Efraim Zuroff, the Jewish people’s most distinguished
Nazi hunter, will appear in court in Budapest on April 6. But
he is not testifying against an alleged Nazi. He will be sitting
in the chair of the accused.
In London, eminent journalist Melanie Phillips needs to
visit the police. But she isn’t writing another muckraking
story. She has been reported to the police, accused of using
insulting language in a column referring to the murderers
of Udi, Ruth, Yoav, Elad and Hadas Fogel in Itamar.
Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
Hungary recently took on the presidency of the Council of
the European Union, a proud moment for the country which
joined the EU in 2004. As eyes turn to this rising leader,
Hungary – a country with a nefarious Holocaust history – should
be ashamed to be holding this mock trial against an Israeli
Nazi hunter.
Zuroff heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel
branch and has inherited the late Simon Wiesenthal’s
weighty mantle. Six and a half decades after the Holocaust,
Zuroff hasn’t given up the pursuit of its perpetrators.
His campaign, like his autobiography, is aptly called Operation
Last Chance. All of us can sleep better knowing that those
responsible for the Holocaust sleep less well with Zuroff
and his colleagues on their tails.
Operation Last Chance offers cash incentives for tips.
Letters with information arrive at the Wiesenthal Center
every month. Some are hoaxes and others are attempts to settle
personal scores. But there are also messages that contain
valuable information.
So it was in February 2005, when Zuroff received a tip from
a man in Scotland. The writer was disgusted to have attended
a social event where a former Hungarian Nazi bragged about
his war exploits.
Zuroff contacted a Scottish journalist who agreed to follow
up the story. The braggart willingly shared the details of
his personal history, and when the journalist inquired about
the photo of an officer in uniform mounted on his wall, he
learned that this was a portrait of Dr. Sandor Kepiro, an
esteemed former comrade in arms in the Hungarian gendarmerie.
Zuroff checked the name at Yad Vashem, where the Holocaust
researcher responded with an uncharacteristic expletive.
He knew exactly who Kepiro was: a lawyer who had been convicted
twice but never imprisoned after the war for his role in
a rogue operation murdering thousand of civilians, mostly
Jews, but also Serbs and Roma, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now
Serbia), in January 1942.
In Novi Sad, victims were rounded up and taken to the banks
of the Danube. It was so cold, 30º below, that the Hungarians
brought in a cannon to break the ice before they shot the
thousands of men, women and children.
The young lawyer presumably was worried enough about the
repercussions of the action that he had requested orders
in writing. According to Zuroff, Kepiro was advised that
such orders are better not committed to paper. Kepiro carried
them out anyway.
To find Kepiro, it turned out, was easy. He had been living
in Argentina, but with the fall of Hungary’s communist
government (which had reportedly convicted him in absentia
of war crimes), he was no longer at risk of prosecution.
He moved back to Hungary to enjoy his golden years.
With the help of Righteous Gentiles in Hungary, Zuroff found
Kepiro’s name – he hadn’t bothered to change
it – in the Budapest phone book.
Kepiro was then 93 and you might assume that he was too
old for us to prosecute. But when Zuroff learned that Kepiro
was the organizer of the local block party in his apartment
complex, he decided that was one party too many for a mass
murderer. Zuroff called a press conference across the street
from Kepiro’s home at a local synagogue, and urged
Hungary to bring him to justice.
In the meantime, Kepiro has sued Zuroff, alleging that the
Nazi hunter had made statements about the case as fact rather
than opinion.
Zuroff’s trial began in October. Kepiro was interviewed
outside the courtroom and showed no remorse. He had just
been following orders, doing his job “gathering up
terrorists.”
The continuation of Zuroff’s trial was scheduled for
December, but when Kepiro, who is now 96, didn’t show
up, the Hungarian judge threw out the case. Kepiro appealed
successfully. Hence, Zuroff must appear again in Hungarian
court. If convicted, he could face a fine and up to two years
in prison.
Last month, Hungary belatedly decided it would try Kepiro,
too. His trial is scheduled for May 5, a month after Zuroff’s.
WHICH BRINGS us to Melanie Phillips. In her book The World
Turned Upside Down, she says we live in a world where truth
and lies, right and wrong, victims and aggressors are inverted.
QED.
Writing on her blog (she calls it a diary) on the website
of The Spectator, the Orwell Prize-winning columnist indeed
used strong language to describe the murderers in Itamar,
as well as chastising her fellow journalists for reporting
the terror attack as if it were a house break-in gone wrong.
Her exact words: “So to The New York Times, it’s
not the Arab massacre of a Jewish family which has jeopardized ‘peace
prospects’ – because the Israelis will quite
rightly never trust any agreement with such savages – but
instead Israeli policy on building more homes, on land to
which it is legally and morally entitled, which is responsible
instead for making peace elusive. Twisted, and sick.”
The word “savages,” in the context of referring
to those who sawed off the head of a three-month-old girl,
seems to have so offended the sensibilities of a British
group called Muslims4UK that it complained to the British
Press Complaints Commission and the police.
In both cases, legal action, so-called lawfare, is an obvious
attempt to silence eloquent advocates of the Jewish people.
At the very least, for Zuroff and Phillips answering these
complaints is a nuisance. Beyond the nuisance is a threat
and an attempt to inhibit their freedom of expression. The
British press sets the tone of continental media coverage.
Because Hungary is now leading the EU, its courtroom becomes
a showcase of continental justice.
Ironically, Hungary has announced that one of its social
goals for the presidency is to develop an EU strategy to
promote integration of Roma people, who were targeted along
with Jews and Serbs for slaughter on the frozen Danube.
Neither Phillips nor Zuroff frightens easily. But they shouldn’t
have to defend themselves without the full support of the
Jewish people. To me, that means that the State of Israel
stands by their side.
I call on the government to support Phillips and to heed
her summons – loud and clear on the IBA’s Saturday
night news round-up – to present Israel’s case
with strength and eloquence. I’m sure she would be
glad to help outline a plan.
I call on the Foreign Ministry to communicate to its counterparts
in Hungary that we see the trial of Zuroff as an insult to
the Jewish people. Ambassador to Hungary Aliza Bin-Noun must
be in the courtroom representing all of us on April 6, and
on May 5, too, reminding a forgetful continent that the hunt
for our murderers goes on.
“I’m often asked when I’m going to let
go,” I’ve heard Zuroff say. “My answer
is always the same: when the last Nazi or collaborator is
dead. Imagine that the person I’m seeking murdered
your grandparents. Would you ever give up?”
The writer lives in Jerusalem and focuses on the wondrous
stories of modern Israel. She serves as the Israel director
of public relations for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist
Organization of America. The views in her columns are her
own. jpost.com
|