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, will open tomorrow, Friday, October 8, at the Budapest district court. Zuroff discovered Kepiro living in the Hungarian capital after almost half a century in exile in Argentina and has spearheaded the efforts to hold him accountable for his role in helping to organize a massacre of Jewish, Serb and Roma residents of the city of Novi Sad in January 1942. All the officers implicated in the massacre were put on trial in Budapest in late 1943 and convicted in early 1944, but following the Nazi invasion of Hungary, their sentences were cancelled and they were given promotions and returned to active service, without any of them being punished.

In February 2007, the Hungarian prosecution initiated an investigation of Kepiro's role in the Novi Sad massacre, based on documentation submitted by Zuroff, but no decision has been made yet on whether he will be put on trial.According to Zuroff, the failure to date of the Hungarian judicial authorities to punish Kepiro for his role in the heinous crimes committed by the Hungarian forces in Novi Sad should be the main issue and not the truthful allegations levelled by the Wiesenthal Center against Kepiro. "Nothing could be more absurd than my being in the docket in Budapest, while a notorious Hungarian Nazi collaborator remains a free man in the Hungarian capital."

Dr. Zuroff can be reached for comment at: 972-50-712-4156.

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the support of Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman who this week urged his German counterpart Sabine Leutheusser – Schnarrenberger to find a way to take action in the case of escaped convicted Dutch Nazi war criminals Klaas Carel Faber, currently residing in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.

Since his escape to Germany in 1952 from a Dutch jail, where he was serving a life sentence for his alleged role in the murder of at least 11 civilians, Faber has been spared extradition to Holland and punishment in Germany due to legal technicalities. In a statement issued here today, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff called upon the Bavarian judicial authorities to review the case and refrain from granting Faber judicial protection on the grounds that he was not an officer.

According to Zuroff:

“As clearly demonstrated by the recent conviction in Aachen of Dutch SS-executioner Heinrich Boere and the indictments of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Munich and Belzec death camp guard Samuel Kunz in Dortmund, German prosecutors no longer consider “superior orders” a legitimate defense in Holocaust crimes. It is high time that Faber as well will be held accountable for his role in the murder of innocent civilians.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die Unterstützung des israelischen Justizminsters Yaakov Neeman begrüßt, der seine deutsche Kollegin Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger dazu aufgefordert hat, nach Wegen für eine Bestrafung des niederländischen NS-Täters Klaas Faber zu suchen. Faber war für seine Taten in den Niederlanden verurteilt worden, konnte sich der Haft aber durch Flucht entziehen und lebt heute in Ingostadt, Bayern.
Seit seiner Flucht nach Deutschland im Jahr 1952 lebt er aufgrund von rechtlichen Problemen in Freiheit. In den Niederlanden war er wegen der Ermordung von mindestens elf Zivilisten zu einer lebenslangen Haftstrafe verurteilt worden. In einer Stellungnahme hat der Nazijäger und Direktor des Wiesenthal Büros in Israel, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, die bayerische Justiz dazu aufgerufen, den Fall zu überprüfen und den bisherigen Standpunkt zu revidieren, wonach Fabers Tatbeitrag wegen seiner „untergeordneten Rolle als Teilnehmer an einem Erschießungskommando nur als gering anzusehen“ sei und deshalb nicht als Mordtäter belangt werden könne.
Zuroff: „Wie die Verurteilung des niederländischen SS-Killers Heinrich Boere in Aachen und die Anklagen gegen die KZ-Aufseher Ivan Demjanjuk in München und Samuel Kunz in Bonn deutlich machen, betrachten deutsche Staatsanwälte den Befehlsnotstand nicht länger als Hinderungsgrund bei NS-Gewalttaten. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass Faber für seine Beteiligung an der Ermordung von unschuldigen Zivilisten bestraft wird.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today sharply criticized comments made by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Andronius Ažubalis late last week at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the Homeland Union and Christian Democratic parties. In a presentation regarding proposed legislation which would permit individuals of Lithuanian origin living elsewhere to obtain Lithuanian citizenship in addition to their current citizenship, the Foreign Minister claimed that the bill was being promoted primarily by “Jews who seek citizenship to press compensation claims against the state.” In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center categorized Ažubalis’ remarks as “unabashedly anti-Semitic and totally divorced from reality.”

