Simon
Wiesenthal Center's 'Operation Last Chance II' to provide
up to €25,000 in reward money for information on war criminals
The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday launched an 11th-hour drive to find
and prosecute Nazi war criminals while they are still alive,
saying a new legal precedent in Germany could make it possible
to bring dozens of suspects to trial.
Efraim Zuroff, the center's top Nazi-hunter,
told reporters in Berlin that "Operation Last Chance II" would provide up to (EURO)25,000 ($32,900) in reward money for information that
leads to the investigation and prosecution of war criminals.
"Whatever can be done has to be done very promptly and as quickly as possible
because time is running out," Zuroff said.
The effort comes after German prosecutors said in October the successful conviction
of former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk had set a precedent
that allowed them to reopen hundreds of dormant investigations.
Demjanjuk, 91, was convicted in May
of thousands of counts of accessory to murder after a Munich
court found he served as a death camp guard - the first time
a suspect had been found guilty without evidence of a specific
crime. The court ruled that any guard at a Nazi camp whose
sole purpose was to kill people could be convicted of accessory
to murder.
Demjanjuk denies having ever served as a guard and is appealing the verdict.
"What this conviction
does is set a legal precedent that should pave the way
for the prosecution of many people who were on a daily
basis over a prolonged period of time involved in mass
murder but who had been ignored," Zuroff said.
About 4,000 people were either
guards at the four Nazi camps used only for killings _
Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and Treblinka - or members of
the Einsatzgruppen death squads responsible for mass killings,
particularly early in the war before the death camps were
established.
Zuroff said he did not know how
many were still alive - the youngest would now be in their
80s - but that he guessed conservatively there could be
80 or more.
"I think it's not a
gross exaggeration to assume that 2 percent are still probably
alive," he said.
He said the precedent set in the
Demjanjuk case could also be applied to other units known
to have been involved in war crimes, noting that prosecutors
in Dortmund are currently investigating six former members
of an SS armored division that was responsible for the
largest massacre in Nazi-occupied France under the same
theory.
The Wiesenthal Center is asking
for tips to be called in to a new hotline in Germany with
as much information as possible. Though the focus of the
investigation is Germany, Zuroff said suspects could live
anywhere in the world.
A reward of (EURO)5,000 will be
paid for the information upon the indictment of a suspect,
another (EURO)5,000 upon conviction, and a further (EURO)100
euros per day spent in prison - up to 150 days - for a
total of (EURO)25,000, Zuroff said.
The center's original "Operation
Last Chance" was launched in 2002 and targeted primarily eastern European countries, and
ended up with 102 suspects' names being turned over to
prosecutors. Of those only a handful were ever indicted
or tried, Zuroff said.
At this late stage, with few witnesses
left and suspects' health often preventing them from being
brought to trial, Zuroff said he measures success in six
stages: exposure; official investigation; indictment; trial;
conviction; and punishment.
"It's very hard today
to get to stage six," he said.
But he said the effort was still
a worthy one.
"The passage of time
in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers," he said. ynetnews.com
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