Jerusalem –In conjunction with Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom Hashoa) which was observed in Israel last week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the initial findings of its sixteenth Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period from April 1, 2016 until March 31, 2017.

Among the report's highlights are the following important developments:
1.The most important positive developments during the period under review were the direct result of the new prosecution policy implemented by the German judicial authorities in the wake of the conviction in Munich of Sobibor SS guard Ivan Demjanjuk as an accessory to murder in May 2011. Based on that decision, the German ZentraleStelle decided to investigate all the hitherto unprosecuted persons who had served in any of the six Nazi death camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Majdanek) or in the Einstazgruppe (mobile killing units) A, B, C, and D, which operated in the territories of the Soviet Union.
The results achieved in Germany during the period under review were quite significant. Probably the most important was the rejection by the Federal Court of Justice on November 28, 2016 of the appeal by Auschwitz guard and bookkeeper Oskar Groening, who had been convicted in summer 2015 of accessory to murder. The significance of his case was that there was no evidence that Groening had physically participated in the murder of inmates at the camp, meaning that any person who had served in a death camp, in any capacity whatsoever, could be convicted based on service alone. Also of significance in Germany was the conviction on June 17, 2016 of Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning, who was sentenced to five years in prison for accessory to murder.
Another important development was the expansion by the ZentraleStelle of the search for Holocaust perpetrators to several additional concentration camps which were not classified as death camps, such as Stutthof, Mauthausen, Ravensbrueck and Buchenwald. These investigations yielded indictments which were submitted after the period under review.

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalén-El Centro Simon Wiesenthal criticó duramente las declaraciones públicas realizadas por la presidente croata KolindaGrobarKitarović, de vista esta semana en Buenos Aires, quien expresó orgullo por "todas las generaciones de croatas que llegaron a la Argentina", a pesar de que entre estos inmigrantes había numerosos y notorios criminales de guerra Ustasha (fascistas croatas).

En una carta enviada hoy al Presidente por el Dr. EfraimZuroff,  jefe de los cazadores de nazis y Director para Asuntos de Europa del Estedel Centro ,refiere específicamente  los nombres de varios de los más destacados de estos criminales de guerra, entre ellos el famoso jefe de estado croata durante la Guerra Mundial II Ante Pavelić,  el jefe de la policía secreta UstashaEugenDidoKvaternik, y el comandante de Jasenovać ,DinkoSakić .
De acuerdo con la investigación realizada por el periodista argentino UkiGoñi en su monumental estudio sobre la fuga de criminales de guerra nazis a Argentina,  La Auténtica Odessa; El contrabando de nazis a la Argentina de Perón (GrantaBooks, 2002), se estima que el número de criminales que huyeron hacia la Argentina fue de al menos 100, entre ellos destacados miembros del régimen Ustasha.
SegúnZuroff:
"Las declaraciones dela  Presidente Grabar-Kitarović constituyen una absolución encubierta hacia algunos de los peores criminales de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. La única pregunta es si su declaración se debió a la admiración por estos Ustasha asesinos o a la ignorancia acerca de su fuga luego de la  posguerra".

Para obtener información adicional, comuníquese con la Oficina Israelí del Centro Wiesenthal:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized public remarks made earlier this week in Buenos Aires by visiting Croatian President KolindaGrobarKitarović who expressed pride in "all the generations of Croats who arrived in Argentina," despite the fact that among these immigrants were numerous notorious Ustasha (Croatian fascist) war criminals.

In a letter sent today to the President by the Center's chief Nazi-hunter and director of Eastern European Affairs Dr. EfraimZuroff, the names of several of the most prominent of these war criminals, among them the notorious Croatian head of state during World War II Ante Pavelić, head of the Ustasha secret police Eugen Dido Kvaternik, and Jasenovać commander DinkoSakić were specifically mentioned.
According to research by Argentinian journalist UkiGoni in his monumental study of the escape of Nazi war criminals to Argentina, The Real Odessa; Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina (Granta Books, 2002), estimates that the number of Ustasha criminals who fled to Argentina was at least 100, among them numerous leading members of the Ustasha regime.
According to Zuroff:
"President Grabar-Kitarović's remarks constitute a blanket whitewash of some of the worst criminals of World War II. The only question is whether her statement stemmed from admiration for these murderous Ustasha or ignorance of their postwar escape."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged the Polish authorities to reconsider the highly-controversial law regarding Holocaust history which was passed in the Sejm (Polish parliament) this past Friday. In a statement issued here today by its Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper and its Director of Eastern European Affairs Holocaust historian Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center harshly criticized the provision of the bill which makes any mention of Polish complicity in Holocaust crimes a criminal offense, while accepting the historically-accurate demand to refrain from use of the term "Polish death camps."

According to Cooper and Zuroff:
"While we agree that the use of the term 'Polish death camps' is a dangerous and harmful distortion of the history of the Holocaust, we cannot accept any attempt to whitewash the crimes committed in Poland, or in any other country, against Jews during the Holocaust. While the Polish state no longer existed, many thousands of individual Poles either murdered Jews or informed on them to the Nazis, a phenomenon which has been extensively documented by reputable Polish historians. In addition, there were cases in which Jews seeking to escape the Nazis were murdered by members of the ArmiaKrajowa, the nationalist underground which was the military arm of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Any attempt to whitewash such crimes is totally unacceptable and an unbearable insult to the victims of the Nazis."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the indictment yesterday in Muenster, Germany of two guards from the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk, Poland. In a statement issued by its chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the importance of the final efforts to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice and congratulated the German prosecutors on their efforts in the case.

According to Zuroff:
“During the past four months, the Wiesenthal Center has located eighteen survivors of Stutthof,most of whom currently live in Israel,to assist the preparations for the trial of the Stutthof guards. Other survivors were located in the United States and Sweden. These survivors were primarily Jews from Lithuanian ghettoes and Hungarian Jews who had initially been deported to Auschwitz. Approximately 110,000 Jews and non-Jews were deported to Stutthof and about 85,000 were murdered there. In 1943 a gas chamber was built there to facilitate the last stages of the Final Solution.
"We urge anyone with information regarding Stutthof survivors to contact us as soon as possible."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement harshly condemning military exercises being held by the Lithuanian Army at the Seventh Fort in Kaunas (Kovno), the site of the mass murder of several thousand Jews in July 1941.

In a statement issued here by its director of Eastern European Affairs, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center labelled the decision to conduct military training at the site "grossly insensitive," and called upon the army to immediately halt the exercises at the mass murder site and move them to an alternate venue.
According to Zuroff:
"The original sin in this regard was the horrendous mistake of privatizing the mass murder site by the government in 2009 over the objections of the Lithuanian Jewish community. Given the fact that the area where the victims are buried is not fenced off, nor is it appropriately marked, there is a danger of the desecration of the dead. We urge the Lithuanian authorities to acknowledge their lack of sensitivity to these Holocaust victims and immediately move the military exercises elsewhere."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly condemned an initiative to name Kiev streets after Ukrainian nationalist collaborators Stefan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.

In a letter of support sent today to Boris Fuchsmann, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, the Center expressed its strong opposition to the glorification of the two Ukrainian nationalist leaders whose men actively participated in the mass murder of Jews during the initial months following the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union.

According to Zuroff's letter:
"Thank you for alerting us to the impending decision of the Kiev Municipal Council regarding the scandalous initiative to name city streets in honor of Ukrainian nationalists Stefan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, whose men assisted the forces of Nazi Germany following the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and actively participated in the mass murder of Jews in Lviv and other locations.

We absolutely oppose and condemn any attempt to turn murderers in the service of the Nazis into Ukrainian heroes. Such a policy is not only an insult to the memory of their innocent victims, but an affront to human dignity and historical truth."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a call for survivors of the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk (Poland), as well as first-degree relatives (child or sibling) of victims of the camp, to consider serving as co-plaintiffs in trials of Stutthof guards which will hopefully be conducted in Germany in the coming year.

The trial is a result of a change in German prosecution policy, whereby any person who served in a concentration camp with the apparatus for industrialized murder (gas chambers or gas vans) can be convicted for accessory to murder based on service alone, which was not the case until about a decade ago. To date three individuals who served in death camps (Ivan Demjanjuk at Sobibor; Oskar Groening and Reinhold Hanning at Auschwitz) have been thus convicted.
According toDr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center's chief Nazi-hunter:
"At this late date, every trial is extremely important, and the role of co-plaintiffs is of unique significance. We urge all survivors of Stutthof, as well as first-degree relatives of those murdered in the camp,to contact our Jerusalem office (tel. 02.563.1274 / e-mail: [email protected] ) to help make the case of the prosecution as effective and convincing as possible."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged the German judicial authorities to expedite the remaining cases of Nazi war criminals in the wake of the recent death of convicted Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning before he could serve his jail sentence. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center emphasized the importance of the implementation of the sentences meted out by German courts in recent years to convicted death camp guards and operatives.

According toZuroff:
"The punishment of convicted Nazi war criminals is an integral and highly significant component of the judicial process. The fact that none of the three death camp guards and operatives convicted in recent years in German courts have served their sentences weakens the impact of these important judicial decisions. We urge the German judicial authorities to find a way to expedite these cases so that those justifiably sentenced to imprisonment do not escape punishment due to bureaucracy and/or misplaced sympathy."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed surprise and indignation in response to the decision announced yesterday by Danish judicial authorities to permanently close an investigation of two Danish SS volunteers suspected of war crimes against Jewish inmates in a Nazi concentration camp in Belarus during the years 1942-1943."

In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center rejected as "absolutely baseless and scandalous" the reasons presented by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Mohammad Ahsan for the state's decision to close the case against Helmut Rasbol and Aksel Andersen. The former was initially identified by Danish historians Dennis Larsen and Therkel Straeda in their pioneering study of the Belarus camp En Skole I Vold (A School of Violence), whereas the latter was identified by research initiated by the Wiesenthal Center in the wake of the publication of the book.

According to Zuroff

"Although the Center was specifically informed that, as the agency which originally submitted an official complaint against the two suspects, it could submit an appeal against the decision to close the case, Mr. Ahsan claimed that our submission was illegal and thus irrelevant. In addition, he said that the original decision could not be reversed, since more than two months had passed since it was issued, but in reality the Center's appeal had been submitted before the deadline and it was his own response which arrived much later.

"This decision, like the investigation which gave almost exclusive credence to the recent interviews of the suspects who denied any connection to the camp, totally ignored evidence which clearly proved that the Danish guards had served in the camps and were responsible for discipline during the period from October 1942 to May 1943.

"This scandalous decision is a clear indication of the lack of will of the Danish authorities to pursue such cases. It is unfortunate that Denmark, whose rescue of most of its Jewish community during the Holocaust is a symbol of altruism and heroism, has not seen fit to add a new and modern chapter to that tradition by a more just treatment of the cases of Holocaust crimes by Danish SS volunteers."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:

Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156

www.wiesenthal.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EZuroff

Belgrade-Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic yesterday awarded a Golden Medal for Merit to Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter and director of eastern European affairs, as part of the celebrations of Sretenje, the National Day of the Republic of Serbia. The rationale for the award, which was granted to Zuroff for "exceptional achievements," was his "selfless dedication to defending the truth about the suffering of Jews, but also Serbs, Roma and other nations during World War II."

Zuroff was the first of the medal recipients to be called up to the president and among the very few foreigners whose achievements were honored. He is the only Israeli to ever receive this recognition, with the exception of Serbian-born former Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid.

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem– The Simon Wiesenthal Center today filed a complaint with the Danish Director of Public Prosecutions in response to the recent decision by the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime to close the investigation against Danish SS volunteers Helmut Rasbol and Axel Andersen on the suspicion of war crimes committed in Bobruisk, Belarus in 1942-43.
In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Dr. EfraimZuroff, who submitted the original complaint to the Danish police in July 2015, the Center pointed to several issues which cast doubt on the decision to close the case.

According to Zuroff:
"We do not agree with the decision to close the case and will supply the explanations for our complaint, after the Director of Public Prosecutions has an opportunity to review our submission and make his ruling."

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the publication in Lithuania this week of Mūsiškiai; Kelionė Su Priešu(Our People; Journey With an Enemy) by Ruta Vanagaite and the Center's Dr. Efraim Zuroff which deals with the complicity of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes and the current efforts of the Lithuanian government to hide or minimize the role of Lithuanian collaborators during the Holocaust.

According to Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper:
"In view of the increased danger posed by Holocaust distortion in Eastern Europe, we hope that publication of Mūsiškiai will be an important milestone in ensuring the accuracy of the historical narrative of the Shoah in Lithuania.
"This book is an unprecedented undertaking, pairing a renowned Lithuanian author Ruta Vanagaite together with the Center’s Nazi Hunter, Efraim Zuroff. With great commitment and integrity, theypresent an accurate description of verypainful historic issues.We hope its publication will mark the beginning of a much more honest treatment of the subject by the Lithuanian authorities."

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-In connection with the observance tomorrow of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a list of ten cases of Nazi war criminals slated for possible prosecution in 2016. Compiled by its chief Nazi-hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the list includes individuals who committed crimes in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Greece and Italy in the course of which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered.