According to Zuroff:
“The Foreign Minister’s outrageous comments expose the insidious duplicity of Lithuania’s attitude toward foreign Jews of Lithuanian origin. On the one hand, the government recently announced its intention to establish a “Litvak Forum” to enlist the support and assistance of overseas Jews, yet at the same time, one of its leading ministers openly expresses his disdain for the same people. The Center therefore fully supports the stance of Lithuania’s brave local Jewish community, which has openly demanded an apology from Minister Ažubalis, whose comments ‘sow discord between Lithuanians and Jews.’”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United 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).

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. 150 örtliche Rechtsanwälte fordern in einer Eingabe die israelische Regierung dazu auf, in Deutschland rechtliche Schritte gegen den SS-Vollstrecker Klaas Faber zu erwirken, der in Freiheit in Ingolstadt lebt. Die Petition wurde gestern dem israelischen Justizminister Yaakov Ne’man übergeben. Initiator der Aktion ist der Anwalt David Schonberg. Er brachte den Ärger der Anwälte darüber zum Ausdruck, dass Faber, der in den Niederlanden für mehrere Morde zum Tode verurteilt wurde, seit Jahrzehnten unbestraft in Deutschland leben kann. Faber war 1952 nach Deutschland geflohen, das Todesurteil wurde später in eine lebenslange Haftstrafe umgewandelt. Mehrere niederländische Auslieferungsersuchen wurden in Deutschland abgelehnt. Mit der Beschwerde wollen die Anwälte die Bemühungen des Simon Wiesenthal Centers, Faber zur Verantwortung zu ziehen, unterstützen. Und man erhofft sich eine aktive Unterstützung der Aktion durch die israelische Regierung. Die Petition ruft die israelische Regierung auch dazu auf, die deutsche Regierung dazu zu bringen, Rechtsnormen wie den so genannten „Führerbefehl“ von 1943 zu ändern, der nichtdeutschen Kollaborateuren zur deutschen Staatsbürgerschaft verhilft und sie so vor einer Auslieferung in ihre Heimatländer schützt, wo sie rechtskräftig verurteilt worden sind.
Rechtsanwalt Schonberg: „Der Schutz, den das deutsche Recht diesem verurteilten Kriegsverbrecher gewährt, der ihm ein ruhiges Leben in Deutschland ermöglicht, ist eine Verletzung des Rechts und der menschlichen Werte und eine Verharmlosung der grausamen Verbrechen des Holocaust. Das ist ein schädliches Signal für die moderne Gesellschaft. Wir erwarten, dass unsere Regierung bei den Bemühungen um eine Bestrafung von NS-Tätern eine aktivere Rolle spielt.“
Der Leiter des Wiesenthal Centers in Jerusalem und Nazijäger Dr. Efraim Zuroff begrüßte die Initiative und fügte hinzu, dass „das Scheitern eines Prozesses gegen Faber in Deutschland und einer Auslieferung nach Holland ein Unrecht ist, das so schnell wie möglich korrigiert werden muss, so lange noch Gerechtigkeit erreicht werden kann.“ Die Petition wird auch unterstützt von der Organisation der Holocaust-Überlebenden und von Yad Vashem.

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Jerusalem-A petition signed by 150 local lawyers calling upon the Israeli government to urge Germany to take legal action against convicted Nazi SS executioner Klaas Faber, who is currently residing unpunished for his crimes in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, was submitted late yesterday to the office of Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman. The petition, which was initiated and organized by Advocate David Schonberg, expressed the lawyers’ sense of outrage that Faber, who was sentenced to death in Holland for a string of murders he carried out in the service of the SS but who escaped to Germany in 1952, has been living unprosecuted and unpunished in Germany for decades, despite several requests from the Dutch government for his extradition to serve his sentence, which had been commuted in the late 40’s to life imprisonment. The petition was submitted in support of the ongoing efforts of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to bring Faber to justice, and to enlist the active support of the Israeli government in this case. It also calls for the Israeli government to urge Germany to cancel any existing laws, such as the infamous “Fuhrer befehl”, which granted German citizenship to local non-German Nazi collaborators and protected them from extradition to their countries of origin to face prosecution and/or punishment.
According to Advocate Schonberg: “The protection that German law accords this convicted war criminal, enabling him to live untroubled in Germany is an affront to law and human values, and by its belittling of the enormity of the holocaust’s crimes, provides a harmful message to modern society. We expect our government to take a more active role in the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice and this is exactly the type of case where Israel’s involvement can prove of critical assistance”.
The Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff welcomed the initiative and added that “Germany’s failure hereto to put Faber on trial or return him to Holland are a travesty which must be corrected as quickly as possible, while justice can still be achieved.” The petition also has the support of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust survivors and Yad Vashem.

