She seems harmless enough now, the elderly figure in a dressing
gown peering round the door to her flat.
Erna Wallisch, an 85-year-old grandmother, rarely ventures out, spending her
days drinking coffee and being cared for by her family.
But the image she presents belies
a dark past which has put her seventh on the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre's list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals still at
large.
As a young woman during the Second World War, Mrs Wallisch inspired terror in
those she helped to guard in Nazi concentration camps.
Some former prisoners say she beat inmates to death.
One, who told how she attacked
a young boy when she was pregnant, said: "The sweating, breathless face of that monster is something I will never forget."
Mrs Wallisch, who was born
in eastern Germany, lives in a small apartment on the
banks of the Danube in Vienna where she was tracked down
by the British historian and author Guy Walters. Despite
her 'most-wanted' status, her name is printed on the
bell-push.
When found by Mr Walters,
Mrs Wallisch refused to comment on his investigation
into her past as a brutal concentration camp guard.
Neighbours said they knew
nothing about her history. Most told Mr Walters she should
be left alone, rather than brought to justice. "It's all in the past and should be forgotten," said one. "People should learn to forgive."
The Austrian government is
refusing to prosecute Mrs Wallisch, saying it is too
late.
"I do not find
this attitude surprising," said Mr Walters, who is writing a book called Hunting Evil about the escape
and pursuit of Nazi war criminals.
"For too long,
the Austrians have been unacceptably lenient with these
evil men and women in their midst. I suspect their reluctance
to confront these criminals is because it would only
highlight the extent of Austrian complicity with Nazism."
It is not known if Mrs Wallisch's
family who bring her groceries and sit chatting to her
are, like her neighbours, unaware of her past.
Mrs Wallisch, the daughter of a postal clerk, was born Erna Pfannenstiel in 1922.
She joined the Nazi party as a teenager and became a
guard at the Ravensbruck women's concentration camp near
Berlin where British SOE agent Violette Szabo was among
the tens of thousands murdered.
Mrs Wallisch was later transferred
to the Majdanek death camp near Lublin in Poland where
she was based between October 1942 and January 1944.
The testimony of at least four former inmates has been
gathered in an attempt to bring justice for her victims.
They allege that Mrs Wallisch
used 'violence and illegal threats for reasons of race
and nationality, against women and children weakened
physically and psychologically, from peoples within regions
under civil occupation . . . she treated them in an inhumane
way.'
In Lublin, she met Georg Wallisch,
a Nazi guard, whom she married in March 1944.
Jadwiga Landowska, a former
prisoner, recalled how the thenpregnant Mrs Wallisch
beat people to death. "The pregnant Nazi monster woman who went crazy and attacked us did not appear
among those tried after the war," she said.
"The pregnant one
hit a young boy lying on the floor with something harder
than a whip. Blood was pouring from his head and he gave
no sign of life or reaction. The sweating, breathless
face of that monster is something I will never forget."
It is not clear why Mrs Wallisch
left Majdanek. Her file includes reports in which her
superiors described her as an unruly and 'mouthy' person.
It is known that there were plans to move her to Auschwitz.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center,
named after a Holocaust survivor who dedicated the rest
of his life to hunting Nazi war criminals, is based in
Los Angeles.
Its director, Dr Efraim Zuroff,
has demanded action over Mrs Wallisch from Austria's
Justice Ministry. He argued that she had admitted participation
in the mass murder of inmates at Majdanek and that a
Polish survivor had testified that she was a sadist and
had personally participated in selections for the gas
chamber.
Officials say her crimes come
under the statute of limitations and Austria cannot prosecute
her.
The Justice Ministry said
it is planning to commission a report on those still
alive who worked at Majdanek. Mr Walters is unimpressed.
"Mrs Wallisch is
an old woman and these reports always take time," he said. "It is highly likely that she will live out her days untroubled by the authorities.
The problem is that too many in Austria believe these
events belong in history books.
"This is nonsense.
Mrs Wallisch is not history - she is still alive and
it is our generation's responsibility to prosecute those
whom she helped consign to history prematurely."
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