Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the primary
findings of its seventh Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation
and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period
from April 1, 2007 until March 31, 2008 and awarded grades ranging
from A (highest) to F to evaluate the efforts and results achieved
by more than three dozen countries which were either the site of
Nazi crimes or admitted Holocaust perpetrators after World War
II.
Among the report’s highlights are the following important
developments:
1 |
For the first time
in almost a decade, a Nazi war criminal (ethnic German Michael
Seifert who served at the Bolzano concentration camp) was
extradited from the country to which he emigrated after World
War II (Canada) to the country where he committed his crimes
and had been convicted in absentia (Italy). |
2 |
In contrast to the past two years
during which the number of “convictions” of Nazi
war criminals (including denaturalizations and deportations)
increased dramatically from five to twenty-one, only seven
Nazis were “convicted” during the period under
review. The main reason for the decline was the reduction
in the number of convictions in Italy which dropped from
fifteen last year to one this year. |
3 |
Among the most important positive
developments was the significant increase in the number of
new investigations initiated during he period under review
which rose from sixty-three last year to over two hundred. |
4 |
The most disappointing result
in a specific case during the period under review has been
Hungary’s failure hereto to bring to justice Dr. Sandor
Kepiro, one of the officers who carried out the mass murder
of hundreds of civilians in Novi Sad, Serbia on January 23,
1942 who was convicted but never punished for the crime and
who was exposed by the Wiesenthal Center living in Budapest
in the summer of 2006. |
5 |
The continued and consistent
success of the American “Office of Special Investigations” to
take successful legal action against Holocaust perpetrators
and the ongoing failure of most post-Communist governments
to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. |
The author of the report, Israel director Dr.
Efraim Zuroff, who coordinates the Center’s research on Nazi
war criminals worldwide, noted that the statistics in the report
clearly show
that a significant measure of justice can still be achieved against
Nazi war criminals. “Since January 2001, seventy-six convictions
against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least forty-eight
new indictments have been filed, and hundreds of new investigations
have been initiated. Despite the somewhat prevalent assumption
that it is too late to bring Nazi murderers to justice, the figures
clearly prove otherwise, and it is clear that of such criminals
will continue to be brought to trial during the coming years.
While it is generally assumed that it is the age of the suspects
that is the biggest obstacle to prosecution, in many cases it
is the lack of political will, more than anything else, that
has hindered the efforts to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice,
along with the mistaken notion that it was impossible at this
point to locate, identify, and convict these criminals. The success
achieved by dedicated prosecution agencies, and especially by
the US Office of Special Investigations, should be a catalyst
for governments all over the world to make a serious effort to
maximize justice while it can still be obtained.”
Zuroff went on to explain that the Report’s purpose was
to focus public attention on the issue and thereby “encourage
all the governments involved to maximize their efforts to ensure
that as many as possible of the unprosecuted Holocaust perpetrators
will be held accountable for their crimes. In that respect, we
seek to highlight both the positive results achieved by countries
like the United States and Italy, as well as the abject failures
of countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine
which have continuously failed to bring any Holocaust perpetrators
to justice, as well as Sweden which in principle refuses to investigate,
let alone prosecute (due to a statue of limitations), and others
who have either chosen to ignore the issue (Syria) or which have
consistently failed to deal with it effectively primarily due
to a lack of the requisite political will.”
For more information call our office: 972-2-563-1273 or in Israel:
02-563-1273
Or: 972-50-721-4156 or in Israel: 050-721-4156
|