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156 (Zuroff) or 02-624-2458 ( Schonberg)

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center brachte heute seine Enttäuschung angesichts des Todes des des SS-Führers und Polizeihauptmanns Erich Steidtmann zum Ausdruck, der während des II. Weltkriegs als Offizier mehrerer Polizeibataillone am nationalsozialistischen Massenmord an Juden in Osteuropa beteiligt war, aber nicht für seine Taten zur Rechenschaft gezogen wurde. In einer Stellungnahme, die heute vom Leiter des Jerusalemer Büros des Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff veröffentlicht wurde, heißt es, dass Steidtmanns Tod jahrzehntelange Versäumnisse der deutschen Justiz bei den Ermittlungen in diesem Fall belegt. Schon in den 1960er Jahren war mehrfach gegen ihn ermittelt worden, die Verfahren wurden jedoch trotz guter Beweislage eingestellt.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff: „Nur dank der Recherchen des Historikers Dr. Stefan Klemp vom Wiesenthal Center und des Magazins der Süddeutschen Zeitung wurden die Ermittlungen wieder aufgenommen. Unglücklicherweise wird es aber nicht mehr zu einem Gerichtsverfahren kommen. Hätten die Staatsanwälte in den 1960er Jahren vernünftig ermittelt, wäre er der Gerechtigkeit nicht entkommen, aber wenigstens starb er nicht in Ruhe und Frieden.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its frustration and disappointment in the wake of the death earlier this week in Hannover of former Nazi police battalion commander Erich Steidtmann, who led several police battalions which actively participated in the mass murder of numerous Jews in eastern Europe, before he could be prosecuted for his crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Steidtmann’s death unprosecuted reflected a decades-long failure by the German judicial authorities in his case, which was opened as early as the sixties, but was closed then for lack of evidence.

According to Zuroff:
“It was only thanks to research by the Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Stefan Klemp and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine that the case against Steidtmann was reopened, but unfortunately it will never come to court nor will Steidtmann ever be punished. Had the prosecutors done their job properly in the sixties, he would not have escaped justice, but at least he did not die in peace and tranquility.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon Jews of Lithuanian descent (Litvaks”) the world over to boycott a new initiative announced late last week by Lithuanian Prime Ministry Andrius Kubilius to create a “Litvak heritage forum.” In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center accused the Lithuanian government of trying to enlist Jewish support for its ongoing campaigns of Holocaust distortion and promoting a false equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“The creation of a new “Litvak Forum” is merely the latest in a long line of Lithuanian governmental initiatives to promote a false narrative of the events of World War II, which minimizes the extensive role of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews and promotes the canard that Communist crimes were equivalent to those of the Nazis. Such an initiative is the equivalent of forming an Armenian support group for Turkish efforts to deny the Armenian genocide.

“The Center will continue its efforts to thwart Lithuanian Holocaust distortion and is already in contact with the “Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel,” the world’s largest Litvak organization to ensure the failure of the latest governmental tactic to hide the truth about the Holocaust in Lithuania and to prevent naïve Litvaks from helping destroy their own historical legacy.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly criticized a decision by a judge in Perth, Australia to reject a request submitted by the Hungarian government in 2005 for the extradition of Charles (Karoly) Zentai in connection with his role in the murder of Peter Balazs, an 18 year-old Jewish boy whom he caught in Budapest without the yellow star required by the local fascist authorities. In a statement issued by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the insufferable delays of the legal process in the wake of bogus technical challenges mounted by Zentai’s lawyers and noted that the failure to extradite Zentai means that Australia is the only major Western democracy, to which at least hundreds of Nazi war criminals emigrated after World War II, which has failed to take successful legal action against a single one of them.

According to Zuroff:
“Today is a very sad day for Australia, Australian justice, and especially for the Balazs family and for people seeking justice for the victims of the Holocaust. If anything, the Zentai case shows a lack of understanding by the Australian judicial system of the urgency and importance of bringing suspected Holocaust criminals to justice. Contrary to today’s decision, Zentai’s age is totally irrelevant (no country in the world limits prosecution based solely on age) and the notion that he would be treated harshly in Hungary, a member in good standing of the European Union and NATO is ludicrous. We urge the Hungarian and Australian authorities to take all possible measures to overturn today’s unfortunate decision.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center praised the public criticism by Latvian leaders of the march of extremist Latvian nationalists held today in Riga, but warned that the unprecedented celebration of the Nazi occupation of the city, held today in the middle of the Latvian capital, would have dire consequences unless a legal means were found to prevent such events in the future. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian and chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the unequivocal denunciation of the march by President Valdis Zatlers, as well as the criticism voiced by Prime Minister Dombrovskis and Foreign Minister Ronis, and urged the Latvian leaders to find legal means to prevent such demonstrations in the future. He emphasized, however, that such events did not occur in a vacuum and that Latvia’s failure since independence to prosecute Nazi war criminals, its attempts to glorify the members of the Latvian SS battalions which fought for a victory of the Nazi Germany, and its reluctance to fully acknowledge the scope and role of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews explain why such an unprecedented event was taking place in Latvia.

