The Simon Wiesenthal Center Jerusalem starts the last big hunt for NS-perpetrators – the “Operation Last Chance”. In that context Austrians are getting in sight.

No, Efraim Zuroff has no time for minor matters. When he enters his unpretending office in Jerusalem, he knows that again one stage of the race against time has started. And that with every day there is one day less to fulfil his mission.

The three rooms in which apart from Zuroff only a half-time secretary is working carry a great name – Simon Wiesenthal Center Jerusalem. Here the threads of the last hunt for NS-War Criminals come together: of the Operation Last Chance, as Zuroff has titled the project. Three, at maximum five years he gives himself. Then probably all will be dead, the perpetrators, the witnesses, the victims.

Zuroff has a big mentor: Simon Wiesenthal, who regards him as his legitimate inheritor – not only since the 95 year old “Nazi Hunter” has retired. “My work is done”, says Wiesenthal, who nevertheless spends one hour in his Vienna office every day (see page 37). “Efraim Zuroff is doing a good job.”

No breathing-time. Thereby he is having no breathing-time – as his predecessor. Since 25 years Efraim Zuroff is hunting Nazi criminals. At first he worked for the US-american Office of Special Investigation, then for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Finally he started to concentrate on the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. More than 170 names of suspects are already on Zuroff’s list.

Now he is thinking of taking the Operation Last Chance to Austria also. “I am convinced that this is one of the first countries in which we must push this project. Here there are many potential suspects”, says the graduated historian. Before, he will publish his Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals as every year. It is clear now, that the government in Vienna is not doing well in that context. “I am going to write the same as in 2002”, says Zuroff, “that almost nothing is being done”.

Critics. An assessment that is being shared by DÖW-chief Wolfgang Neugebauer: “I am expecting nothing from the Austrian authorities. Until to day there were no serious efforts to hunt perpetrators.”

Eleven investigations against suspected NS-War Criminals were pending in March last year in Austria. Meanwhile seven have been dropped unceremoniously.

Three of them were headed against Austrians who allegedly participated in the massacre of Lidice (Czech). On June 9 and 10 1942 the Nazis there took revenge for the murder of SS- intelligence service chief Reinhard Heydrich. 199 male civilians were shot. 184 women were deported to KZ Ravensbrück, where 52 of them died, 80 children were killed in the gas chambers of Chelmno.

Informations. The Berlin solicitor Frank Metzing had traced three suspects after long years of research and reported them to Prosecutor’s Office in Vienna: SS-Obersturmbannführer Heinrich B., Oberleutnant der Schutzpolizei Franz R. and Karl O. members of the firing squad.
After three long months of investigation the case was dropped at the beginning of February this year. The investigation had brought “no evidence that the suspects were still alive or that they had committed criminal offences in context with the Lidice massacre”, Prosecutor’s Office informed Zuroff, who also was interested in the case.

Four other cases also did not make it any further as to preliminary investigation. In addition, public in most cases did not even learn that theses cases were running. A strange rule of data protection makes it possible.

Cases. Remaining only four. The first is stone old and concerning Alois Brunner, who organised the extermination of Jews together with Adolf Eichmann. Brunner is said to be in Syria. In France he was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment last year. The chance that he might be tried in Austria is almost zero.

Case two has been going on for several years. The Nazi doctor Heinrich Gross from Vienna is accused of several “Euthanasia” murders of handicapped children. He is regarded as unfit to stand trial. The case is probably not going to be restarted.

Case three is running at Klagenfurt. Justice there is investigating against the former SS man Wilhelm Schubernig. He is suspected with participation in mass execution of Italian civilians in March 1944. Three expert reports say that he is unable to be questioned because he is ill.
For the fourth case, the Ministry of Justice does not want to give any information, because of the data protection, as they put it. Probably this case is against the former KZ-guard Michael Gruber. The Austrian emigrated to the US in 1945. Then US authorities traced him. Last year he escaped to his ex-home country.

Similar is the uncleared case of KZ-guard Ferdinand Hammer. He has been extradited from the USA to Austria two years ago, because he did not mention his past when he entered the United States.

But these cases are not the main focus in Efraim Zuroff’s actual investigations against Austrian suspects. There is a huge white spot on the map of the Nazi hunters: the so called Police Battalions, that carried out the extermination of Jews in the shadow of the Wehrmacht. Results of recent research indicate that Austrian policemen also participated in the extermination of Jews in the east as the SS. Six such units during the Nazi time existed in Austria – for example the Police Battalion Kagan (SK: PB 322), called after the quarter in Vienna. It consisted of 554 men and later became part of Police Regiment Middle.

Happy Hunting. The atmosphere was good, when they drove off Stadlauer station in direction to Russia, so the War diary of the unit says. To farewell they sang the song “Muss I denn zum Städtele hinaus”. When checking a kind of parade, the officers noticed the enthusiastic eyes of the men”, it says in the files that historian Herbert Zechmeister found.
Place of action: among others the Ghetto in Minsk. In Summer 1941, the policemen from Vienna participated in the shooting of 91 Jews.

What is described as “Carrying out the execution” by the war diary is reported by a witness after the war: “The drunken shooters pulled the little children from the lorry and threw them brutal in the ditch. From time to time children were thrown through the air and shot with Machine Guns while flying.” “At training we were told every time that this race was to be exterminated. They were guilty of all evil in the world”, the Austrian policeman Erich Hundertpfund remembers.

