|
Aribert Heim, one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals still thought to be at
liberty, was hunted down and killed by a Jewish death squad
in 1982, a new book claims.
Danny Baz, a retired colonel in the Israeli air force, claims in a book published
in France this week that the Austrian death camp doctor
was tracked down in the United States by a Jewish search-and-destroy
squad called "The Owl" and shot dead. The group's members, which included Mr Baz, are said to have
been veterans of the Israeli and American militaries.
Heim is known as the Butcher of Mauthausen after carrying out medical experiments
on concentration camp inmates in the Austrian death camp.
He removed human organs without anaesthetic to see how
long victims lived. But after the Second World War he served
only two years in jail before resuming work as a gynecologist
in Baden-Baden.
Alerted of his imminent arrest,
Heim disappeared in 1962 and has never been seen since
- though there have been alleged sightings over the years
in Egypt, Uruguay, Chile and more recently in Spain. The
Simon Wiesenthal Centre has placed him second on its list
of targets under "Operation Last Chance" - a final effort to track Nazi criminals before old age takes them - and in
July Austria offered £35,000 for information leading to
his capture.
But according to Mr Baz, there
is no need to keep hunting Heim, who would now be 93, because
he died in 1982 when he was shot dead on an island off
the Californian coast. His body was set on fire and then
thrown into the Pacific. "When he was dead, I felt like an ambassador for all the children who died in
the war," Mr Baz told the newspaper Le Figaro.
In Ni Oubli Ni Pardon - No forgetting, No forgiving - Mr Baz said that he joined "The Owl" out of a desire to avenge family-members killed in the Holocaust. The group
reportedly carried out several assassinations of Nazis
who had sought refuge in the US.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has said it doubts Mr Baz's claims. However, the
Israeli has said he believes it is now time to call off
the hunt for Heim.
The Austrian's bank account in
Germany continues to accumulate pension payments because
has never officially been declared dead. "It is time to blow the final whistle," said Mr Baz.
telegraph.co.uk
|
