The Simon Wiesenthal Centre wants to seek war criminals in Hungary. The Jewish organization wishes to catch those who committed war crimes during the Holocaust but have not been punished yet. What is behind this intention? Noble ideas, or revenge, maybe business? We tried to find the answer.

Ten thousand euros will be given to anyone who helps Simon Wiesenthal Centre find war criminals still alive, this was reported by Hungarian News Agency last week. The international Jewish organization launched the Operation: Last Chance two years ago in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Thanks to the initiative more than two hundred people was suspected. Last year the
operation was spread to Poland, Rumania and Austria, and now they want to catch the perpetrators not yet punished in Hungary. In the last four years there were two dozens of convictions worldwide because of Nazi war crimes mainly in the United States.

Reward for the Results

Wiesenthal Centre categorizes the countries of the world according to the willingness of seeking war criminals. Letter "A” is given to those states that are eminent is punishing the perpetrators (this group includes only the United States), letter “F” is dedicated to those countries ¬ Colombia,
Norway, Sweden and Syria ¬ where the efforts resulted total failure. Hungary was given the letter "D”, which means there were initiatives in our country, but they failed to be successful.
The organization offered a ten-thousand-dollar reward in the Baltic-countries for anyone who helps them find the perpetrators. Later the sum was increased: they promised more money if the cause gets to trial, and even more if there is conviction. Mostly ex-collaborators were aimed with this extraordinary business ¬ since many of them were convicted by Communist law for anti-Soviet crimes, thus they do not have to fear to be punished once again.
As was expected, the operation caused major tension in these societies. Lennart Meri recent Estonia president, for example, said in 2002: in his country the German occupants "used morally undermined people as collaborators. Every citizen of Estonia suffered the occupation:
Estonians, Russians, Germans, Jews, the Swedish, the Finns. Speaking of the leader of the Jerusalem office of the Centre, he added, "I appreciate what Efraim Zuroff does. He is a nationalist Jew, and that is his job. An Estonian man offered twenty thousand dollars for Izraeli, American and Russian citizens who may help him find perpetrators of Stalinist crimes, and in
Latvia there were newspapers refusing to publish the ads of the Centre”.

People with Double Face

The Wiesenthal Centre has long been watching Hungary. After a Rumanian court sentenced Albert Wass to death in his absence in 1946 ¬charging him with war crimes¬, the organization also took the floor, since there were two Jewish victims of the massacre supposedly conducted by the Transsylvanian writer. When they learnt about the lawsuit years later, they informed the
American Ministry of Law, which started investigation, but in the end canceled it due to lack of evidence. Recently, addressing Budapest mayor Gábor Demszky, the Centre protested against the erection of a monument to Pál Teleki.
In Hungary there were several trials convicting war criminals. Between 1945 and 1950 nearly thirty thousand people were convicted, but ex-Nazis were sued even after 1956. "However, this does not mean that everyone was punished”, said Krisztián Ungváry. In the historian’s opinion not all the trials met the legal expectations, and the state many times deliberately failed to punish those who became the members of the Communist party. "So many times when we search for a veteran Nazi, an ex-Communist may fall out of the cupboard”, said Ungváry. And it is even worse for the Socialists of the present: the historian said, some criminals were not punished ¬
instead they were blackmailed by the Communists to become a secret agent. If we put it ¬ that is to let perpetrators go without punishment ¬to a legal test today, in some cases the charge of official failure may stand. When the leader of the Jerusalem office of Wiesenthal Center was faced with the suspicion that they may find ex-Communists when seeking Nazis, Efraim
Zuroff gave a ready-made reply: “Even better; we might get two birds with one stone”, he told Heti Válasz. When asked a second question ¬ that is: why did they start hunting war criminals in Hungary just now? ¬he said: while now it is clear to everyone that this is the last chance, ten or fifteen years ago many people did not feel the urge.
However, Zuroff and his associates cannot forget that many people are frustrated by the fact: while the Centre is seeking systematically perpetrators of old times after half a century, the guilty of the previous decades may live without being punished. This was pointed at by the
critics of the Wiesenthal Centre in the Baltic-countries as well ¬ and there the director’s reply was that they focus on Nazi crimes. "Those who think that the Communist crimes were worse than that of the Holocaust, should waste their energy to put these perpetrators to trial themselves”, he advised to his critics.

The Angel of Revenge

One of the well-known and at the same time widely criticized witness of the Holocaust is Simon Wiesenthal; however, he is not involved in the management of the organization named after him ¬ he only hires his name for an annual sum of nearly one thousand dollars. The 94 year-old-man is widely respected, but there are many people as well who do not call him the Champion of Justice; rather, they speak of him as the Angel Of Revenge or the Merchant of the Holocaust. His Nazi hunt is criticized by his fellows as well, particularly mentioning he has also blamed people with false charge. Bruno Kreisky, late German chancellor, himself of also Jewish origin, even
dared to say in 1975 that Wiesenthal used to be a Nazi agent. Wiesenthal’s main intention is also criticized. He was asked many times why he does not forgive those who hunted Jews half a century before. His standard answer was that he cannot do it instead of others. However, using this logic, he would not have the right either to hunt the late perpetrators in the name of others ¬ say his opponents.
Norman Finkelstein in his book “The Holocaust Industry” also criticizes Simon Wiesenthal Centre. As the author says, the founder of the organization, Rabbi Marvin Hier and his associates get millions of dollars from remorse-struck "Gentiles” who are continuously reminded that they did not do everything to prevent the Holocaust. Having enough of these charges, the leader of the French office of the Centre sued the author. "Mr. Finkelstein’s theory is an extremist attack on Jews in general, and particularly on American Jews. ... it is acute intellectual perversion how Finkelstein exploits his Jewish origin to blame some Jewish leaders as racists”, Shimon Samuels said.
Anyway, the activity of the Centre is criticized. And those who think differently of life and death, guilt and punishment, justice and revenge, than the leaders of the Wiesenthal Centre, may be astonished to read a statement of the organization three years ago. The leader of the Jerusalem
office of the Centre, as he told Heti Válasz, had been trying to put a Latvian war criminal to trial since 1985. But the person died in the last minute in 2001. However, his hunters did not let him rest. "The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its grave disappointment and frustration
that former Latvian Arajs Kommando officer Konrad Kalejs died today in Melbourne”, the press release said. They added that "Kalejs deserved to die in prison after a long prison term, and not in a ritzy old-age home in Melbourne”.