None of the Austrian perpetrators was convicted after the war. The opposite: Many of them were hired directly to serve at Bundespolizeidirektion Wien (Austrian FBI) – what lead to absurd scenes: When German authorities started first investigations against members of Police Battalions, servants of police in Vienna had to question themselves. The result was clear. Historian Zechmeister: “For Austria, no trials against members of Police Battalions are known.”

It is exactly this point that Zuroff wants to pick up now: “We are collecting the material in some cases now and think about how we can direct the attention of the authorities to it.” However there is no statute of limitation for genocide. Not even in Austria. (But in Germany where genocide in the Nazi time cannot be prosecuted, SK)

Below the text there is an extract from the war diary of Police Battalion Kagran concerning the execution of Jews in Minsk.

Interview

“Many suspects in Austria”

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Jerusalem about the search for War Criminals and the inactiveness of Austrian authorities.

F: Mr. Zuroff, you are actually preparing your Annual Report on the Worldwide Investigation and search for Nazi War Criminals. What are you going to write about Austria?

Z: The same as last year….

F: when you wrote the following: “The situation in Austria is the most disappointing with the most potential suspects but not notable activities to investigate the cases are made” (the least likelihood of their prosecution)… What are the reasons for this?

Z: The inactiveness of Austrian authorities is a direct result of the not existing political will to try NS-War Criminals. More than 50 years after the end of the war the prosecution of these people is the responsibility of the countries in which they live or committed their crimes.

F: The Simon Wiesenthal Center actually is conducting the Operation Last Chance in the Baltics to trace surviving Nazi Criminals. Are you planning the extend this project to Austria?

Z: We will decide about it within the next weeks. I am convinced that Austria is one of the first countries where we should push the project. In Austria there are many potential suspects. If we do a good job, then some of them could be brought to justice.

F: How many Nazi-War Criminals do you expect in Austria?

Z: There are no concrete numbers. But we have investigated the long ignored action of the Police Battalions together with German Government. From that experience we know that many Austrians participated in war crimes in the east. We are now collecting information in some cases and think about how we could direct the attention of Austrian authorities to this – hoping that they would be willing to investigate such cases.

F: Do you think that this could be successful after such a long time?

Z: It is true that it is not easy – suspects die, victims die or become ill. But the chance is still there. Between January 2001 and March 2002 fourteen NS-War Criminals have been convicted worldwide – for example in Germany, France, Poland and the USA. No question: Also in Austria it would be possible to achieve justice.

F: Do you get support from the Austrian authorities?

Z: This is rather a rhetorical question. The Austrian authorities are not that much interested. Some years ago I talked to the Austrian ambassador in Israel, Wolfgang Paul, about the possible action that could be taken by the government to clear Nazi War Crimes – for example to set up a special unit that could deal with these cases. Unfortunately nothing like this has happened.

The person: Efraim Zuroff, 55, … brought Kurt Waldheim on the watch list of the US.

Interview

Wiesenthal: “The work is done”
Nazi Hunter. Format visits the 95 year old Simon Wiesenthal in his office and talked to him about the biggest cases and his retreat.

Pic: “I have found the mass murderers that I was searching”; Simon Wiesenthal in his office (2003, 1968, 1963) and on the vandalised Jewish Cemetry in Eisenstadt (1982).

The mass murderers that I was searching, I have found. I have survived them all. If there were some that I have not been looking for, they are too old and too ill today to try them. My work is done.”

Visit in Simon Wiesenthal’s modest office in Vienna’s textile quarter: The hunting of NS-War Criminals for the Nazi hunter today is over – for reasons of age. Nevertheless the 95 year old director of his Documentation Center is still going to his office every day, his word is still of importance, his calendar is full. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Jerusalem actually is again on tour in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to get hold of the willing executioners of the Nazis. There, according to Wiesenthal, most of the surviving Nazi Criminals, are living – without having been tried. As Aleksandras Lileikis, who was extradited from the USA to Lithuania, where he died peaceful in his bed four years later. Lileikis was the head of the Lithuanian Security Police Saugumas from 1941 – 1944 and responsible for the death of 70.000 people – most of them Jews.

Sympathy for Nazis. “It is very difficult to attend public attention to the crimes of these people”, says Wiesenthal. At the trial against the KZ-commandant Josef Schwammberger – he still remembers today – there was expressive sympathy of the audience for the old accused: “Always and still I have to take care of groups and clubs who pretend that there never was something like the Holocaust.”

In his office today there should be about 7000 files on Nazi perpetrators. It is estimated that Wiesenthal took part in the investigation of 3000 Nazi criminals. Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann’s right hand, for him is the most important Austrian NS-Criminal. Following sentence: “If he is alive. If he is living in Syria, then there extermination of Jews probably is no crime”, says Wiesenthal bitter, after there are hints, that the killer has found a haven in the dictatorship.

His philosophy “Justice not revenge”, Wiesenthal thinks that he has come quite close to it. The Nobel prize for peace, that he was nominated for, got lost because of his sense for justice. Wiesenthal tried to achieve a more differentiated attitude to the forgetful Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, than organisations as the World Jewish Congress liked. Apart from the conflict the the WJC there was a proceeding against Bruno Kreisky, that Wiesenthal has won in 1989, but left several scars. Wiesenthal today says: “We are leaves from the same tree”, he mildly describes other conflicts similar to the one with the first Jewish Chancellor in Austria.

The philosophy: “I did not forget you” is now added with a new part: “In the last years many old Jews send me letters with statements. I ask then: Why didn’t you write earlier? My conclusion then always is: If these people die, they will answer to the question “What have you done?”: “We have written to Wiesenthal.””