NOVI SAD -- Simon Wiesenthal Jerusalem
Center Director Efraim Zuroff has been awarded the title
of an honorary citizen of Novi Sad.
The decision to confer the title was taken back in October of last year as a
token of gratitude and as recognition of Zuroff’s struggle
for justice and truth.
For years, he has led the fight to find and bring Nazi Second World War criminals
to justice.
Accepting the title, Zuroff said that
the political will to bring these criminals to trial was
fading fast, but stressed that Nazi war crimes never expired
and that the perpetrators of these crimes had to be brought
to account.
“I don’t view this recognition as
anything personal. First and foremost, it highlights the
significance that, even today, the act of bringing Nazi war
criminals to justice carries,” said the Simon Wiesenthal
Center director.
“It reestablishes important principles,
namely, that the passage of time in no way detracts from
the guilt of the perpetrators and that old age should not
protect ruthless murderers from bearing the guilt for the
heinous crimes they committed,” he added.
Zuroff hopes that this award will
carry resonance, particularly in Hungary, where Šandor Kepiro
lives, convicted of having been one of those who conceived
and executed the so-called Novi Sad raid.
Conferring the title, Novi Sad Mayor
Igor Pavličić said that the city assembly had taken the decision
to award Zuroff unanimously.
“Above all, the fact that the city
assembly took this decision unanimously says a great deal
for the values that Mr. Zuroff upholds and for what he, like
the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has dedicated his life to. Therefore,
undivided support exists for this decision and for it to
be done, like Mr. Zuroff says, for the future, and not the
past,” said Pavličić. b92.net
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