*1. HelmaKissner – Germany (Poland) – served as a radio operator in the Auschwitz death camp from April to July 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 260,000 cases.
*2. Reinhold Hanning – Germany (Poland) – served in the Auschwitz death camp from January 1943 until June 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 170,000 cases.
3. Helmut Oberlander – Canada (Ukraine) – served in Einsatzkommando 10A (part of Einstazgruppe D, which murdered an estimated 23,000 mostly Jewish civilians.
*4. Hubert Zafke – Germany (Poland) – served as a medic in the Auschwitz death camp during the years 1943 and 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 3,681 cases.
*5. Ernst Tremmel – Germany (Poland) – served in the Auschwitz death camp – charged with accessory to murder in 1,073 cases.
6. Alfred Stark – Germany (Greece) – participated in the September 1943 mass murder of 120Italian officers on the Greek island of Kefalonia.
7. Helmut Rasbol – Denmark (Belarus) – during the years 1942-1943 served as a guard in the Judenlager established by the Nazis in Bobruisk, Belarus, during which almost all the Jewish inmates of the camp were executed or died of the horrible physical conditions.
8. Aksel Andersen – Sweden (Belarus) - during the years 1942-1943 served as a guard in the Judenlager established by the Nazis in Bobruisk, Belarus, during which almost all the Jewish inmates of the camp were executed or died of the horrible physical conditions.
9. Johann Robert Riss – Germany (Italy) – participated in the murder of 184 civilians in Padule di Fucecchio, Italy on August 23, 1944.
10. AlgimantasDailide – Germany (Lithuania) – served in the Saugumas (Lithuanian Security Police) in Vilnius – arrested Jews and Poles who were subsequently executed by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators. *Trial dates already slated in Germany in 2016. This list is only the tip of the iceberg of individuals who are still alive and can be prosecuted for their service with the forces of the Third Reich and its allies. In this respect, the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers, old age should not afford protection to those who committed such heinous crimes, and our obligation to the victims of the Nazis is to make a serious effort to find those who victimized innocent men, women, and children, some of whom were older than the criminals are today.

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Taurage, Lithuania – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised an op-ed in the popular Lithuanian news portal lrytas.lt by prominent journalist VytautasBruveris calling upon the government to finally undertake a comprehensive investigation of the scope of Lithuanian complicity in Holocaust crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Dr. EfraimZuroff, who is currently in Lithuania on a research expedition, the Center expressed its appreciation and support for the content of the article and expressed the hope that the government would indeed implement the ideas raised by Bruveris.

According to Zuroff:

"This important article by Bruveris, following a recent op-ed in the same spirit by journalist RimvydasValatka (on July 26 in www.delfi.com), points to growing awareness in the circles of Lithuanian intelligentsia of the necessity to finally fully investigate the role and scope of Lithuanian collaborators in Holocaust crimes. Also of great significance is the call to stop the glorification of Lithuanian freedom fighters who actively participated in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust. These public calls for such an investigation will hopefully mark a positive turning point in the history of Lithuania's dealing with its Holocaust past and, if acted upon, will no doubt significantly help improve Lithuanian-Jewish relations."

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed the conviction today by a German court in Luneberg of Oscar Groening for his wartime service in the notorious Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center emphasized the importance of the conviction and expressed hope that the ongoing investigations by German judicial officials of Holocaust perpetrators would be expedited to maximize justice while these individuals can still be held accountable for their crimes.
According to Zuroff:
"The well-deserved conviction of Auschwitz 'accountant' Groening will hopefully pave the way for additional prosecutions of individuals who served in death camps and the special mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen). It is abundantly clear that the window of opportunity to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice will soon be closed, which makes the expedition of these cases of exceptional urgency. We therefore call upon the German government to make available the necessary resources and upon the judicial officials to give first priority to these cases."

For more information: Dr. EfraimZuroff  972.50.721.4156   Twitter: @EZuroff
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced a Russian international conference convened by the Rodina party (the Russian National Patriotic Union) to establish a pan-European movement to lobby for Russia's interests with the participation of West European neo-Nazis and fascists. In a statement issued here by its director of Eastern European Affairs, Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center harshly criticized the participation of German Udo Voigt of the extreme right National Democratic Party in addition to representatives of Greek Golden Dawn and the founder of the Italian Fascist movement Roberto Fiore, as well as representatives from extreme right-wing parties in Great Britain, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Spain.
According to Zuroff:
"How can Russia, which prides itself on its staunch anti-fascist tradition and its significant role in the defeat in World War II of Nazi Germany, permit such a conference to take place with the participation of some of the worst of Hitler's heirs? Such behavior is the antithesis of the traditional Russian opposition to Nazism and fascism and is an insult to the memory of the Red Army soldiers who sacrificed their lives to defeat the Third Reich."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged AndriusKupčinskas, the mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania, to cancel the upcoming neo-Nazi march scheduled to take place this coming Monday, February 16, Lithuanian Independence Day, in the center of the city.
In a letter sent today by its chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center urged Mayor Kupčinskas to find a legal basis to cancel the march, or at least have it conducted elsewhere under strict limitations against incitement and Holocaust distortion."

According to Zuroff's letter to the mayor:

"As you well know, once again the neo-Nazis and ultranationalists plan to march in the center of Kaunas this coming Monday, February 16 to mark Lithuanian independence day. I think that it should be obvious to you that such a march in which the main slogan is "Lithuania for Lithuanians," and numerous Lithuanian swastikas are shown along with the image of Third Reich supporter JuozasAmbrazevicius who collaborated with the Nazis in the murder of the Jewish residents of Kaunas is hardly an appropriate manner to celebrate Lithuanian independence."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the decision by the Tartu Art Museum to remove two highly offensive video clips from an exhibition on the Holocaust which opened this past Saturday. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Holocaust historian Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center commended the decision to remove video clips of naked actors and actresses playing tag in a gas chamber and of a Holocaust survivor renewing his concentration camp tattoo ID number.

According to Zuroff:

"We commend the efforts of the Estonian Jewish community to protest the highlyoffensive aspects of the exhibition in the Tartu Art Museum, which complemented our own efforts to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, the rest of the exhibition is of highly questionable value, but at least the most objectionable elements have been permanently removed. This incident should be a wake-up call for the authorities in Tallinn regarding the attitude towards Holocaust-related issues."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called for the removal of an exhibition which it believes mocks the victims of the Holocaust and insults their memory and which opened yesterday at the Art Museum in Tartu, Estonia.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter Holocaust historian Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center expressed a deep sense of outrage and insult in response to images from the exhibition entitled "My Poland: Recalling and Forgetting," which make a mockery of the fate of the Nazis' victims who were gassed to death and the contemporary efforts to commemorate their memory.

According to Zuroff:

"While the exhibition claims to attempt to deal with trauma through humor, the result is a sickening mockery of the mass murder of European Jewry and the important ongoing efforts to commemorate the victims' memory and impart the lessons of the Holocaust. Thus, for example, one of the pieces in the exhibition is a film in which naked actors play tag in what is supposed to represent a gas chamber, a shameful parody of the fate of millions of Jews who were murdered in death camps. Such perverted humor has no place in any country, least of all one in which Holocaust crimes were perpetrated not only by Germans and Austrians, but by local Estonian Nazi collaborators as well."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today sent a letter of protest to the Lithuanian Jewish community in response to the participation in yesterday's events to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day of the Lithuanian Genocide Center and a scholar affiliated with that institution who consistently downplays the role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes.
In a letter sent to Faina Kukliansky, the president of the Lithuanian Jewish community by chief Nazi-hunter Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the extremely negative role played by the Genocide Center in recording the history of Lithuanian Jewry, especially during the Holocaust and in particular its systematic efforts to minimize the highly significant role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes.
According to Zuroff's letter to Kukliansky:
"Anyone acquainted with the history of that institution [the Genocide Center] is well aware of its very active role in rewriting the accepted and accurate narrative of World War II to the detriment of historical truth. Examples of its harmful activities abound, but suffice it to mention its responsibility for the content of the local Genocide Museum, which included blatantly anti-Semitic exhibits overemphasizing the role of Jews in Communist crimes, while completely ignoring the real genocide, that of European, and especially Lithuanian Jewry, which took place in Lithuania. Only after protests, did the museum devote one small room to the Holocaust, and in a manner unbefitting the scope and nature of that unique tragedy.

The cooperation between the Jewish community and the Genocide Center is a disgrace and a betrayal of the memory of the Jews murdered by Lithuanians.
For years, Dr. Alperovich, your esteemed predecessor, courageously defended the historical truth regarding the Holocaust in Lithuania and the memory of the victims, but that clearly is no longer the case, and the community under your leadership has forfeited its role as custodian and guardian of Shoa memory."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly denounced a memorial mass held yesterday in the center of Zagreb to commemorate the demise of Croatian mass murderer Ante Pavelić, who headed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the central role played by Pavelićin launching genocidal programs against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Croatia during World War II, as well as the systematic persecution and murder of Croatian anti-fascists.

According to Zuroff:
"It is hard to believe that in the center of the capital of a member of the European Union, very close to Zagreb's Jewish community, hundreds of people gathered yesterday to commemorate the memory of one of Europe's biggest mass murderers. Such a ceremony is an insult to the memory of Pavelić's hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. It is also a badge of shame for the Catholic Church, which allowed such a ceremony to take place in the Basilica of the Heart of Christ who, had he been alive during World War II, would have been targeted for annihilation as well.

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

ירושלים –מרכז שמעון ויזנטל הביע היום מחאה חריפה ביותר נגד הצגה שעומדת להפתח במוצאי שבת הקרובה בלטביה המציגה את הרברטס צוקורס (HerbertsCukurs) , מי שהיה סגן מפקד קומנדו ארייס (Arajs) , יחידת רצח לטבית שחיסלה עשרות אלפי יהודים בתקופת השואה, כגיבור לאומי.
בהודעה שנמסרה היום התייחס ד"ר אפרים זורוף, צייד הנאצים הראשי של מרכז ויזנטל ומי שמנהל את משרדי המרכז בירושלים, להצגה "כשערוריה שאין כדוגמתה," וציין שבידי המרכז עדויות רבות המעידות על השתתפותו האישית של צוקורס ברצח יהודים.
לפי זורוף:"לפי עדויות הנמצאות ביד-ושם, צוקורס רצח יהודים רבים במו ידיו וכן מילא תפקיד חשוב בפשעי קומנדו ארייס שמילאה תפקיד מפתח ברציחתם של יותר מ-95% מיהודי לטביה וכן של יהודים מארצות אחרות שגורשו לריגה. הנסיונות להציג את צוקורס כאדם חף מפשע רק בגלל שלא הורשע בבית משפט (הוא חוסל על-ידי המוסד באורוגואי ב-1965) הם נסיון לשכתב את ההסטוריה ולהלבין את פשעי הלטבים הרבים בשואה."

למידע נוסף נא להתקשר לטל. 972-50-721-4156
www.operationlastchance.org      www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem–The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced here today that it had submittedto the German ministers of justice (Heiko Maas) and the interior (Thomas de Maiziere) a list of 80 persons (76 men and 4 women) who had served in the notorious Nazi Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads), which murdered more than a million Jews by shooting in areas of the Soviet Union during the Holocaust.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. EfraimZuroff, the Center explained that the suspects in question were the youngest members of the mobile killing squads listed in documents in the Center's possession.

According to Zuroff:

"The individuals whose names we submitted to the German ministers were all born between 1920 and 1924 and constitute the suspects most likely to still be alive and healthy enough to face prosecution. The list was submitted in the hope of encouraging the German judicial authorities to expedite the efforts to bring these killers to justice and to offer the Center's assistance in this important project."

Background: Following the May 2011 conviction in Germany of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk solely on the basis of his service in the camp, German prosecutors began searching for death camp guards and death squad members, who could now be brought to trial without proof that they had committed a specific crime against a specific victim (as had been the case in Germany for the previous fifty years). During the past year, German prosecutors had announced locating more than fifty death camp guards, but not a single member of a death squad.

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem–The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its regret and frustration in the wake of the death in Philadelphia yesterday of Auschwitz guard Johann Breyer while facing extradition to Germany to stand trial for his service in the notorious death camp.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center, which was actively involved in the search for co-plaintiffs in the case, noted the continued importance of bringing death camp guards to justice despite the many years which have passed since the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:

"The death of a guard who served in the notorious Birkenau death camp shortly before his extradition to stand trial is obviously a source of frustration, but should not halt or discourage the ongoing efforts to prosecute Holocaust perpetrators. The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the murderers and those who assisted them, nor should old age help such persons elude justice. They are the last people on earth who deserve any sympathy, since they had none for their innocent victims, some of whom were even older than they are today."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center fully intends to continue its efforts to help facilitate the attainment of justice for all the victims of the Holocaust.

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the recent announcement by Germany's leading Nazi war crimes prosecutor Kurt Schrimm that approximately twenty individuals who served as guards at the Majdanek death camp could face prosecution in the coming months. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the significant progress being made in Germany during the past months to maximize efforts to bring death camp guards to justice.

According to Zuroff:

"The conviction of Sobibor SS guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Munich in 2011 has led to a very welcome and dramatic increase in the number of Holocaust perpetrators being investigated and recommended for prosecution in Germany. We urge the German authorities to expedite these cases in view of the advanced age of the suspects in order to maximize justice, while it is still possible to do so in many of these cases."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued the following statement in the wake of the passing last night of Dr. Shimon Alperovich, the former Chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish community.

"It is with great sorrow that we learned of the passing last night of Dr. Shimon Alperovich, the < venerable leader for many years of the Lithuanian Jewish community. Dr. Alperovich displayed great courage and fortitude in leading the renewed Lithuanian Jewish community and fought bravely against the ongoing efforts to minimize local participation in Nazi crimes and the promotion of the canard of equivalency between Nazi and Communist atrocities.

