1. Rationale
While the necessity of bringing those who committed
the crimes of the Holocaust to justice is patently obvious, the
practical difficulties of achieving this goal are becoming increasingly
difficult as time goes on. Although there are at least many thousands
of individuals who actively participated in the implementation
of the Final Solution who have never been prosecuted for their
crimes, the chances of their being held accountable are rapidly
diminishing due to several obvious factors:
1. |
the advanced age of
the suspects |
2. |
the advanced age of the potential
witnesses (survivors, bystanders, and/or fellow perpetrators) |
3. |
the difficulty in obtaining credible
witnesses for crimes which were committed many years ago, often
in remote and/or inaccessible locations chosen to insure secrecy |
4. |
the lack of political will to prosecute
local Nazi collaborators in numerous post-Communist societies |
5. |
the lack of political will to prosecute
immigrant Holocaust perpetrators in some of the countries of
refuge |
Under these circumstances, the Simon Wiesenthal Center believes that a special effort must be made during the coming year to maximize the attempts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. In order to contribute its share to achieve this goal, the Center-together with Targum Shlishi, a charitable foundation founded and headed by Aryeh Rubin of Miami, Florida, who conceived of this project- has decided to launch “Operation: Last Chance,”, a special program designed and implemented by Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to help identify as many perpetrators and potential witnesses as quickly as possible and thereby facilitate the bringing to justice of hereto unprosecuted Holocaust perpetrators.
2. Implementation
a. |
The Simon Wiesenthal
Center is hereby officially announcing its intention to pay
the sum of ten thousand U.S. dollars ($10,000) to any person
who submits relevant information which will lead to the prosecution
and conviction of a Nazi war criminal who will be punished
for his or her crimes. This offer applies to any Nazi war criminal
who committed his or her crimes during World War II, regardless
of his or her current place of residence. |
b. |
Besides press conferences announcing
the launching of “Operation: Last Chance” in Vilnius,
Riga, and Tallinn, ads with details on the project will appear
in the local media. There will also be a special website for
the project which can be reached through www.wiesenthal.com |
c. |
Those submitting pertinent information
will remain anonymous if they so desire |
3. Why “Operation: Last Chance” Is
Being Launched in the Baltics?
There are numerous reasons why the Baltics were chosen
as the initial place to implement “Operation: Last Chance.” While
several relate to the specific nature of the events of the Holocaust
in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, others are a product of practical
and technical considerations. The most important are the following:
1. |
These countries had
the highest victimology rate in Europe during the Holocaust.
Not only were the local Jewish communities almost completely
annihilated but many thousands of Jews from other countries
(Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and France) were
deported to the Baltics and murdered in Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia. |
2. |
The extremely large number of local
collaborators who actively participated in the mass murder
of the local Jewish communities and Jews deported to these
countries. |
3. |
The fact that local police units
from each of the Baltic countries were sent abroad, where they
actively participated in the mass murder of Jews (especially
in Belarus and Poland.) |
4. |
Following the occupation of the
Baltics by the Soviet Union in 1944, many Nazi war criminals
were prosecuted and convicted by the Soviet authorities. These
individuals can testify regarding crimes committed during the
Holocaust that they personally witnessed without fear of prosecution |
5. |
The fact that there has not been
a single prosecution of a local Nazi war criminal – in
which the defendant was healthy enough to attend the trial
and bear punishment if convicted – in any of the three
Baltic countries makes the efforts to bring the guilty to justice
of unique significance for Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian
society. |
6. |
With all three countries on the
verge of being invited to join NATO and the European Union,
there will be special interest in the attitude of the Baltic
republics to this important subject. |
|