The
Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre will begin a campaign
in January to flush out the last surviving Nazi war criminals
in Germany, the head of the centre's Jerusalem office says.
Efraim Zuroff said on Sunday the campaign will finally begin
after several delays on January 27, the anniversary of the
liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
The campaign is part of the Jewish group's "Operation
Last Chance", a drive which has been underway across eastern
Europe to catch World War Two criminals who took part in the
Holocaust.
The centre is racing against time as both the perpetrators
and survivors of war crimes grow old and die. Zuroff told Reuters
last year there was a "window of opportunity" of
three to five more years to catch Nazi criminals.
The centre planned to offer 10,000 euros for information
leading to prosecution of Nazi war criminals, Zuroff said.
He said it was difficult to estimate how many suspected war
criminals were still at large. But he believed that it could
number in the thousands.
"
It's difficult to estimate but there's no question in my mind
that at least several dozen people could be prosecuted," Zuroff
said.
"
The key is the testimony of fellow perpetrators and that is
very difficult to achieve," he added.
Britain this year awarded an honorary knighthood to Simon
Wiesenthal, who is in his nineties, for "a lifetime of service to
humanity" pursuing Holocaust perpetrators.
He spent the best part of five decades tracking down more
than 1,000 Nazi war criminals responsible for the mass
murder of
Jews and played a role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann,
in charge of the deportation of million of Jews to death
camps.
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