"Just two and a half weeks ago, I visited him in Vilnius together with Prof. Dovid Katz, to update him on our plans to protest the next day against the neo-Nazi march held in the capital, and Dr.

Alperovich gave us his blessing and encouragement.

"On numerous occasions, Dr. Alperovich publically spoke out against Lithuanian Holocaust distortion and, unlike some other Jewish leaders in Eastern Europe, fully supported the Center's "Operation Last Chance" (launched in Lithuania in July 2002) and our efforts to persuade the local authorities to bring unprosecuted Lithuanian Nazi criminals to justice.

"May his memory be a blessing to his family, the Lithuanian Jewish community and Litvaks the world over."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Riga, Latvia – The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel Director and chief Nazi hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, was among the leaders of a demonstration held here today by dozens of protesters from Latvia and abroad against the annual march of Latvian SS veterans and hundreds of their supporters in the center of the capital. In numerous interviews to the international and local media, Zuroff explained the Center's opposition to the march, which glorifies those who fought for the victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in human history.

According to Zuroff:

1) "Contrary to the claims of the marchers, who present the SS veterans as fighters for Latvian freedom, the Nazis had absolutely no intention of granting the Baltic countries independence.
2) "Although these units played no role in Holocaust crimes, many of those who served in them actively participated in the mass murder of Latvian Jewry and of foreign Jews deported to Latvia prior to their joining the Waffen-SS.
3) "Glorifying such persons is an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and a total distortion of the accurate narrative of World War II.
4) "We welcome the steps taken by the Latvian government against the minister who indicated his intention to participate in the march."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Vilnius, Lithuania-The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel Director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, today led a protest vigil against a march of approximately 2,000 neo-Nazis and ultranationalists in the Lithuanian capital to mark the country's restoration of independence in 1990.

The Center noted that once again the image of Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis, prime minister of the provisional Lithuanian government, established in July 1941, which fully supported Nazi Germany and actively participated in the persecution and murder of Jews, was carried by a group of demonstrators as homage to this high-ranking war criminal and Nazi collaborator.

According to Zuroff:

"These demonstrators are the spiritual heirs of the numerous Lithuanians who volunteered to actively participate in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry. Their chants of "Lithuania for Lithuanians" ring particularly ominous in the city once known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania, whose Jewish community was virtually wiped out completely by the Nazis and their numerous local collaborators."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Belgrade – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged the Serbian authorities to establish a memorial research and educational complex on the site of the Staro Sajmiste concentration camp in Belgrade. In a meeting this morning with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, the Center's chief Nazi hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, asked the Serbian head of state to make available the necessary funds to create a center to commemorate victims of the Holocaust as well as those of the genocide of Serbs during WWII on the site of the camp where tens of thousands of innocent civilians were murdered by the Nazis. Staro Sajmiste was among the places where the Nazis used gas vans to murder innocent civilians, in this case Jewish women and children from all over Serbia in 1941-42, as well as a group of Zionist pioneers whose boat was stranded on the Danube, and whose women and children were eventually sent there to be murdered. After the annihilation of the Jews it was used for prisoners of the partisan war as well as Serbs who would be later sent for forced labor in Germany and surplus prisoners from the Jasenovac concentration camp.

Prime Minister Dacic also expressed support for the forthcoming launch of Operation Last Chance in Serbia, which is scheduled to begin in March 2014, with the assistance of Serbian NGOs such as Serbian Code and the Jasenovac Committee of the Orthodox Church. Operation Last Chance is a campaign to bring remaining Nazi war criminals to justice by offering financial rewards for information leading to their arrest and conviction.

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the results of a study on Lithuanian participation in Holocaust crimes recently completed by the government-sponsored Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted two major flaws in the findings of the report as presented by its coordinator Dr. Alfredas Ruksenas, in a report published by the Lithuanian news portal www.delfi.lt on October 25, 2013.

According to Zuroff:
"The findings of the report, as presented by the coordinator of this project, are clearly part of a systematic attempt by the Lithuanian government to minimize the role of ethnic Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. Based on the records in our archives, I can unequivocally state, that the figure of 2,055 Lithuanians whose direct and indirect participation in Holocaust crimes was confirmed by this study, is a gross underestimate of the number of Lithuanians complicit in Shoa crimes, designed to deflect blame from local collaborators and hide the extensive scope of Lithuanian involvement in the mass murder of Jews, both in Lithuania and outside her borders.
"Also highly objectionable is the assertion by Dr. Ruskenas that those Lithuanians who indeed murdered Jews really had no choice but to do so, having received orders to commit murder from their superiors. Besides the fact that in many cases, these superiors were themselves Lithuanians, such arguments have been consistently and unequivocally rejected by courts all over the world, starting with the Nuremberg Trials."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed deep satisfaction at the announcement today by officials of the German Central Prosecution Office (Zentrale Stelle) that it would pursue the cases of thirty former guards at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, who are currently living in Germany. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center praised the initiative, which was launched in the wake of the conviction in Munich in 2011 of armed SS Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk, while expressing regret that such legal reasoning had not been previously applied in such cases for many years.

According to Zuroff:
"Today's announcement marks an important milestone in the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice in the Federal Republic, and the Central Prosecution Office deserves full credit for this important initiative. At the same time, today's positive development underscores the failure to take such measures during the past five decades, a decision which allowed thousands of the worst hands-on killers to elude justice."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

ירושלים – מרכז שמעון ויזנטל הביע סיפוק עמוק בעקבות הודעת המשרד הראשי לחקירת פשעי הנאצים בגרמניה על המלצתם להעמיד לדין שלושים שומרים ממחנה המוות אושוויץ-בירקנאו החיים היום ברפובליקה הפדרלית. בהודעה שפרסם היום צייד הנאצים הראשי של המרכז ומנהל משרדה בישראל, ד"ר אפרים זורוף, המרכז הביע הערכה רבה לגבי היוזמה להעמיד לדין את השומרים וציין שהיא תוצאה של הרשעתו לפני שנתיים במינכן של איוון דמיניוק בגין שירותו כזקיף ס.ס. חמוש במחנה המוות סוביבור.

לדברי זורוף:
"המלצת המשרד לחקירת פשעי הנאצים להעמיד לדין מספר כל כך גדול של זקיפים ממחנה המוות אושוויץ היא סימן-דרך חשובה בתולדות המאמצים להביא למשפט את פושעי השואה החיים בגרמניה. בד בבד, אפשר רק להצטער שצעדים דומים לא ננקטו במשך חמישים שנים אחרונות ומדיניות זו איפשרה לאלפים מבין הגרועים ביותר מבין הרוצחים להמלט מענישה."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – Das Simon Wiesenthal Center brachte große Freude über die Ankündigung der Zentralen Stelle zur Bearbeitung von NS-Verbrechen in Ludwigsburg zum Ausdruck, wonach gegen  30 ehemalige Aufseher des Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz-Birkenau weiter ermittelt werden soll. Die Beschuldigten leben in Deutschland. In einer Stellungnahme lobte der Nazi-Jäger und Direktor des Wiesenthal Büros in Jerusalem, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, heute die Initiative, die im Zuge der Verurteilung des SS-Aufsehers im Vernichtungslager Sobibor, Iwan Demjanjuk, ergriffen wurde. Gleichzeitig brachte Zuroff sein Bedauern darüber zum Ausdruck, dass es solche Bemühungen um eine Strafverfolgung dieser Täter nicht viel früher gegeben hat.

Efraim Zuroff:
"Die heutige Ankündigung ist ein wichtiger Meilenstein für die Bemühungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, NS-Verbrecher zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen, und der Zentralen Stelle in Ludwigsburg gebührt große Anerkennung für diese wichtige Initiative. Gleichzeitig unterstreicht die heutige positive Entwicklung das Versäumnis der vergangenen fünf Jahrzehnte, solche Maßnahmen zu ergreifen. Diese Untätigkeit erlaubte es Tausenden der schlimmsten Direkttäter, der Gerechtigkeit zu entkommen."

For more information call 00-972-50-721 4156
www.operationlastchance.org       www.wiesenthal.com

ירושלים – מרכז שמעון ויזנטל קיבל בברכה את הגשת כתב-האישום היום נגד מפקד המשטרה הבכיר ומפקד הגטו בקושיצה (היום סלובקיה, במלחמת העולם השנייה תחת כיבוש הונגריה) לאזלו צ'טארי בבודאפשט הבוקר. בהודעה שפורסם פה על-ידי צייד-הנאצים הראשי של המרכז ומנהל המשרד הישראלי הד"ר אפרים זורוף, אשר אישית מצא את צ'טארי בבודאפשט ומסר את המידע עליו לשלטונות ההונגריים בסתיו 2011, הודגש החשיבות שבהבאת הפושע הנאצי ההונגרי לדין. באביב 1944 צ'טארי מילא תפקיד מפתח בגירושם של כ-15,700 יהודים מקושיצה וסביבתה למחנה המוות אושוויץ, שם נרצחו רובם הגדול.
לפי זורוף:
"כתב-האישום נגד צ'טארי שנחשף במסגרת הפרויקט 'מבצע הזדמנות אחרונה' של מרכז ויזנטל אשר מציע פרס כספי עבור מידע המסייע בהעמדתם לדין של פושעים נאצים משמשת תזכורת חשובה שעוד ניתן להשיג מידה של צדק עבור קורבנות הנאצים. זה גם צעד חשוב עבור הונגריה שמתקשה מאז המעבר לדמוקרטיה להתמודד עם עברה כמשתפת פעולה עם הנאצים בתקופת השואה. המסר של הגשת כתב האישום הוא שאנשים כמו צ'טארי שפעלו מתוך דחף פטריוטי מדומה הינם פושעי מלחמה ולא גיבורי האומה ההונגרית.
מרכז ויזנטל קורא לשלטונות הונגרית להחיש את התחלת משפטו של צ'טארי לאור גילו המתקדם. "

www.operationlastchance.org 

למידע נוסף נא להתקשר לטל. 721-4156-050
www.operationlastchance.org      www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the full text of its eleventh annual report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which covers the period from April 1, 2011 until March 31, 2012, in conjunction with the observance this coming Sunday, January 27 of International Holocaust Memorial Day. Of particular significance were the following developments:

1. A fivefold increase in the number of convictions-from two in the previous report to ten (nine in Italy and one in Germany)-which brings the number of successful legal decisions against Nazi war criminals since January 1, 2001 to ninety-nine. The convictions were obtained in seven countries, with Italy (45) and the United States (39) recording the highest totals.
2. As of April 1, 2012, at least 1,138 investigations were being carried in ten countries against Nazi war criminals, with the largest number being conducted in Germany (528), Poland (458) and the US (74).
3. Two major trials of unique historical significance were concluded with opposite results. In May 2011, Ivan Demjanjuk was convicted in Germany of accessory to mass murder for his service as an armed SS guard at the Sobibor death camp. His conviction solely on the basis of his service in Sobibor is a legal precedent which significantly increases the likelihood of additional prosecutions of Holocaust perpetrators in the Federal Republic. In July 2011, in the first-ever trial of a local Nazi collaborator in Hungary since the transition to democracy, gendarmerie officer Sandor Kepiro was acquitted of war crimes charges in connection with his role as one of the organizers of the massacre of about 3,300 Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Novi Sad and its environs (occupied Yugoslavia) in January 1942.
4. The entire report, which includes the grades given to 42 countries vis-à-vis their efforts or lack thereof to help bring Nazi war criminals to justice, is now online at: www.operationlastchance.org

For more information call 00-972-50-721-4156 or in Israel: (050) 721-4156.

ירושלים-לקראת יום השואה הבינלאומי החל ביום ראשון הקרוב, ה-27 בינואר (יום שחרור מחנה המוות אושוויץ), מפרסם המשרד הישראלי של מרכז שמעון ויזנטל, האחראי על כל החקירות של פושעים נאצים מטעם המרכז, את הדו''ח השנתי שלו על הנעשה בכל העולם בתחום, כולל נתונים על הרשעות, כתבי אישום חדשים, חקירות שנפתחו לאחרונה, וחקירות המתנהלות כעת, וכן ''גליון ציונים'' המעריך את הפעילות  של 42 מדינות שאמורות לטפל בבעיה כאובה זו. מעיקרי הדו''ח הסוקר את התקופה מה-1 באפריל 2011 עד ה-31 במארס 2012:

1. עלייה של פי חמש במספר המורשעים בפשעי הנאצים (שניים בדו''ח הקודם לעומת עשר בדו''ח החדש-9 באטליה ואחד בגרמניה). מאז ה-1 בינואר 2001, הורשעו בתי משפט ב-7 מדינות 99 נאשמים בפשעי הנאצים.
2. נכון ל-1 באפריל 2012, התנהלו לפחות 1,138 חקירות נגד פושעי מלחמה נאצים בעשר מדינות, כשגרמניה (528), פולין (458), וארה''ב (74) מובילות המספר החקירות.
3. בתקופה הנסקרת התקיימו שני משפטים בעלי חשיבות הסטורית עם תוצאות שונות. במאי 2011 הורשע איוון דמיניוק בגרמניה באשמת סיוע לרצח על  עצם שירותו כזקיף ס.ס. במחנה המוות סוביבור, תקדים משפטי שיכול להגדיל באופן משמעותי את מספרם של הנאצים שיועמדו לדין בגרמניה. ביולי 2011, במשפט הראשון בהונגריה מאז המעבר לדמוקרטיה נגד משתף פעולה מקומי עם הנאצים זוכה שנדור קפירו מאשמת פשעי מלחמה למרות השתתפותו בארגון רצח המוני של סרבים, יהודים, וצוענים בעיר נובי סאד וסביבתה בינואר 1942.
4. הדו''ח בשלמותו, כולל הציונים שהוענקו לארצות השונות, וכן רשימת עשרת הפושעים הנאצים המבוקשים, מופיע באתר של המשרד הישראלי של מרכז ויזנטל:

www.operationlastchance.org 

למידע נוסף נא להתקשר לטל. 721-4156-050
www.operationlastchance.org      www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly denounced the call yesterday by Hungarian MP Marton Gyöngyösi, foreign affairs spokesperson for the anti-Semitic and anti-Roma party Jobbik, for the government to create a registry of Jewish members of parliament and government officials because such persons constitute a national security risk.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center condemned the statement by Gyöngyösi as something "sadly reminiscent of the genocidal Nazi regime which murdered hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews with the help of numerous local collaborators."

