By Elli Wohlgelernter

Two months after a $10,000 reward was offered in the Baltic countries for information leading to the conviction of Nazi war criminals, 17 people have come forward and submitted 51 names of perpetrators, giving hope to Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff that prosecution is still possible despite the apparent lack of political will to bring Nazis to trial in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

At the same time, the monetary reward has unleashed a renewed outpouring of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel feeling among Baltic natives, and specifically aimed at Zuroff, head of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In one on-line interview he conducted, Zuroff was asked questions such as "Have you ever thought about the taste of revenge, do you really thirst for that?" "Why do you have such an evil look in your eyes?" and how he felt being "the most hated foreigner in Estonia."

The Wiesenthal Center has so far received the names of 47 suspects from Lithuania, some of whom reside outside Lithuania; three suspects from Estonia; and one suspect from Latvia, who resides outside the country. Of the 51 names, 12 are known to be dead.
Surprisingly, only one of the 17 individuals who responded to "Operation: Last Chance" mentioned the prize money.

" That is pretty amazing," Zuroff says. "To my mind it is an indication that a lot of people want to unburden themselves of the knowledge of these terrible crimes that they have been carrying around for all these years."

Some of the callers were afraid to reveal their names, such as a resident of the town of Valkininkai, Lithuania, whose sole identification is that he/she was born in 1937.

He/she does finger one Stasys Cerniauskas, a Lithuanian born in 1922. His crime took place in 1942-43 in a place called "Eisiskes, possibly also in Paneriai," where he "executed, robbed clothes, pulled out gold teeth. Assassinated children and women. Did this willingly with a lot of satisfaction. Jews tried to bribe him by giving gold, but that did not help."

One 70-year-old man names four policemen three Lithuanians and one Pole who worked in Vilnius, one in charge and the others acting as executioners. His evidence of their crimes? He was forced to play the accordion at a party, where "the four suspects boasted that they had murdered Jews in Ponar, pulled out victims' gold teeth, raped a girl and later shot her."

Another caller was a maid for a family active in the Gestapo, who gives their former names and current aliases.

Where lies the motivation of these individuals coming forward now to finger former Nazis? Is it for reward, for clearing a conscience, for exorcising a memory?

One 72-year-old from Vilnius accused four Lithuanians -- one of whom was in charge of the ghetto in Ukmerge (in Yiddish known as Vilkomir) -- who, in the summer of 1942, "executed, looted property, pulled out gold teeth, threw alive children into the pits, stripped people naked." According to the information form, "at the time of the crime the caller was 12 years old and eyewitnessed the murders."

ZUROFF IS not quite sure why they are coming forward now.

" It is very possible that many never wanted to give information or testify to the Soviet authorities -- which could have been interpreted as a form of treason or betrayal -- but didn't come forward until now, 11 years after Lithuania's independence, out of inertia. This project definitely focused public attention on the issue of collaboration with the Nazis, hence the response.

" One other important point: quite a few of the names submitted are of people who are already dead, so maybe it is a matter of the information being on people's consciences. They perhaps view this as a means of unburdening themselves," he says.

The reward offer was made in July at news conferences held in all three countries. A print-ad campaign is scheduled to begin later this month and run until the end of the year, and Zuroff is hoping that more Baltic natives will see the ads and respond.

" Our best chance is in Lithuania, and to a certain extent in Latvia. You have to keep in mind that in those two countries there are numerous people who either participated in, or
witnessed, or at least know about the murder of Jews during the Shoah. If we add the fact that many Lithuanian and Latvian perpetrators were convicted by the Soviets and therefore can testify with no fear of being punished for their crimes again, there is excellent potential to get reliable evidence.

" The numbers of victims and criminals are greater in Lithuania than in Latvia, so our chances of success are better in the former. In Estonia the chances are considerably smaller because there were fewer victims and perpetrators. We have to see what the ads will bring. After that, we will decide whether to expand Operation: Last Chance to other countries, continue only in the Baltics, or drop it."

Part of that decision will be predicated on what course of action the governments of those countries elect to pursue. The reaction so far has been varied in the three countries.

In Lithuania, a radical politician from the Lithuanian Taurage district requested the prosecutor general's office start legal proceedings against Zuroff, saying his reward offers "were felonious, instigated national discord and hurt Lithuanian people."

The politician, Saulius Ozelis, leader of the radical Freedom Union's Taurage branch, publicly tore up an Israeli flag in April, and burned an Israeli flag in July with the sounds of Nazi marches blaring in the background.

One issue prevalent in the Baltic countries, as well as elsewhere is the constant comparison between the crimes committed against Jews during the Nazi occupation and those committed by the Communists against the local population.

This led to a small county government representative in Estonia offering $20,000 for information on Jewish communists responsible for Stalin-era crimes.

Further complicating the issue is the impending offers of membership to former Soviet republics and eastern European countries to join the EU and/or NATO. Many countries, anxious to convince the West that they have internalized democratic values, have adopted a day to remember the Holocaust, something done last month by Estonia.

THE REACTION in some quarters was loud and angry. The editor-in-chief of the cultural weekly Sirp wrote: "Do we really have to inculcate in our children for a whole day every year what a lousy nation we were and what a huge load of guilt we have to bear before the world, just for the reason that a bunch of people once acted like pigs?..."

Martin Helme, a member of the new National Conservative Party and son of the party's leader said in an opinion piece in htuleht: "No serious person can accuse us of anti-Semitism; there is no historical background for that. Still, for the benefit of Estonia's reputation the Holocaust Memorial Day is settled. We can call this day a National Shame Day. The Estonian nation must not feel the shame, but rather those people who force such day on us... We can fearlessly say that Efraim Zuroff, who makes justice sound ridiculous all over the world, and persons who gave up to his blackmail (starting from foreign diplomats in Estonia to Estonian ministers), are causing more anti-Semitism than Nazi propaganda in 1940's..."

Zuroff says he is not surprised by the hostile reaction to Operation: Last Chance, or even the personal attacks, which he has gotten used to over the years, "although the depth of the hostility was a bit shocking, even to me. Each country had its nuances, but it is also a function of the efforts previously invested in the issue.

" Thus, for example, in Lithuania where I have been on the front-lines of penetrating public consciousness regarding Lithuanian complicity in the crimes of the Holocaust for more than a decade, there was less mainstream reaction than there was in Estonia, where we have only been very active during the past year.

" On the other hand, the reaction of the extremists -- MP Klubys demanding that I be declared a persona non grata, and Ozelis burning an Israeli flag and asking the prosecutor-general to prosecute me -- were more extreme in Lithuania than in the other countries."
Zuroff says he is satisfied so far with the results of the campaign, and is encouraged it will bring results.

" Realistically speaking, I think that if the local prosecution agencies will take this matter seriously -- which remains to be seen -- there is a realistic possibility of achieving prosecutions and trials in each one of the three countries," he says.