January 14, 2011 11-5

GERMANY AWARDED HIGHEST GRADE FOR FIRST TIME EVER IN WIESENTHAL CENTER 2010 ANNUAL REPORT ON ONVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS

Jerusalem-Germany has, for the first time ever, been awarded the highest grade possible (A) in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, which was officially issued here yesterday. In a statement issued by its chief Nazi-hunter and author of the report, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the recent change in German prosecution policy, which has greatly expanded the number of potential suspects and yielded impressive results during the period covered by the report from April 1, 2009 until March 31, 2010.

According to Zuroff:
“ During the period under review, German prosecutors obtained two convictions, filed three new indictments, launched 130 new investigations and were pursuing 177 ongoing investigations as of April 1, 2010. These statistics represent a remarkable increase in German efforts to hold Holocaust perpetrators accountable for their crimes, and are a reflection of the important change in prosecution policy, which until now ignored suspects who were not officers and/or Germans or Volksdeutsche. These impressive results earned Germany an A, making it the only country besides the United States to ever be awarded that distinction. Although, there are still several problematic cases in Germany which require legal action, such as those of Dutch SS-executioner Klaas Faber and Danish Nazi murderer Soeren Kam, the positive results achieved by German prosecutors this year must be positively acknowledged.”

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