According to Zuroff:

"The fact that after making such a demand in the Hungarian Parliament Gyöngyösi has not been forced to resign, is a sad commentary on the current rise of anti-Semitism in Hungary, which is being propagated primarily by the Jobbik party, the heirs of the fascist Arrow Cross. Today's condemnation of the statement by the government is welcome, but the total silence yesterday and the fact that the perpetrator of anti-Semitic incitement will apparently pay no price for his demagoguery will only encourage Jobbik to continue their campaigns of hatred against Hungarian Jews and Roma."

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
www.operationlastchance.org         www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly condemned the recent unveiling in the city of Bauska, Latvia, of a memorial monument honoring Latvians who served in the Waffen-SS during World War II. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center described the new monument as a gross insult to the memory of the Nazis’ numerous victims in Latvia, many of whom were murdered by Latvians who later served in the Latvian Waffen-SS divisions.

According to Zuroff:
“The initiative in Bauska to honor Latvians who fought for a victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in history, is in stark contrast to the refusal of the local authorities to facilitate an attempt by Jewish former residents of the city to commemorate the Bauska Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Wiesenthal Center stands in solidarity with the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities which protested this total failure to correctly distinguish between the victims and perpetrators of World War II to Latvian President Berzins and Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Sprudzis.”

For more information call 00-972-50-721-4156
www.operationlastchance.org         www.wiesenthal.com

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center commends Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) and Representative Harold Berman (D-CA) for introducing the War Crimes Accountability Act of 2012,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO named in honor of the famed Nazi hunter. “This legislation can serve as an important tool in the pursuit of justice and a reminder in the final years of the hunt for Nazi war criminals that there should be no statute of limitations on mass murder and no safe harbor for Nazi killers,” he continued.  †††††† †

“We note that the bill mentions the Center's Operation Last Chance and the important work by our chief Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff,” Cooper said. “Significantly, this bill provides practical incentive for countries who have done nothing to deal with Nazi war criminals in their midst to cooperate in bringing Nazis before the bar of justice by prohibiting defense sales to countries that either refuse to deport, prosecute, or enforce an arrest warrant against a Nazi war criminal,” Cooper said. He also said that it would also cover war criminals accused by an international tribunal of planning or abetting crimes against humanity in the years since the end of World War II.

Cooper added, “This bill shows that America is telling the world that the heinous crimes perpetrated by Nazi Germany will not be forgotten, nor will similar acts today be tolerated.”

"We are grateful to Congressmen Israel and Berman for their service to the victims of the Shoah and to all victims of atrocities who would benefit from this legislation," Rabbi Cooper concluded.

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156 www.operationlastchance.org www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed a deep sense of disgust in response to a “sick attempt at humor” in the most recent issue of the popular Estonian news weekly Eesti Ekspress.
In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center denounced in the strongest terms a fake ad which appeared in the “humor pages” of the magazine with a photograph of concentration camp inmates under the heading: “One, two, three: Dr. Mengele’s diet pills work miracles on you. There were no fatties in Buchenwald.”

According to Zuroff:
“It is incomprehensible that a leading and ostensibly-respectable news weekly in a country which is a member in good standing in the European Union will publish such a perverted attempt at humor at the expense of the Nazis’ millions of victims. Apparently, the editors at Eesti Ekspress were disappointed that the Estonian gas company Gas Term Eesti had to remove an ad published less than a month ago, which featured a photo of the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp to advertise their gas products. What can one expect in a country which glorifies its SS veterans and failed to prosecute a single one of its many Nazi collaborators?”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, last week submitted new evidence to the prosecutor in Budapest regarding crimes committed during World War II by its No. 1 Most Wanted suspect Laszlo Csatary, who served as a senior Hungarian police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, then under Hungarian rule. In a statement issued here today, the Center noted that the evidence submitted by Zuroff to Prosecutor Dr. Gabor Hetenyi related to Csatary’s key role in the deportation of approximately 300 Jews from Kosice to Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine, where almost all were murdered in the summer of 1941. At their meeting Zuroff urged the Hungarian authorities to expedite the ongoing investigation against Csatary, which was initiated in September 2011 following his submission of evidence regarding Csatary’s residence in Budapest and the former police officer’s role in the deportations of thousands of Jews from Kosice and its environs to the Auschwitz death camp in the spring of 1944.

According to Zuroff, “This new evidence strengthens the already very strong case against Csatary and reinforces our insistence that he be held accountable for his crimes. The passage of time in no way diminishes his guilt and old age should not afford protection for Holocaust perpetrators.”

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Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute alle Fußballfans in der ukrainischen Stadt Lwiw dazu aufgerufen, zwei antisemitische Restaurants zu boykottieren. In Lwiw finden drei Spiele der Gruppe B bei der Fußball-Europameisterschaft statt. Die deutsche Mannschaft träg hier zwei ihrer Gruppenspiele aus. In einer Stellungnahme nannte der Leiter des Jerusalemer Büros des Centers, der Holocaust-Historiker Efraim Zuroff, die Restaurants „At the Golden Rose“ und „Kryvika“ (Versteck), die Antisemitismus und ukrainischen Extremismus verbreiten. Er rät den Fußballfans, woanders zu essen.
Im „Golden Rose“ erhalten die Gäste Hüte mit Schläfenlocken. So können sie ultraorthodoxe Juden imitieren. Es gibt keine Preisliste. Die Kunden sollen um den Preis „schachern“, ein antisemitisches Klischee, das in Osteuropa verbreitet ist.
Das „Kryvika“ befindet sich in einem Bunker, der von ukrainischen Nationalisten unter dem Kommando von Stepan Bandera während des II. Weltkriegs benutzt wurde, der mit den Nazis kollaborierte und dessen Truppen sich 1941 am Judenmord in der Ukraine beteiligten. Die Parole für das Betreten des Restaurants lautet: „Ruhm der Ukraine!“
„Durch eine Unterstützung dieser Restaurants würden Fußballfans den extremistischen und gefährlichsten Elementen der ukrainischen Gesellschaft helfen, die das Andenken an Zehntausende von Holocaust-Opfern beleidigen, die von den Nazis und ihren ukrainischen Helfern in Lwiw ermordet wurden. Dieses würde den Zielen der Euro 2012 völlig entgegenstehen.“
Das ARD-Nachtmagazin hatte am Mittwoch über Ausschreitungen der rechtsextremen Fans des örtlichen Klubs Karpaty Lwiw berichtet. Dem Bericht zufolge haben die rassistischen Hooligans vom Klub ein Kontingent von 3000 Karten erhalten.

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly condemned the decision yesterday by a working group led by Kaunas mayor Andrius Kupčinskas to bring the remains of Lithuania’s World War II pro-Nazi political leader Jouzas Ambrazavičius-Brazaitis from the United States where he died in 1974, for reburial with full honors in Lithuania. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center described the decision as “an absolute outrage which exposes the hypocrisy of the current Lithuanian government which repeatedly claims that it takes the subject of Holocaust commemoration seriously.”

According to Zuroff:
“Jouzas Ambrazavičius was the leader of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), a staunchly pro-Nazi group which collaborated with the forces of Nazi Germany and openly called upon the local population to attack Lithuanian Jews. This incitement to murder was a significant factor in the violence unleashed by Lithuanians against Jews in more than forty places, even before the arrival of the German troops and in the horrific wave of mass murder unleashed with massive local help after the country was occupied. To honor Ambrazavičius is to besmirch the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania and make a mockery of Lithuania’s programs of Holocaust commemoration and education.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision by the municipal authorities of the town of Vorden, Netherlands to honor 10 German soldiers buried in the town on the National Day for the fallen of World War II. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center denounced the decision which "blurs the crucial distinction between the victims and the perpetrators of the crimes of World War II and reflects a lack of understanding of the history of those tragic years."

According to Zuroff:
" By honoring the German soldiers who occupied the Netherlands on behalf of the most murderous regime in human history and supported the occupation which helped implement the mass murder of Dutch Jewry, the local authorities of Vorden have basically rewritten the history of the war, erasing the critical distinction between victims and perpetrators. Such a decision is which is apparently based on the erroneous assumption that forgiveness automatically leads to reconciliation, ignores the horrific nature of the Nazi regime and is an insult to its victims. "

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Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the initial findings of its eleventh Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period from April 1, 2011 until March 31, 2012 and awarded grades ranging from A (highest) to F to evaluate the efforts and results achieved by more than three dozen countries which were either the site of Nazi crimes or admitted Holocaust perpetrators after World War II.

Among the report’s highlights are the following important developments:

1. The most important positive result in a specific case during the period under review was the conviction in Germany in May 2011 of Ivan Demjanjuk for his service as an armed SS guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland, where approximately 250,000 Jews were murdered from mid-May 1942 to October 14, 1943. Demjanjuk’s conviction set a very important precedent, as it was the first time in German legal history that a Nazi war criminal was convicted without any evidence of a specific crime with a specific victim. The Demjanjuk conviction paves the way, at least in theory, for the prosecution in Germany of any person who served in a death camp or in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units). This decision prompted the Wiesenthal Center to launch Operation Last Chance II which offers a reward of up to 25,000 euros for information leading to the prosecution and punishment of these criminals.

2. Three new names appear on the on the Center’s latest “Most Wanted” list, starting with number one – Hungarian Laszlo Csatary who as police chief of Kosice (Hungarian-occupied Slovakia) played an important role in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. The others are Vladimir Katriuk (#4), who served as a platoon commander in a Ukrainian Security Police battalion which carried out the mass murder of numerous civilians in Belarus, and Helmut Oberlander who served with Einsatzkommando 10a (part of Einsatzgruppe D) which carried out the mass murder of Jews in southern Ukraine. Both are currently living in Canada. These names replace Sandor Kepiro (#1), Milivoj Asner (#2) and Adam Nagorny (#5) who died during the past year.

3. The most disappointing result in a specific case during the period under review was the acquittal in Budapest on July 18, 2011 of gendarmerie officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro, who was among the officers who organized the mass murder of about 3,300 civilian in the Serbian city of Novi Sad and its vicinity in late January 1942. Judge Bela Varga who ruled in the case claimed that Kepiro was not innocent, but that the prosecution had failed to sufficiently prove his guilt. Kepiro died while the case was being appealed by the prosecution.
4. The lack of political will to bring Nazis war criminals to justice and/or to punish them continues to be the major obstacle to achieving justice, particularly in post-Communist Eastern Europe. The campaign led by the Baltic countries to distort the history of the Holocaust and obtain official recognition that the crimes of the Communists are equal to those of the Nazis is another major obstacle to the prosecution of those responsible for the crimes of the Shoa.
The author of the report, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who coordinates the Center’s research on Nazi war criminals worldwide, noted that the statistics in the report clearly show that a significant measure of justice can still be achieved against Nazi war criminals. “During the past eleven years, at least ninety convictions against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least seventy-nine new indictments have been filed, and well over three thousand new investigations have been initiated. Despite the somewhat prevalent assumption that it is too late to bring Nazi murderers to justice, the figures clearly prove otherwise, and we are trying to ensure that at least several of these criminals will to be brought to trial during the coming years. While it is generally assumed that it is the age of the suspects that is the biggest obstacle to prosecution, in many cases it is the lack of political will, more than anything else, that has hindered the efforts to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice, along with the mistaken notion that it was impossible at this point to locate, identify, and convict these criminals. The success achieved by dedicated prosecution agencies, especially in the United States, Italy and Germany, should be a catalyst for governments all over the world to make a serious effort to maximize justice while it can still be obtained.”

Zuroff went on to explain that the Report’s purpose was to focus public attention on the issue and thereby “encourage all the governments involved to maximize their efforts to ensure that as many as possible of the unprosecuted Holocaust perpetrators will be held accountable for their crimes. In that respect, we seek to highlight both the positive results achieved during the period under review by countries such as Germany, as well as the failures of countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine which have consistently failed to hold any Holocaust perpetrators accountable, primarily due to a lack of the requisite political will, as well as Sweden and Norway which in principle refuses to investigate, let alone prosecute, due to a statue of limitations.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today noted the passing of former Sobiboir death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Germany at age 91, while awaiting an appeal of his conviction for accessory to murder for the deaths of the Sobibor inmates murdered while he served at the infamous Nazi death camp from March to September 1943. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the length of the Demjanjuk case, which began in the United States in the late seventies and continued initially in Israel and later back in the US and then in Germany, unfortunately might have raised some doubt as his role during World War II, but there was never any doubt as far as the Center was concerned, that Demjanjuk had been an active participant in the implementation of the "Final Solution," the Nazis' plan to annihilate European Jewry.