According to Zuroff:
“Unfortunately, there is far too much local sympathy for Latvians who committed the crimes of the Holocaust as long as they fought against the Soviets. The only way to eradicate this distorted perception of Latvian history is to tell the whole truth about the critical role played by Latvians in the mass murder of Jews and other victims of the Nazis, and to stop trying to create false historical symmetries between Nazism and Communism. Legal measures to stop the glorification of Nazi Germany are important, but the best long-term solution is truth in history education.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed its outrage at today's decision by a district court in Riga, Latvia to allow an event to "celebrate" the sixty-ninth anniversary of the Nazi occupation of the city at its famous Freedom Monument in the center of town this coming Thursday, July 1, 2010.

In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center strongly protested the decision which it categorized as "incomprehensible and totally outrageous," and an insult to all the victims of Nazism and those who fought to save the world from Nazi totalitarianism.

According to Zuroff:
" It is inconceivable that a member in good standing in NATO and the European Union will allow such an event to take place. To celebrate the anniversary of Nazi invasion of Riga on July 1 is to celebrate the mass murder of all those victimized by the Nazis in Latvia-primarily Jews but also Communists, Gypsies, and the mentally-ill. To hold such an event at the Freedom Monument is an insult to all those who fought for a democratic Latvia and the exact opposite of what that site is supposed to represent.

" We urge saner minds to prevail in Riga to stop this outrage from taking place and send a clear and unequivocal message that Latvia will not tolerate a glorification of Nazism, the scourge of the 20th century."

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a strongly-worded protest against the decision yesterday by a Lithuanian court in the port city of Klaipeda to regard swastikas as symbols of Lithuania’s historical heritage rather than of Nazi Germany. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the decision “outrageous” and likely to lead to a tremendous increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania’s ultra-nationalist fascists.

According to Zuroff:

“Such a decision is certain to encourage Lithuania’s fascists to increase their activity throughout the country. Allowing the use of swastikas sends a clear message to those local residents harshly victimized by the Nazis, that they are no longer welcome in their country of birth. Once again, Lithuanian judges show their obvious bias in favor of the perpetrators of Holocaust crimes rather then their victims. We urge the Lithuanian courts to overturn this outrageous and contemptible decision as quickly as possible.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed deep satisfaction in the wake of the conviction today of Dutch Nazi war criminal Heinrich Boere in a court in Aachen, Germany. Boere, who served in the Dutch “Silbertanne” SS murder squad, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three Dutch civilians suspected by the Nazis of hiding Jews and/or helping the resistance. In a statement issued in Jerusalem, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, praised the efforts of prosecutor Ulrich Maas and noted the significance of the trial which proved that Holocaust perpetrators could still be held accountable for their crimes.

According to Zuroff:

“The conviction of Boere, who volunteered to join the SS and openly admitted the crimes he committed is an important reminder that the overwhelming majority of the murderers of the Holocaust did so willingly and without any coercion whatsoever. Despite the passage of decades, this trial clearly shows that Nazi war criminals can still be brought to justice if there is political will to do so, which unfortunately is not the case in most European countries.”

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Jerusalem-The chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Holocaust historian
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, responded today to the attack leveled by recently-resigned Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Reikstins against his comments denouncing the march of Latvian-SS Legion veterans held last week in the Latvian capital. In a statement issued here, Zuroff categorized Reikstins’ comments in which he asserted that all the victims of World War II suffered equally as “an outrageous revisionist rewriting of history which erases all distinctions between perpetrator criminals and innocent victims.”

