HILARY
LEILA KRIEGER, THE JERUSALEM POST
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has
identified three Nazi war criminals in its latest efforts
under "Operation: Last Chance," a campaign to track
down perpetrators of crimes during the Holocaust before it
is too late to bring them to justice.
The center kicked off the final phase of the project in
Germany on Wednesday, announcing that the German government
has asked it to focus on finding Aribert Heim. A doctor during
World War II, "he personally murdered hundreds of Jews" at
Buchewald, Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen, according to Dr.
Efraim Zuroff, who heads the Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem
office.
Zuroff said the authorities are almost certain he's alive
because he still has a bank account with more than Euro 1
million in Berlin. His heirs "have failed to notify
the bank with the details of his demise, which means he ain't
dead," he added.
In a second case, a female guard at Majdanek has been identified
as alive and well and living in Vienna. But the center lacks
specific information on the nature of her crimes, which is
necessary to prosecute her. Zuroff said her name could not
be released due to legal considerations.
The center is also seeking the murderers of Marianne Cohen,
a Jewish resistance fighter who was killed in France, stripped
and photographed with Nazi soldiers. At a press conference
Wednesday, the center displayed photos of Cohen and her murderers
in its request for information and assistance.
"This is one of those brutal, horrific, humiliating
crimes that exposes the cruelty of the Nazis," Zuroff
said. "People like this have to be brought to trial
even if they're 105 years old."
Since Operation: Last Chance began two and a half years ago
in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the center has already
received leads on some 325 suspects. It has since been launched
in six other countries, including Germany, which was added
Wednesday, a day ahead of the 60th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz and Germany's Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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