According to Zuroff:
" Ivan Demjanjuk died guilty of his service in the Sobibor death camp and that is how he should be remembered, not as a person falsely accused, but as an individual who volunteered to serve in the SS, and who at the height of his physical powers spent months helping to mass murder innocent Jews deported to that death camp. Justice was unfortunately delayed in this case, and hindered by complicating factors, but was ultimately achieved to the credit of the prosecutors in the US and Germany who handled the case."

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Riga-The Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, travelled to Riga to join demonstrators against a march of Latvian Waffen-SS veterans and their supporters which took place yesterday in the Latvian capital. In a statement issued here today following the demonstration which was attended by about 100 protestors, among them residents of Riga and guests who especially arrived from Israel, Britain, Lithuania, Germany and Austria, the Center noted the importance of the protest against the glorification of people who fought alongside the most genocidal regime in human history.
According to Zuroff:
" It is a terrible tragedy that many Latvians view those who fought with the Nazis as patriotic freedom fighters. It is important to remember that although the Latvian SS Legion was not involved in the crimes of the Holocaust (by the time it was established almost all of Latvian Jewry had already been murdered), many of those who served in the unit, had actively participated in Holocaust crimes as members of the Latvian Security Police, and it would therefore be unthinkable to honor these men. It is also important to note that the claim that these men were fighting for Latvian independence is a total myth, since the Nazis had absolutely no intention to grant Latvia independence and it is only because the Third Reich was defeated that an independent Latvia ultimately was created in 1991."
Dr. Zuroff was among the demonstrators who laid a wreath to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust at the Freedom Monument, the destination of the march, prior to the arrival of the SS veterans and their supporters. After the wreath was laid, a large poster of the emblem of the Latvian SS units was put in front of the wreath to cover it up.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly condemned a neo-Nazi march held late last week in the city center of Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania’s second-largest city and its interwar capital. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the demonstration “a disgraceful way to observe Lithuanian Independence Day,” and harshly criticized the public support of the march by five Lithuanian members of parliament, and the total absence of any public criticism by Lithuanian elected leaders or officials or foreign ambassadors.

According to Zuroff:
“A march of several hundred primarily young people wearing white armbands with Lithuanian swastikas and other fascist symbols sends chills down the spines of the small remnant of Kaunas’ once-thriving Jewish community which was totally decimated during the Holocaust.
“The deafening silence of Lithuania’s leaders will only encourage additional such marches and we anticipate that the march scheduled for Sunday, March 11 in the capital of Vilnius will be much larger given the tacit acceptance of these demonstrations by the government and the total lack of response by the European Union and international community.”

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Jerusalem – Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute den kompletten Text seines jährlichen Berichtes zur Strafverfolgung von NS-Tätern im Jahr 2011 ins Internet gestellt. Der Bericht erfasst die weltweit bekannt gewordenen Ermittlungsverfahren im Zeitraum vom 1. April 2010 bis 31. März 2011. Der Bericht kann jetzt auf dieser Internetseite eingesehen werden:

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the full text of its 2011 Annual Status Report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which covers the period from April 1, 2010 until March 31, 2011. The report is now available on the home page of the website:
www.operationlastchance.org

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Novi Sad, Serbia-The Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, stressed the role of memory in assuring that the crimes of he Holocaust would not be erased or forgotten in his remarks at the memorial ceremony held here today to mark the 70th anniversary of the mass murder by Hungarian forces of Jewish, Serb, and Roma civilians in this Serbian city on January 23, 1942. Zuroff stressed that the recent acquittal in July 2011 in Budapest of Hungarian gendarmerie officer Sandor Kepiro, who was one of the organizers of the massacre, and his subsequent burial as a heroic patriot, threatened to erase ths terrible crime and absolve the killers of their guilt.

Dr. Zuroff's speech deliverd today to a crowd of hundrerds in Novi Sad:

Today we mark the 70th anniversary of the horrific crimes committed by the Hungarian army and gendamerie on the banks of the Danube, not far from where we are currently standing. Those crimes were the product of politics and prejudice, an opportunistic alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany and the racism, anti-Semitism, and extremism of the Third Reich and its allies.

Seventy years is ostensibly a very long time, for many people an entire lifetime if not more, and there are those who would prefer that such terrible and tragic events be forgotten. Even worse, there are those who justify such crimes and consider their perpetrators heroes. Not long ago, Sandor Kepiro, one of these so- called Hungarian "heroes" died while his case was being appealed in Budapest, a case in which he was charged for his active role in the roundup of innocent citizens of Novi Sad-Jews, Serbs, and Roma//men, women, and children, who were marched to the river to be murdered. He claimed that his assignment was to search for terrorists, dangerous people like 10 year old Lydia Brenners, 9 year old Dorothea Pintar, and 6 year old Arthur Rosenthal.

Kepiro's funeral was attended by many people who believed that he did his duty and was a true Hungarian patriot, some of whom even came wearing the same gendarmerie uniform Kepiro wore, when he did his share to doom innocent people to death, the same uniforms worn by the Hungarian gendarmes, who two years later organized the deportation of the Jews of Novi Sad to Auschwitz. Indeed heroes and patriots. There are two acceptable responses to the terrible crimes committed seventy years ago-justice and memory. But justice, as we saw last July in the Buda District Court, can be severely flawed. Judge Varga admitted that Sandor Kepiro was not innocent, but after he outrageously disqualified all the documents and testimony against him, he decreed that the prosecution had failed to prove his guilt.

So that leaves us with memory, which is why our presence here united is so critical. And it is from here, so close to the site of the murders, that we must declare loud and clear that no flawed and
politicized verdict can change the facts and the guilt of the perpetrators, nor can it erase the memory of the victims which will remain in our hearts forever.

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today responded with dismay and consternation to a communication from EU Ambassador to Afghanistan Vygaudas Ušackes to its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, following his criticism of an op-ed by Ušackes in the Wall Street Journal in which the ambassador referred to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania as “a few years’ respite from the Communists.” In a statement issued here today, the Center noted that rather than rectifying his grossly insensitive remark about the Holocaust, Ambassador Ušackes has again insulted its victims, especially those murdered in his homeland.

According to Zuroff:

“All Ambassador Ušackes was expected to do was to admit that his original comment was inappropriate and apologize for his lack of sensitivity to the fate of Lithuanian Jewry during the Holocaust. Instead, he chose to defend his callous indifference to the murder of some 212,000 Lithuanian Jews during the Nazi occupation, by complaining about the imbalance in public opinion between “Nazi crimes which have been universally condemned by all civilized humanity,” and “the crimes of Stalin’s regime…and the tragedy of its victims,” which only received recognition more recently, as if this justifies ignoring the Holocaust. And while he did condemn Holocaust crimes in general, he did not say a word about those committed by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators.

“Ušackes’ reluctance to honestly deal with his country’s bloody Holocaust past raises serious doubts about his ability to properly represent the European Union.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the recent (December 28) memorial mass conducted in Zagreb in honor of Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić, who as head of state of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) bears direct responsibility for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, tens of thousands of Jews, and numerous Roma. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the ceremony “a grievous insult to the memory of Pavelić’s numerous victims and a mockery of the horrific crimes of the Ustasha.”

According to Zuroff:
“This ceremony, which had previously been stopped by church authorities in the wake of protests by the Wiesenthal Center and others, is a disgrace to the local Catholic Church and incomprehensible in a country about to enter the European Union. We call upon the Croatian authorities to ban such ceremonies in the future and urge the religious leaders responsible for Vjekoslav Lasić and Stanislav Kos, the priests who performed the mass, to defrock them for conducting a ceremony which made a total mockery of Christian values.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lithuania’s former Foreign Minister Vygaudas Ušackas, to apologize or retract his grossly insensitive comments regarding the Nazi occupation of his country in his December 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. In an article entitled “My Long, Strange Journey to Afghanistan,” Ušackas categorized the Nazi occupation of Lithuania (1941-1944) during which over 96% of the country’s Jewish community was murdered, in many cases by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, as “a respite from the Communists while the Nazis were in control.” In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the comment “a grave insult to the victims of the Holocaust and especially to those murdered in Lithuania.”

According to Zuroff:

“It is incomprehensible that an individual who represents the European Union can refer to the mass annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry in such grossly insensitive terms, which fail to reflect the historical reality of that period. We urge Ambassador Ušachas to apologize and retract his statement and call upon the European Union to take appropriate measures should he refuse to do so.”

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Berlin -The Simon Wiesenthal Center today launched "Operation Last Chance II," a project which will focus on the men who served in Nazi death camps and the Einsatzgruppen (special mobile killing units), at a press conference held at the Bundestag press lobby here today. Modeled after its original "Operation Last Chance" project started in 2002, which focused primarily on Eastern Europe, the current initiative, which is supported by the "Targum Shlishi Foundation" of Miami headed by Aryeh Rubin, is offering financial rewards of up to 25,000 euros for information which will lead to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals. The Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who conceived and directs the new project, explained that the May 2011 conviction in Munich of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk, who is the first person to be convicted in Germany without evidence of a specific crime with a specific victim, paves the way for the successful prosecution in Germany of any person who served in one of the death camps or the Einsatzgruppen. Also participating in the press conference were: MP Dietmar Nietan, former MP Gert Weisskirchen, and activist against anti-Semitism Joerg Rensmann.
According to Zuroff:
" The Demjanjuk conviction at long last enables the prosecution of individuals who were active participants in the mass murder of Jews on practically a daily basis for extended periods of time, but hereto for legal reasons could not be prosecuted for their crimes. This travesty of justice can now be corrected, but we are in a race against time to find the individuals still alive and expedite their prosecution. My estimate is that there are at least several dozen such cases which can still be brought to trial and we want to do whatever we can to help the German legal authorities bring these Holocaust perpetrators to justice."

Zuroff explained that the rewards will be given to the persons who give the information in the following manner:
5,000 euros upon indictment of the suspect;
5,000 euros upon his or her conviction;
100 euros a day for the first 150 days of imprisonment, for a total of an additional 15,000 euros. Total=25,000 euros.

The Center's hotline for information is in Germany: (01573) 494-7307
For those those calling from outside Germany: 49-1573-494-7307

Jerusalem/Muenster-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German authorities to investigate the possibility that the same officials who either colluded with neo-Nazi terrorists or purposely ignored their criminal activities also conspired to prevent the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, and its chief researcher in Germany Dr. Stefan Klemp, the Center noted that unlike the situation in most of the other Laender, where numerous Nazi war criminals have been and/or are currently under investigation, in recent years there have no investigations whatsoever of Holocaust perpetrators in Thuringia.

According to Zuroff and Klemp:
" In the light of this week's revelations, we cannot totally discount the possibility that the same officials who colluded and/or turned a blind eye to neo-Nazi activity in Thuringia helped made sure that no Nazi war criminals would be investigated, let alone prosecuted. The urgent investigation into the serious crimes committed by the neo-Nazis should therefore also seriously consider the possibility that their activities included efforts to shield their ideological predecessors from the recently increasingly successful efforts in Germany to bring Nazi war criminals to justice."

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem/Münster. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die deutschen Behörden dazu aufgerufen, ihre Ermittlungen zum NS-Terror auszuweiten. Sie sollten auch die Frage beantworten, ob möglicherweise die gleichen Beamten, die entweder mit Neo-Nazi-Terroristen zusammenarbeiteten oder ihre kriminellen Aktivitäten ignorierten, auch an der Verhinderung der Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechern oder NS-Kriegsverbrechern beteiligt waren. In einer Stellungnahme, die heute vom Chef-Nazijäger des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, und dem Researcher des Wiesenthal Centers in Deutschland, Dr. Stefan Klemp, herausgegeben wurde, stellte das Wiesenthal Center fest, dass anders als in den meisten Bundesländern, wo es eine ganze Reihe von Ermittlungsverfahren oder auch Gerichtsverfahren gegeben hat, in Thüringen in den letzten Jahren nicht nur keine NS-Täter vor Gericht gestellt wurden, sondern es auch keine Ermittlungsverfahren mehr gegeben hat.
Zuroff und Klemp: „Angesichts der Enthüllungen in dieser Woche können wir es nicht völlig ausschließen, dass dieselben Beamten, die mit den Verbrechern unter einer Decke steckten und/oder ihre Augen gegenüber den Neonazi-Aktivitäten in Thüringen verschlossen haben, auch dazu beigetragen haben, dass in Thüringen nicht gegen NS-Verbrecher ermittelt wurde, geschweige denn NS-Kriegsverbrecher angeklagt wurden. Die Ermittlungen wegen der Verbrechern der Neonazis sollten deshalb auch die Möglichkeit in Betracht ziehen, dass die Beteiligten darauf abzielten, ihre ideologischen Vorbilder vor der andernorts in letzter Zeit erfolgreichen Strafverfolgung zu schützen.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized Estonia’s failure to prosecute local Nazi collaborator Mikhail Gorshkow, whose case was closed yesterday by the Estonian authorities without any legal action taken. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the decision as “typical of the total failure since independence of the Estonian authorities to hold local Holocaust perpetrators accountable for their crimes.”