According to Zuroff:
“It is countries like Latvia, which attempt to cover up the complicity of their nationals in the crimes of the Holocaust, which are seeking to rewrite European history by creating false symmetries between Communist and Nazi crimes. The time has come for Latvia and its Baltic neighbors to stop trying to deflect and/or minimize local participation in the mass murder of the Jews during World War II and to desist from trying to equate Communist crimes with the Holocaust. Such efforts are not only an insult to the Nazis’ victims but dishonor those who suffered under Communism as well.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the critical comments made by Norwegian ambassador to Lithuania Steiner Gil regarding the failure of Lithuanian leaders and members of parliament to denounce a neo-Nazi march held earlier this month in the center of Vilnius. Ambassador Gil spoke at a seminar on “European and Lithuanian Values: Identical or Different?” held late last week in the Lithuanian Parliament. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center labeled the march “a horrifying spectacle of hatred, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism which brings back memories of dark days in Vilnius.”

According to Zuroff:
“Such neo-Nazi demonstrations have no place in European society, which suffered unprecedented losses at the hands of the Nazis and their local collaborators. The fact that no public figure had the courage to speak out against this manifestation of lack of tolerance is a strong indication of the weak foundations of Lithuanian democracy. Ambassador Gil’s criticism should serve as a dire warning to Lithuanian society.”

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Riga, Latvia – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the march of Latvian Waffen-SS veterans held this morning in the center of Riga to honor the Latvian SS legion which fought with the forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

In a statement issues in Riga by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who joined the anti-Fascist demonstrators against the march, the Center protested “the glorification of those who fought for a victory of the Third Reich, a regime directly responsible for the murder of tens of millions of innocent civilians.”

According to Zuroff:

“Today is a very sad day for Latvia and for the memory of the Holocaust. It is unthinkable that those who bore arms to help Nazi Germany subjugate Europe, among them numerous individuals, who actively participated in the mass murder of tens of thousand of Jews in Latvia and other countries, should be honored as if they are Latvia’s greatest heroes. Latvia’s true heroes are people like Janis Lipka and his wife who risk their life to save Jews from the German, Austrian, and Latvian Nazi murderers who sought to kill them.”

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Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die Untersuchungen zur Aufklärung der Ermordung von 200 Menschen im April 1945 auf dem Gelände der SS-Kaserne in Graz-Wetzelsdorf begrüßt. Gleichzeitig fragte Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Leiter des Wiesenthal-Büros in Jerusalem, warum die Aufarbeitung erst so spät beginnt.

„Schon 1945 wurden Massengräber gefunden und Leichen exhumiert. Täter waren bekannt, aber die österreichischen Behörden haben es 65 Jahre lang versäumt, nach ihnen zu fahnden. Natürlich ist es gut dass jetzt endlich ermittelt wird“, so Efraim Zuroff, „aber warum hat man so lange gewartet?“ Jetzt dränge die Zeit. Efraim Zuroff fordert die Behörden dazu auf, keine weitere Zeit zu verschwenden: „Die Täter müssen gefunden und, falls möglich, vor Gericht gestellt werden.“

Zagreb – The Simon Wiesenthal Center has announced that its Chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, has been awarded an official Croatian state decoration by President Mesić in a ceremony held here today at the presidential residence. According to the official announcement made by the office of the president, the Order of Trpimir with Ribbon and Star was conferred on Zuroff for:

“his outstanding contribution to the fight against historical revisionism and [the] re-assertion of the anti-fascist foundation of the modern-day Republic of Croatia and for the establishment of good relations between the Republic of Croatia and State of Israel.”

In his acceptance remarks, Zuroff thanked President Mesić for this courageous leadership in combating neo-fascism and Ustasha nostalgia in Croatia and noted the significance of the trial of former Jasenovac commandant Dinko Sakić, which he referred to as “the most important trial of a local Nazi collaborator ever conducted in Post-Communist Europe.” more...

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Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed a sense of outrage and deep frustration in the wake of the death yesterday in Costa Rica of Harry Mannil, who served with the infamous Estonian Political Police in Tallinn during the initial year of the Nazi occupation and actively participated in the arrest and interrogation of Jews and Communists who were subsequently murdered by local Nazi collaborators, but was never prosecuted for his Holocaust crimes.

In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the failure of the Estonian authorities to prosecute Mannil (who was listed as Number 10 on its “Most Wanted List” of Nazi war criminals and as a result of the Center’s efforts was barred from entering the United States) despite the findings of their own investigators regarding his activities in the framework of the dreaded Estonian Political Police, who were responsible for the arrest and murder of numerous Jews and Communists.

According to Zuroff:
“The failure of the Estonian authorities to bring Harry Mannil to trial is a reflection of the lack of political will in Tallinn to deal with the collaboration of Estonians in Holocaust crimes and a sad commentary on how an individual who was an embarrassment to his country bought immunity and respectability with financial payments.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
www.operationlastchance.org www.wiesenthal.com