Vienna (dpa) - The Simon Wiesenthal Center launched a last-chance bid on Monday to bring Austrian Nazi war criminals to justice.

" Operation Last Chance" was launched with an advertisement in the mass-circulation Kronen Zeitung saying that "The murderers are among us".

It offered a 10,000 euro reward for information leading to the conviction of ex-concentration camp guards, mass murderers, and former members of the Nazi secret police Gestapo.

Shown in the advertisement was a picture of a firing squad aiming at the backs of victims. A caption said that "most Nazi murderers remain unapprehended - in Austria too". Appealing for those with information to come forward, it concluded with the words: "Thank you for your support for justice."

In a visit to Austria in September, head of the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, the initiative announced at a press conference.

Zuroff charged that Austria was the country which had contributed least to the prosecution and conviction of Nazi war criminals. He said he had already handed over a list of 47 names of possible Nazi war criminals to the Vienna Justice Ministry, and had a talk with the minister, Dieter Boehmdorfer.

He said it was not known whether all 47 people on the list were still alive, or whether they were all in Austria. But they were only "the tip of the iceberg".
He said special attention was being paid to former members of police battalions under the Nazis. Many members had been Austrians, but in contrast to Germany there had never been a single Austrian court conviction.