According to Zuroff:
“Estonia’s refusal to prosecute Gorshkow is only the latest in a series of failures to bring Estonian Nazi collaborators to justice. Starting with Evald Mikson, who was defended by the Estonian Foreign Ministry despite his heinous crimes, and continuing with Harry Mannil, who was Mikson’s subordinate in the Political Police, Estonia has failed time after time to hold its Holocaust perpetrators accountable. One can only wonder why a person convicted in the United States suddenly has his identity questioned in Estonia?”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized Estonia’s failure to prosecute local Nazi collaborator Mikhail Gorshkow, whose case was closed yesterday by the Estonian authorities without any legal action taken. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the decision as “typical of the total failure since independence of the Estonian authorities to hold local Holocaust perpetrators accountable for their crimes.”

According to Zuroff:
“Estonia’s refusal to prosecute Gorshkow is only the latest in a series of failures to bring Estonian Nazi collaborators to justice. Starting with Evald Mikson, who was defended by the Estonian Foreign Ministry despite his heinous crimes, and continuing with Harry Mannil, who was Mikson’s subordinate in the Political Police, Estonia has failed time after time to hold its Holocaust perpetrators accountable. One can only wonder why a person convicted in the United States suddenly has his identity questioned in Estonia?”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the recent decision of Yad Vashem to rescind its original invitation to Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Darius Degutis and visiting Minister of Culture Arunas Gelunas to participate in tomorrow’s annual memorial assembly to commemorate the Jews murdered in Lithuania during the Holocaust. The decision was made in the wake of the refusal of Yosef Melamed, Chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, to attend the event in the light of a recent attempt by the Lithuanian government to prosecute him for “libeling”
so-called “Lithuanian heroes,” whom he exposed as participants in Holocaust crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the significance of Yad Vashem’s decision in the context of the ongoing battle being waged against the Lithuanian government’s energetic efforts to hide and/or minimize the active complicity of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, as well as its promotion of the Prague Declaration which seeks to establish a historically-false equivalency between Holocaust and Communist crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“Yad Vashem, which serves as the primary custodian of Shoa remembrance and the key guardian of the accuracy of the Jewish narrative of Holocaust history, is to be commended for fulfilling its historic function in a very courageous manner. Its decision is a crucial blow against the ongoing efforts of the Lithuanian government to distort the history of the Shoa in Lithuania and the role played by local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of local and foreign Jews in Lithuania, as well as Jews in Belarus and Poland.”

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Den Haag. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center erhält die Unterstützung der großen Parteien des niederländischen Parlamentes im Fall Klaas Faber. Bei einem Treffen mit dem Nazijäger Dr. Efraim Zuroff sagten die Spitzen der vier größten Parteien des Landes ihre aktive Unterstützung im Bemühen um eine Bestrafung des verurteilten SS-Mannes zu. Faber verbringt seinen Lebensabend in Ingolstadt. Er war in den Niederlanden wegen mehrfachen Mordes zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt worden. Ihm gelang jedoch die Flucht nach Deutschland. Die Bayerische Justiz lehnt weitere Ermittlungen gegen ihn ab.
Zuroff und der niederländische Investigativjournalist Arnold Karskens trafen gestern zusammen mit Step Blok (Liberale), Gert Wilders (Freiheitspartei), Emile Roemer (Sozialdemokraten) und Jolande Sap (Grüne). Sie wollen gemeinsam den Druck auf Deutschland erhöhen, damit Faber endlich seiner gerechten Strafe zugeführt werden kann. Ziel ist es, dass er seine Haftstrafe verbüßt. Entweder nach einer Auslieferung in den Niederlanden oder in Deutschland.

Zuroff:
“Die Unterstützung der großen niederländischen Parteien für eine Initiative zur Weiterverfolgung des Verfahrens gegen Faber in Deutschland ist ermutigend, muss aber nun so schnell wie möglich politisch umgesetzt werden. Wir haben die Parlamentarier auch dazu aufgerufen, Forschern endlich Zugang zu den Dokumenten des Falles zu ermöglichen, die in den Niederlanden unerklärlicherweise immer noch gesperrt sind.” Das Wiesenthal Center erhofft sich von den Dokumenten neues Beweismaterial

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The Hague, Netherlands-The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, met here yesterday with the leaders of the four largest parties in the Dutch Parliament to enlist their active support in the Center’s campaign to get Germany to take legal action against escaped convicted Dutch SS-executioner Klaas Carel Faber, who is currently living unpunished in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, having fled a Dutch prison, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of dozens of resistance members, Jews, and those helping to hide Jews. Zuroff, along with local investigative journalist Arnold Karskens, who heads the Dutch Foundation for War Crimes Research and has played a major role in the Faber case, met here with Step Blok of the Liberal Party, Gert Wilders of the Freedom Party, Emile Roemer of the Social Democrats, and Jolande Sap of the Greens to urge increased pressure on Germany to either extradite Faber back to Holland to serve his sentence or incarcerate him in a German prison.

According to Zuroff:
“The unanimous support of all Dutch political parties for increased pressure on Germany to successfully resolve the Faber case was heartening, but must be turned into effective political and judicial action as quickly as possible. We also called upon the MP’s to help gain access to pertinent legal records regarding Faber’s crimes which inexplicably continue to be closed to researchers in Holland and which are likely to reveal important details on additional crimes he committed, which can considerably strengthen the case against him.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center tonight expressed it sense of deep frustration upon learning of the death in Budapest yesterday morning of accused, and previously convicted, Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr.(of law) Sandor Kepiro, who was charged this year by Hungarian prosecutors with responsibilty for the murder of at least 36 persons during a massacre carried out by Hungarian forces in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on January 23, 1942. Last month a judge ruled in a Budapest court that while Kepiro was not innocent, the Hungarian prosecutors had failed to convincingly prove his guilt, but appeals had been launched by both the prosecution and the defense, and it was likely that they would be heard within the next few weeks. In a statement issued here tonight by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who discovered Kepiro and led the efforts to convince the Hungarian authorities to bring him to trial, the Center noted that it was likely that Kepiro's initial acquittal would have been overturned upon appeal and expressed its deep disappointment that his death prevented his conviction and punishment.

According to Zuroff:
" Kepiro's acquittal last month was not only a terrible travesty of justice which insulted the memory of the victims of the mass murder carried out by the Hungarian forces, and encouraged those who seek to deny Hungarian participation in Holocaust crimes, but also was in direct contradiction to voluminous historical and judicial evidence collected over the years, most of which was the basis for his original conviction in a Hungarian court in January 1944. Thus it is a fair assumption that the acquittal could well have been overturned on appeal, and Kepiro would have been once again convicted for his role in the Novi Sad mass murder. His death has unfortunately prevented such a decision, which would not only have focused attention on the active role of Hungarian Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, during World War II, but also would have ensured that the criminal responsibilty of one of the officers who was an active participant in these crimes would have been confirmed, for the first time ever, since democracy in a Hungarian court of law."

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Budapest – the Simon Wiesenthal Center described the acquittal here today of former Hungarian Gendarmerie officer Sandor Kepiro as an outrageous miscarriage of justice which directly contradicts the extensive evidences of Kepiro’s direct involvement and responsibility in the January 23, 1942 massacre of at least 1,246 innocent residences of the Serbian city of Novi Sad.
In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Kepiro had already been convicted in 1944 and 1946 in connection with his role in the massacre (although not for war crimes) and that the verdict would be appealed.

According to Zuroff: ”today’s verdict is an insult to the memory of the Novi Sad massacre and a sad day for Hungarian society. A judicial decision which brings joy to the ultra nationalists of Hungary and pain to the victims of fascist crimes is inherently flawed and the Center will do whatever he can to help to change it as quickly as possible.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the Lithuanian government for trying to hide or minimize the highly-significant role of local Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes and attributed last weekend’s desecration of the memorial at Ponar, the site of the mass murder of 70,000 Jews during the Holocaust, to the falsification of World War II history by local historians with governmental sponsorship and support. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center pointed to the denial at a recent international conference sponsored by the government at the Seimas [Lithuanian Parliament] of the lethal violence launched by Lithuanians against Jews in at least 40 different locations before the arrival of Nazi troops, as an example of the continuing efforts by the authorities to try and conceal the active participation by Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews during World War II.

According to Zuroff:
“The ongoing government-sponsored and financed distortion, minimization, and downplaying of the critical role played by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes has created an anti-Semitic atmosphere in which slogans such as “Hitler was right,” which was scrawled on the Ponar memorial, seem natural. After all, if as was claimed at the recent historical conference held at the Seimas, Jewish historians such as eminent Hebrew University professor Dov Levin purposely lied about the scope of Lithuanian criminality during the Shoa, such desecrations of Holocaust memorials become almost understandable. The time has come for the European Union to make clear to the Lithuanian authorities that membership obligates them to refrain from distorting the history of World War II for political reasons and to stop the resultant incitement against the local Jewish community

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center harshly criticized a memorial service held today in the Estonian city of Viljandi by the “Union of Estonian Soldiers” to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of their country, which according to the organizers, who were quoted in the Estonian newspaper Sakala, made “Estonians’ situation…normal again.” In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the statement “a malicious revision of the sad reality of Estonian history, in which one occupation was replaced by another, and a heartless affront to the memory of the Estonian Jews murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators.” The Center expressed solidarity with the Estonian Jewish community, which spoke out against the event, and called upon Estonian political leaders to publically denounce the initiative and make sure that no public funds were spent on this hatefest,

According to Zuroff:

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to refrain from honoring the “Lithuanian Activist Front” which sought to reestablish Lithuanian independence following the Nazi invasion of the country launched seventy years ago on June 22, 1941. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the vicious incitement against the Jews of Lithuania by the Lithuanian Activist Front prior to the invasion and their appeal for Lithuanians to take measures on their own against Jews considered suspect of betraying the country. These calls, it should be noted, led to widespread physical violence which claimed the lives of at least hundreds of Jews by local vigilantes, before the arrival of the Nazis in at least forty different locations.

According to Zuroff:

“Any attempt to glorify the Lithuanian Activist Front is not a tribute to Lithuanian patriotism, but rather a ringing endorsement of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and a horrific insult to the numerous victims of the Holocaust murdered by Lithuanians. The seventieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion should be an occasion for repentance and reflection on the role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes, and a day to honor those brave Lithuanians who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors. They were the true Lithuanian patriots, not the anti-Semites of the Lithuanian Activist Front .”

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“The recent death of Milivoj Ašner in Austria unprosecuted for his crimes, is a travesty of justice which reinforces the total failure of the Austrian judicial authorities to adequately deal with the issue of Nazi war criminals during the past more than three decades.

Ašner’s role in the persecution and death of hundreds of Serb, Jewish, and Roma residents of the city of Požega, Croatia in his capacity as local Ustasha  police chief was critical and his criminal responsibility for their tragic fate is absolutely clear.

To Croatia’s credit they act for his extradition from Austria in 2005 but Ašner was able to escape justice due to faulty handling of his case by the Austrian authorities, who instead of doing everything possible to bring him to justice allowed sympathetic doctors to prevent his prosecution by declaring him unfit for trial although he gave numerous media interviews in which he described his past in a very lucid manner.

“On this occasion it is important to reiterate the critical role of political will in bringing Holocaust perpetrators to justice and to call upon all the countries who face this issue to make an urgent final effort to bring these murderers to justice before it is too late to do so.”

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Budapest-Judge Viktor Vadasz of the District Court of Pest this afternoon acquitted the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff of libel charges filed against him by accused Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr. Sandor Kepiro, whom Zuroff exposed in 2006 and who will be facing criminal charges in a Budapest court this coming Thursday, May 5. In his verdict Judge Vadasz noted that Zuroff had acted in good faith by first contacting the Hungarian prosecutors after discovering that Kepiro had returned to Hungary from Argentina, before notifying the media.
According to Zuroff:
Needless to say, I am relieved to have been acquitted, but the most important issue is Kepiro’s guilt which will be hopefully established by a criminal court in his trial which begins Thursday morning. This has been a long and frustrating process, which began in the summer of 2006, but I am hopeful that justice will finally be achieved. That is what the victims of the massacre in Novi Sad deserve and that is what I have been fighting for from the very beginning of this process.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center has labeled a neo-Nazi march of approximately 1,000 participants held this past Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly condemned a proposal submitted by the family of Latvian mass murderer Herberts Cukurs to bury their father’s remains in the “Brothers’ Cemetery” in Riga, the site of the burial of Latvia’s most important heroes. In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center denounced the proposal as an attempt to absolve one of the biggest Latvian Nazi war criminals of his horrific crimes, which is an unforgivable insult to the memory of all the victims of the Holocaust and an affront to all Latvians with any sense of honesty and morality.

According to Zuroff:
“Hrebert Cukurs was the deputy commander of the notorious “Arajs Kommando,” which actively participated in the mass murder of tens of thousands of Latvian and foreign Jews in Riga and the provinces, as well as in Belarus. Cukurs was a zealous volunteer for the Nazi cause and its program of the annihilation of all the ostensible enemies of the Third Reich. Numerous testimonies in the Yad Vashem Archives document Cukurs’ crimes and the fact that he personally murdered numerous Jewish men, women, and children. The fact that he was never prosecuted in a court of law is no proof whatsoever of his innocence; unfortunately many of the biggest Holocaust perpetrators were able to escape justice. The burial of his remains in the “Brothers’ Cemetery” will be an eternal badge of shame for Latvia.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to make every possible effort to apprehend and punish the individuals who last night vandalized the site of the “Ninth Fort,” one of the most important sites of Holocaust mass murder in general, and in Lithuania, in particular. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center expressed grave pain and indignation that a place which currently commemorates, and during World War II had been the site of, such horrific Holocaust crimes in which tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators, was vandalized with swastikas and inscriptions calling for the expulsion of Jews, and memorial plaques were forcibly removed from their places.

