STANDING frail and aged at her doorstep it is difficult to
believe that Erna Wallisch is ranked seventh on the blacklist
of most wanted Nazi war criminals.
The Austrian Justice Ministry has vowed to reopen the case against the 85-year-old
grandmother after she was uncovered living in a flat in Vienna,
Austria, by Wiltshire author and historian Guy Walters.
Mr Walters, 36, of Heytesbury, near
Warminster, visited her home last week as part of research
for his forthcoming book Hunting Evil, which focuses on Nazi
war criminals that have escaped prosecution.
The local author wasn't exactly made
welcome when he introduced himself to Wallisch at her doorstep
last Wednesday.
He said: "I told
her I am a British writer and wanted to talk to her about
her time in the war and she sort of scowled and shut the
door very quickly but I managed to get a picture of her as
she did.
"She used to beat up women
and children as they were escorted to the gas chambers. She
admits she was responsible but she said she was acting under
orders and that it is all in the past.
"I dispute the fact it is in the past because thousands of others are dead but
she still lives and she can still be brought to justice."
Born Erna Pfannenstiel, the daughter of a postal clerk joined the Nazi party
at the age of 19 and served as a guard in Ravensbruck concentration
camp in Germany from 1941 before transferring to the Majdanek
camp in Poland a year later.
It is estimated that 130,000 women and children went through Ravensbruck camp
during the war, of those only 40,000 survived.
The director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which is named after a holocaust
survivor who dedicated his life to hunting Nazi war criminals,
spoke to Mr Walters on Tuesday exclaiming his excitement
over news that she had been exposed.
The centre has blacklisted Wallisch
as the seventh most-wanted Nazi war criminal still at large.
The centre is now demanding that action
be taken by the Austrian Justice Ministry after she admitted
her participation in the mass murder of inmates at the polish
concentration camp.
Wallisch was married in 1944 to Nazi
guard Georg Wallisch and even while pregnant she is alleged
to have beaten inmates and chosen others for the gas chamber.
Now living alone, Wallisch rarely
ventures out from her home, relying on others to bring her
groceries. Hunting Evil is due to be released in 2009.
wiltshiretimes.co.uk
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