RIGA, July 12 (LETA) - Several dozen Nazi war criminals still live in Latvia
undisturbed, Efraim Zuroff, director at the Israel-based
Simon Wiesenthal Center, told a press conference in Riga
yesterday.
Zuroff said that he does not know
the precise number of war criminals living in Latvia or any
specific person that had participated in Nazi atrocities.
Zuroff pointed out that several hundred Latvian residents
had participated in Nazi crimes while the number of accomplices
in his view is considerably larger. The number of Nazi criminals
in Lithuania is larger than in Latvia, while in Estonia it
is smaller, Zuroff added.
It is becoming increasingly difficult
to bring war criminals to account, which is why it must be
done as soon as possible, Aryeh Rubin, the head of "Targum Shlishi" charity fund based in Miami, said.
According to Rubin, in the 1970s,
when he was young, he could ask people
of his age from Latvia what their fathers had done during
World War II. Now it must be asked what their grandfathers
had done, and soon the question will be "what
Latvians were doing during World War II".
Ilja Dimensteins, a representative
of the Latvian Jewish Community and a journalist from the "Vecemaja Riga" newspaper, called on Zuroff to weigh his statement. The vague and unproven statement
that numerous criminals live in Latvia, is an insult to Latvians
as well as other people living in Latvia, including Jews,
he said
Arkadij Sukharenko, chairman of the
Latvian Jewish Community, also called on everyone, including
Zuroff, to consider every single word they say. Latvia is
one of the few countries in the world where representatives
of many nations, including Jews, co-exist peacefully, he
emphasized.
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