According to Zuroff:
“The disgusting desecration of one of the most important sites of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry is a clear message of implacable hatred for the Jews living in Lithuania and a insult to the memory of the innocent Jewish victims brutally annihilated by the German and Austrian Nazis and their Lithuanian helpers, who carried out most of the killing at this site of infamy. It is high time that Lithuanian students and children will be taught the truth about the role of their countrymen in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and many thousands of Jews outside the country, and that the government stop trying to minimize local collaboration with the Nazis and promote the canard of equivalency between Communist and Holocaust crimes.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the dismissal of the case against
Holocaust denier Petras Stankeras and the failure of the Lithuanian prosecutors to publicize the decision. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the constant failure since independence of the Lithuanian judiciary to punish Lithuanians who commit crimes related to the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:
“While the crimes of Holocaust denial is not comparable to the terrible Holocaust war crimes committed by Liliekis, Gimzauskas and Dailide, the Lithuanian judiciary has once again demonstrated its total inability to punish locals who commit crimes related to the annihilation of European Jewry. I have no doubt that a Lithuanian who committed Communist crimes or tried to deny them would never be treated with such leniency. Perhaps those accused of Holocaust crimes have to be prosecuted elsewhere?”

Background: The November 16 issue of the popular news weekly Veidas published an article by Interior Ministry specialist Petras Stankeras in which he called the Holocaust a "legend." The Wiesenthal Center called for his prosecution under a Lithuanian law which makes the denial of Holocaust crimes a criminal offence. An investigation was initiated against him, but we recently learned that no charges had been filed against him, and Stankeras, who had resigned from his post under pressure from the Center and seven European ambassadors who had also protested against his denial of the Shoa, had applied to be reinstated to his original job.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision of the Vilnius Municipality to permit a march by local neo-Nazis and ultranationalists through the center of the Lithuanian capital this coming March 11, to mark the restoration in 1990 of Lithuanian independence. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic slogans and signs of the participants in last year’s march on the same day, and called upon the local authorities to change their misguided decision.

According to Zuroff:

“Freedom of speech does not include the right to incite hatred of Lithuania’s minorities and foreigners. The fact that racist and anti-Semitic slogans could be shouted with impunity on the main avenue of a capital of a member state of the European Union is incomprehensible. One of the primary factors for the rise of ultranationalist sentiments in Lithuania has been the abysmal failure of successive governments to teach the truth about the extensive complicity of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes and to punish local Nazi war criminals. Had the truth been admitted, there would be virtually no support in Lithuanian society for racism and anti-Semitism, but instead the government is spending hundreds of thousands of euros on falsifying the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania and seeking support for the lie that Communist crimes were just as terrible as those of the Nazis.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its deep satisfaction that the number one suspect on its list of most wanted Nazi war criminals, former Hungarian gendarmerie officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro, was officially charged with war crimes today in Budapest in connection with his role in the mass murders of hundreds of innocent civilians carried out by Hungarian military and gendarmerie forces in the area of the Serbian city of Novi Sad in late January 1942. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who tracked down Kepiro and in August 2006 informed the Hungarian justice authorities that he was residing in Budapest, the Center noted the significance of theindictment and its importance for the victims of Kepiro’s crimes and their families, as well as for Hungarian and Serbian society.

According to Zuroff:
“My thoughts today are with the people of Novi Sad and their families, the victims of the mass murders carried out by the Hungarian forces in January 1942. It is they who so deserve that justice finally be achieved in this case, so that they can finally achieve a measure of closure, even if it is many years after the crimes. The indictment of Kepiro also sends a powerful message that the passage of time does not diminish the guilt of the killers and that old age should not protect those who committed such heinous crimes. For the past more than four years, I have waited for this news and now we finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon the German authorities to make a final effort to bring to justice two convicted but unpunished Nazi war criminals living in Germany and to open the files of the BND (German Secret Service) regarding the postwar escape of notorious Holocaust perpetrators. In an op-ed piece published today in the important German daily Sűddeutsche Zeitung, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff noted the recent revelations which indicate that the BND knew of the whereabouts of arch Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann long before his capture in Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents, as proof of the significance of the files to which access has hereto been blocked. In addition, he emphasized the unresolved cases of Dutch Nazi SS executioner Klaas Carl Faber (living in Ingolstadt, Bavaria) and Danish SS officer Soern Kam (Kempten, Bavaria), both of whom were convicted in their countries of origin for murder, but have hereto eluded justice after escaping to Germany and being granted German citizenship.

According to Zuroff:

The visit to Israel today by Prime Minister Merkel and members of the Cabinet
is an excellent opportunity to thank Germany for its improved record in bring Nazi war criminals to justice, but also to point to two important issues which require the attention of the German government. We very much hope that Faber and Kam, both of whom committed hands-on murder in the service of the Nazis, will not escape punishment and that the critical files on the postwar escape of major Nazi war criminals will finally be opened to historians and researchers.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German Security Service (BND) to open its files on escaped Nazi war criminals in the wake of recent revelations that the German authorities already knew of the whereabouts in Argentina of Adolf Eichmann in 1952, eight years before he was abducted by the Mossad to stand trial in Israel for his critical role in the implementation of the Final Solution. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the importance of such information, which clearly shows the utter indifference of the German authorities at that time to the necessity of bringing such key Holocaust perpetrators to justice.

According to Zuroff:
“The time has come to reveal the truth about the efforts, or lack thereof, of Germany to apprehend and bring to trial the individuals responsible for the mass murder of European Jewry and millions of other innocent victims. There is important historical research which must be done on this topic, but which cannot proceed without the opening of the pertinent archives. We call upon the BND to finally grant full access to its records and to allow the full story, as problematic as it might be, to be made known to the public. The Nazis’victims, as well as the rest of the world , deserve no less.”

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Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute den Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) dazu aufgefordert, seine Akten über flüchtige NS-Verbrecher zu öffnen. Diese Forderung sei um so dringender, nachdem jetzt berichtet wurde, dass der deutsche Geheimdienst schon 1952, acht Jahre vor der Verhaftung von Adolf Eichmann im Jahr 1960, wusste, wo sich der Organisator des Holocaust in Argentinien aufhielt. In einer Stellungnahme unterstrich der Nazijäger und Leiters des Jerusalemer Büros des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, die große Bedeutung solcher Informationen, die das Desinteresse deutscher Stellen bei der Strafverfolgung von NS-Tätern in den 1950er Jahren belegen.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff: „Die Zeit ist gekommen, um die Wahrheit über die Bemühungen oder eben das fehlende Interesse Deutschlands an der Bestrafung derjenigen zu schreiben, die für den Massenmord an den europäischen Juden und Millionen anderer unschuldiger Zivilisten verantwortlich sind. Wichtige historische Recherchen müssen zu diesem Thema unternommen werden, aber ohne eine Öffnung der Archive werden sie verhindert. Wir fordern den Bundesnachrichtendienst dazu auf, endlich freien Zugang zu den Dokumenten zu gewähren, um die ganze Geschichte schreiben und veröffentlichen zu können, wie schwierig das auch sein mag. Die Opfer der Nazis und der Rest der Welt verdienen es.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised Australian Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O”Conner for appealing the recent decision by a Perth court which would have prevented the extradition to Hungary of suspected Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai, who has been accused of murdering an 18 year old Jewish boy named Peter Balazs, whom he caught on a Budapest streetcar without the yellow star required of all Jews. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center praised the perseverance of the Australian and Hungarian authorities in this case and noted that the decision reinforces the important principle that the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of Holocaust perpetrators.

According to Zuroff:
“Minister O’Conner has wisely not been persuaded by the disinformation campaign launched on behalf of Mr. Zentai by his family and supporters who are determined to prevent him from facing justice. There is an abundance of evidence which points unequivocally to Zentai’s active participation in the murder of Peter Balazs, which originally convinced the Hungarian government to initially seek his extradition in the late forties. Rather than regarding Zentai as a frail pensioner, he should be considered as a person who at the time of his physical prime devoted all his strength and energy to the persecution of innocent Jews.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the rejection by the European Commission of a call by the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to introduce a “double-genocide law” which would make the denial of Communist crimes a criminal offense.
In a statement issued today by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center welcomed the decision as an important milestone in the critical struggle against attempts by post-Communist countries to rewrite the history of World War II and the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:
“Today’s decision marks the first concrete step taken by the European Union to oppose the ongoing recent campaign by the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe which seeks to promote the canards that the crimes of Communism are equivalent to those of the Nazis, and that the Soviet Union is equally responsible with Nazi Germany for the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust. Rewriting the history of that tragic period in this manner, which also seeks to minimize the important role played by East Eastern local Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust, will not honor the memory of the victims of Communism, but will only shame those supporting this misguided initiative.”

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Budapest-The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed today’s decision by the District Court of Pest [Budapest] to reject a libel suit launched by convicted but unpunished Hungarian Nazi war criminal Dr. Sandor Kepiro against its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, in the wake of Kepiro’s failure to appear at a hearing scheduled for this morning. In a statement issued today by Zuroff, the Center expressed its satisfaction that this “diversionary tactic” by Kepiro and his legal team had been disposed of, but emphasized that the key issue-Kepiro’s role in helping to organize and carry the mass murder of at least 1,250 innocent residents of the Serbian city of Novi Sad on January 23, 1942-still remained to be dealt with.

According to Zuroff:
“While I am naturally relieved that this legal harassment by Kepiro has been rejected by the court, the real issue of Kepiro’s guilt has still not been addressed properly by the Hungarian prosecutors who have been investigating his case for over three and a half years. Given the fact that Kepiro was convicted by a Hungarian court in 1944 in relation to the massacre in Novi Sad and the extremely strong evidence available regarding his role in the arrests and roundups of numerous residents of the city who were murdered by the Hungarian forces on January 23, 1942, Kepiro should have been brought to justice long ago. In view of the fact that Kepiro was already 92 years old when I initially submitted the information regarding his residence in Budapest to the prosecutors on August 1, 2006, it is particularly unfortunate that his case was not expedited by the Hungarian authorities. We therefore urge the prosecutors in Budapest to do everything possible to finally bring this Holocaust perpetrator to justice.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that it would continue its efforts to press for the extradition to Hungary of Charles Zentai for his role in the November 8, 1944 murder of 18 year old Peter Balazs, a young Jew whom he is accused of murdering, after catching him without the yellow star on a Budapest streetcar.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, in the wake of today’s proceeding in Perth in which the same judge who accepted Zentai’s appeal against his extradition ordered the government to pay his court costs, the Center indicated that it was determined to continue its efforts to bring the accused to justice.

According to Zuroff:
“The Center will do its utmost to help achieve justice in this case. I am in contact with Hungarian Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics, who was indicated that there is no statute of limitations on such crimes and that the request for Zentai’s extradition remains in force. During my visit next week to Budapest, I will continue to pursue this matter with the relevant local officials in order to facilitate justice. The Balazs family, Hungarian society, and all persons of morality and conscience deserve no less.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian government to prosecute Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior senior specialist Petras Stankeras, who called the Holocaust a “legend” and denied the murder of six million Jews in an article he published in the November 14 issue of the news weekly Veidas. In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff , the Center welcomed Stankeras’ resignation today, but noted that Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Lithuania and urged the implementation of the law in this case for the first time ever.

According to Zuroff:

“As shocking as the article by Stankeras was, it is hardly surprising to see Holocaust denial in a popular mainstream publication, in a country in which the government itself is actively promoting Holocaust distortion by seeking to gain recognition that Communist crimes are equivalent to those of the Nazis. If we add the abysmal failure to punish a single Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrator and the tendency to minimize or hide the role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, Stankeras’ article is only the tip of a very dangerous iceberg of lies and distortion.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German authorities to accede to a Dutch European arrest warrant issued yesterday for the incarceration of escaped Dutch SS-executioner Klaas Faber, currently residing in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, who is currently third on the Center’s list of “Most Wanted” Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Faber, who was convicted in Holland for his role in the murder of 22 persons after the war, escaped in 1952 to Germany, which has hereto rejected Dutch extradition requests, since Faber was the beneficiary of the infamous “Fuhrer directive” of 1943 which granted automatic German citizenship to foreign Nazi collaborators.

According to Zuroff:

“We welcome this step by the Dutch government and urge the German authorities to arrest Faber immediately so that the can finally serve his well-deserved punishment. The fact that this murderer of so many innocent people has been protected by Germany for so many decades is a travesty and sends a message that even those convicted of multiple murders can escape justice. Faber’s victims, their families, and Dutch and German society deserve that he finally be punished for his crimes.”

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JJerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement in response to the death near Bonn of former Belzec death camp guard Samuel Kunz, who was indicted and awaiting trial for his role in the mass murder committed at the camp. The Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, expressed the deep frustration of having justice thwarted shortly before Kunz was scheduled to be brought to trial.

