IThe Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff has conducted
a series of meetings with Austrian Justice Minister Dietrich
Bohmdorfer and leading prosecutors in Romania and Poland
in order to expedite the investigation and prosecution of
Nazi war criminals in those countries. In a statement issued
today in Jerusalem to mark the conclusion of the launching
of the second phase of the Center’s “Operation: Last Chance”
program which offers financial rewards to informants who
submit evidence or information which leads to the prosecution
and punishment of Holocaust perpetrators, the Center noted
the necessity of granting such investigations priority and
expediting the cases which can be prosecuted. The project,
which has the generous support of the “Targum Shlishi” Foundation,
of Miami was initially launched in the Baltics, where it
has already led to the opening of three murder investigations
in Lithuania.
During the past ten days Dr. Zuroff met personally with Austrian Justice Minister
Dieter Bőhmdorfer, Romanian Prosecutor-General Dr. Ilie Botos,
and Prof. Dr. Leon Kieres, director of the Institute of National
Memory, which is responsible for the prosecution of Holocaust
crimes in Poland, and urged these officials to give highest
priority to the cases of Nazi war criminals.
According to Zuroff:
“Given the fact that those who committed
the crimes of the Holocaust can only be prosecuted for another
few years, it is particularly important that those countries
with such suspects give these cases the highest possible
priority. This problem is particularly acute in Austria,
where despite the existence of numerous suspects, not a single
Nazi war criminal has been convicted in over thirty years,
and in Romania, which has failed to initiate a single investigation
of a Holocaust perpetrator since it became a democracy, despite
the active participation of numerous Romanians in the implementation
of the Final Solution.”
For more information call: 972-50-7214156
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