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Nazi hunters hope an advertising campaign can flush out the most notorious member
of the Third Reich still believed to be alive, Aribert
Heim, known as "Dr Death", in southern Chile.
Heim, who passed his 94th birthday on June 28 if he is still alive, documented
the hundreds of victims he himself murdered and tortured
at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during
World War II.
The Nazi hunters believe he
is hiding out in the Patagonia region of southern Chile,
also home to his daughter.
"In the last few
days we've received information from two different sources,
both relating to Chile, which we think have very good
potential," said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
which is hunting for Heim and hundreds of other suspected
Nazis.
The group has put up a 315,000
euros ($A518,000) reward for information leading to the
arrest of Heim, known to have decorated his office during
the war with human body parts, even using the skull of
a man he decapitated as a paperweight.
Zuroff and his team will fly
on Thursday to Puerto Montt, a town more than 1,000km
south of the capital Santiago where Heim's daughter lives.
They are hoping residents
may come forward with new information.
The visit is part of what
they call Operation Last Chance, which will include a
newspaper advertising campaign in local newspapers in
Chile and Argentina.
"We're hoping that
our presence in the area will attract the necessary attention
to receive the information that we're looking for," Zuroff said.
Hundreds of Nazis wanted for
war crimes escaped to Latin America after World War II,
mainly to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil.
Zuroff said most evidence
suggests Heim is alive. His children have not taken possession
of a 1.2 million euros ($A1.98 million) bank account
in his name in Berlin, which would be theirs if they
could present proof of his death.
They would also have access
to some 800,000 euros ($A1.32 million) in stocks and
bonds if Heim were proven dead.
Zuroff said Heim would be
easier to catch if he tried to run.
An Austrian who killed hundreds
of inmates by injecting petrol or poison in their hearts,
Heim has been on the run since evading police in Germany
in 1962 prior to a planned prosecution.
thewest.com.au
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