Their crimes were partly committed more than 60 years ago, they are old men now. Their hunters are running out of time. "Operation Last Chance" the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem is calling its attempt to bring the last remaining NS-War Criminals to justice.

In the middle of June at the latest, Efraim Zuroff, the leading Nazi-Hunter of the Simon-Wiesenthal-Center, wants to start the campaign in Germany. "We will be holding a press conference, have ads in the press and a
phone-hotline." For hints that lead to the conviction of a NS-Criminal the Wiesenthal Center is giving a 10.000 Euro reward.

Up to now the project is running in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia plus Romania, Poland and Austria. The success has been very variable Zuroff admits. In Baltics, The Last Chance has lead to the names of 270 presumable Nazi War Criminals. Prosecutors are investigating against nine suspects. In Austria, Zuroff submitted two lists with 169 names altogether to the Ministry of Justice. The first check up brought not much to utilize. 34 accused had already died.

Zuroff method according to the deputy director of the Zentrale Stelle Ludwigsburg is problematic. "Lists with names alone do not say that much", says the Prosecutor. "What we need is relevant evidence that can lead to punishment". The fact that a person or guard served in a concentration camp or belonged to an SS-unit, does not mean automatically, that it committed a crime.

Nazi Hunting director Zuroff is not affected by that: "There are still thousands of War criminals in Europe." That's why he wants to bring the campaign to Croatia, Hungary and to the Ukraine. "We go to those places where Jews were murdered", says Zuroff. "In those countries there are also the most accessorys."