According to Zuroff:

“The fact that Samuel Kunz lived in Germany unprosecuted for so many decades is the result of a flawed prosecution policy which ignored virtually any Holocaust perpetrator who was not an officer. It was only the recent, long-awaited change in this policy which led to Kunz’s indictment and the opportunity to hold him accountable for his crimes. We urge the German authorities to expedite all such cases, given the advanced age of the suspects, so that a measure of justice can still be achieved.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center gab heute eine Stellungnahme zum Tod des ehemaligen Aufsehers des Todeslagers Belzec, Samuel Kunz, bei Bonn heraus. Kunz war angeklagt worden und wartete auf das Verfahren wegen seiner Teilnahme am Massenmord in dem Lager. Der Nazijäger und Leiter des Jerusalemer Büros des Wiesenthal Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, brachte seine tiefe Frustration darüber zum Ausdruck, dass Kunz der Gerechtigkeit kurz vor Beginn des Gerichtsverfahrens entkommen ist.

Efraim Zuroff:

„Die Tatsache, dass Kunz Jahrzehnte ungestraft in Deutschland leben konnte, ist das Ergebnis einer fehlerhaften Ermittlungsstrategie, die praktisch jeden Holocaust-Täter ignorierte, der kein Offizier war. Nur der jüngste, lange erwartete Wechsel der Ermittlungspraxis führte zur Anklage und hätte die Möglichkeit geboten, ihn für seine Taten zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen. Wir fordern die deutschen Behörden dazu auf, ähnliche Fälle wegen des hohen Alters der Beschuldigten schnell zu bearbeiten, damit Gerechtigkeit hergestellt werden kann.“

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Jerusalem- A defamation suit launched last year by Hungarian Nazi collaborator Dr. Sandor Kepiro against the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the person who discovered and exposed the former gendarmerie officer, who played an important role in the January 23, 1942 mass murder of at least some 1,250 civilians in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, will open tomorrow, Friday, October 8, at the Budapest district court. Zuroff discovered Kepiro living in the Hungarian capital after almost half a century in exile in Argentina and has spearheaded the efforts to hold him accountable for his role in helping to organize a massacre of Jewish, Serb and Roma residents of the city of Novi Sad in January 1942. All the officers implicated in the massacre were put on trial in Budapest in late 1943 and convicted in early 1944, but following the Nazi invasion of Hungary, their sentences were cancelled and they were given promotions and returned to active service, without any of them being punished.

In February 2007, the Hungarian prosecution initiated an investigation of Kepiro's role in the Novi Sad massacre, based on documentation submitted by Zuroff, but no decision has been made yet on whether he will be put on trial.According to Zuroff, the failure to date of the Hungarian judicial authorities to punish Kepiro for his role in the heinous crimes committed by the Hungarian forces in Novi Sad should be the main issue and not the truthful allegations levelled by the Wiesenthal Center against Kepiro. "Nothing could be more absurd than my being in the docket in Budapest, while a notorious Hungarian Nazi collaborator remains a free man in the Hungarian capital."

Dr. Zuroff can be reached for comment at: 972-50-712-4156.

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the support of Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman who this week urged his German counterpart Sabine Leutheusser – Schnarrenberger to find a way to take action in the case of escaped convicted Dutch Nazi war criminals Klaas Carel Faber, currently residing in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.

Since his escape to Germany in 1952 from a Dutch jail, where he was serving a life sentence for his alleged role in the murder of at least 11 civilians, Faber has been spared extradition to Holland and punishment in Germany due to legal technicalities. In a statement issued here today, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff called upon the Bavarian judicial authorities to review the case and refrain from granting Faber judicial protection on the grounds that he was not an officer.

According to Zuroff:

“As clearly demonstrated by the recent conviction in Aachen of Dutch SS-executioner Heinrich Boere and the indictments of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Munich and Belzec death camp guard Samuel Kunz in Dortmund, German prosecutors no longer consider “superior orders” a legitimate defense in Holocaust crimes. It is high time that Faber as well will be held accountable for his role in the murder of innocent civilians.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die Unterstützung des israelischen Justizminsters Yaakov Neeman begrüßt, der seine deutsche Kollegin Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger dazu aufgefordert hat, nach Wegen für eine Bestrafung des niederländischen NS-Täters Klaas Faber zu suchen. Faber war für seine Taten in den Niederlanden verurteilt worden, konnte sich der Haft aber durch Flucht entziehen und lebt heute in Ingostadt, Bayern.
Seit seiner Flucht nach Deutschland im Jahr 1952 lebt er aufgrund von rechtlichen Problemen in Freiheit. In den Niederlanden war er wegen der Ermordung von mindestens elf Zivilisten zu einer lebenslangen Haftstrafe verurteilt worden. In einer Stellungnahme hat der Nazijäger und Direktor des Wiesenthal Büros in Israel, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, die bayerische Justiz dazu aufgerufen, den Fall zu überprüfen und den bisherigen Standpunkt zu revidieren, wonach Fabers Tatbeitrag wegen seiner „untergeordneten Rolle als Teilnehmer an einem Erschießungskommando nur als gering anzusehen“ sei und deshalb nicht als Mordtäter belangt werden könne.
Zuroff: „Wie die Verurteilung des niederländischen SS-Killers Heinrich Boere in Aachen und die Anklagen gegen die KZ-Aufseher Ivan Demjanjuk in München und Samuel Kunz in Bonn deutlich machen, betrachten deutsche Staatsanwälte den Befehlsnotstand nicht länger als Hinderungsgrund bei NS-Gewalttaten. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass Faber für seine Beteiligung an der Ermordung von unschuldigen Zivilisten bestraft wird.“

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today sharply criticized comments made by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Andronius Ažubalis late last week at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the Homeland Union and Christian Democratic parties. In a presentation regarding proposed legislation which would permit individuals of Lithuanian origin living elsewhere to obtain Lithuanian citizenship in addition to their current citizenship, the Foreign Minister claimed that the bill was being promoted primarily by “Jews who seek citizenship to press compensation claims against the state.” In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center categorized Ažubalis’ remarks as “unabashedly anti-Semitic and totally divorced from reality.”

According to Zuroff:
“The Foreign Minister’s outrageous comments expose the insidious duplicity of Lithuania’s attitude toward foreign Jews of Lithuanian origin. On the one hand, the government recently announced its intention to establish a “Litvak Forum” to enlist the support and assistance of overseas Jews, yet at the same time, one of its leading ministers openly expresses his disdain for the same people. The Center therefore fully supports the stance of Lithuania’s brave local Jewish community, which has openly demanded an apology from Minister Ažubalis, whose comments ‘sow discord between Lithuanians and Jews.’”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. 150 örtliche Rechtsanwälte fordern in einer Eingabe die israelische Regierung dazu auf, in Deutschland rechtliche Schritte gegen den SS-Vollstrecker Klaas Faber zu erwirken, der in Freiheit in Ingolstadt lebt. Die Petition wurde gestern dem israelischen Justizminister Yaakov Ne’man übergeben. Initiator der Aktion ist der Anwalt David Schonberg. Er brachte den Ärger der Anwälte darüber zum Ausdruck, dass Faber, der in den Niederlanden für mehrere Morde zum Tode verurteilt wurde, seit Jahrzehnten unbestraft in Deutschland leben kann. Faber war 1952 nach Deutschland geflohen, das Todesurteil wurde später in eine lebenslange Haftstrafe umgewandelt. Mehrere niederländische Auslieferungsersuchen wurden in Deutschland abgelehnt. Mit der Beschwerde wollen die Anwälte die Bemühungen des Simon Wiesenthal Centers, Faber zur Verantwortung zu ziehen, unterstützen. Und man erhofft sich eine aktive Unterstützung der Aktion durch die israelische Regierung. Die Petition ruft die israelische Regierung auch dazu auf, die deutsche Regierung dazu zu bringen, Rechtsnormen wie den so genannten „Führerbefehl“ von 1943 zu ändern, der nichtdeutschen Kollaborateuren zur deutschen Staatsbürgerschaft verhilft und sie so vor einer Auslieferung in ihre Heimatländer schützt, wo sie rechtskräftig verurteilt worden sind.
Rechtsanwalt Schonberg: „Der Schutz, den das deutsche Recht diesem verurteilten Kriegsverbrecher gewährt, der ihm ein ruhiges Leben in Deutschland ermöglicht, ist eine Verletzung des Rechts und der menschlichen Werte und eine Verharmlosung der grausamen Verbrechen des Holocaust. Das ist ein schädliches Signal für die moderne Gesellschaft. Wir erwarten, dass unsere Regierung bei den Bemühungen um eine Bestrafung von NS-Tätern eine aktivere Rolle spielt.“
Der Leiter des Wiesenthal Centers in Jerusalem und Nazijäger Dr. Efraim Zuroff begrüßte die Initiative und fügte hinzu, dass „das Scheitern eines Prozesses gegen Faber in Deutschland und einer Auslieferung nach Holland ein Unrecht ist, das so schnell wie möglich korrigiert werden muss, so lange noch Gerechtigkeit erreicht werden kann.“ Die Petition wird auch unterstützt von der Organisation der Holocaust-Überlebenden und von Yad Vashem.

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Jerusalem-A petition signed by 150 local lawyers calling upon the Israeli government to urge Germany to take legal action against convicted Nazi SS executioner Klaas Faber, who is currently residing unpunished for his crimes in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, was submitted late yesterday to the office of Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman. The petition, which was initiated and organized by Advocate David Schonberg, expressed the lawyers’ sense of outrage that Faber, who was sentenced to death in Holland for a string of murders he carried out in the service of the SS but who escaped to Germany in 1952, has been living unprosecuted and unpunished in Germany for decades, despite several requests from the Dutch government for his extradition to serve his sentence, which had been commuted in the late 40’s to life imprisonment. The petition was submitted in support of the ongoing efforts of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to bring Faber to justice, and to enlist the active support of the Israeli government in this case. It also calls for the Israeli government to urge Germany to cancel any existing laws, such as the infamous “Fuhrer befehl”, which granted German citizenship to local non-German Nazi collaborators and protected them from extradition to their countries of origin to face prosecution and/or punishment.
According to Advocate Schonberg: “The protection that German law accords this convicted war criminal, enabling him to live untroubled in Germany is an affront to law and human values, and by its belittling of the enormity of the holocaust’s crimes, provides a harmful message to modern society. We expect our government to take a more active role in the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice and this is exactly the type of case where Israel’s involvement can prove of critical assistance”.
The Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff welcomed the initiative and added that “Germany’s failure hereto to put Faber on trial or return him to Holland are a travesty which must be corrected as quickly as possible, while justice can still be achieved.” The petition also has the support of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust survivors and Yad Vashem.

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156 (Zuroff) or 02-624-2458 ( Schonberg)

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center brachte heute seine Enttäuschung angesichts des Todes des des SS-Führers und Polizeihauptmanns Erich Steidtmann zum Ausdruck, der während des II. Weltkriegs als Offizier mehrerer Polizeibataillone am nationalsozialistischen Massenmord an Juden in Osteuropa beteiligt war, aber nicht für seine Taten zur Rechenschaft gezogen wurde. In einer Stellungnahme, die heute vom Leiter des Jerusalemer Büros des Centers, Dr. Efraim Zuroff veröffentlicht wurde, heißt es, dass Steidtmanns Tod jahrzehntelange Versäumnisse der deutschen Justiz bei den Ermittlungen in diesem Fall belegt. Schon in den 1960er Jahren war mehrfach gegen ihn ermittelt worden, die Verfahren wurden jedoch trotz guter Beweislage eingestellt.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff: „Nur dank der Recherchen des Historikers Dr. Stefan Klemp vom Wiesenthal Center und des Magazins der Süddeutschen Zeitung wurden die Ermittlungen wieder aufgenommen. Unglücklicherweise wird es aber nicht mehr zu einem Gerichtsverfahren kommen. Hätten die Staatsanwälte in den 1960er Jahren vernünftig ermittelt, wäre er der Gerechtigkeit nicht entkommen, aber wenigstens starb er nicht in Ruhe und Frieden.“

Rückfragen: 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its frustration and disappointment in the wake of the death earlier this week in Hannover of former Nazi police battalion commander Erich Steidtmann, who led several police battalions which actively participated in the mass murder of numerous Jews in eastern Europe, before he could be prosecuted for his crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Steidtmann’s death unprosecuted reflected a decades-long failure by the German judicial authorities in his case, which was opened as early as the sixties, but was closed then for lack of evidence.

According to Zuroff:
“It was only thanks to research by the Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Stefan Klemp and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine that the case against Steidtmann was reopened, but unfortunately it will never come to court nor will Steidtmann ever be punished. Had the prosecutors done their job properly in the sixties, he would not have escaped justice, but at least he did not die in peace and tranquility.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon Jews of Lithuanian descent (Litvaks”) the world over to boycott a new initiative announced late last week by Lithuanian Prime Ministry Andrius Kubilius to create a “Litvak heritage forum.” In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center accused the Lithuanian government of trying to enlist Jewish support for its ongoing campaigns of Holocaust distortion and promoting a false equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“The creation of a new “Litvak Forum” is merely the latest in a long line of Lithuanian governmental initiatives to promote a false narrative of the events of World War II, which minimizes the extensive role of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews and promotes the canard that Communist crimes were equivalent to those of the Nazis. Such an initiative is the equivalent of forming an Armenian support group for Turkish efforts to deny the Armenian genocide.

“The Center will continue its efforts to thwart Lithuanian Holocaust distortion and is already in contact with the “Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel,” the world’s largest Litvak organization to ensure the failure of the latest governmental tactic to hide the truth about the Holocaust in Lithuania and to prevent naïve Litvaks from helping destroy their own historical legacy.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly criticized a decision by a judge in Perth, Australia to reject a request submitted by the Hungarian government in 2005 for the extradition of Charles (Karoly) Zentai in connection with his role in the murder of Peter Balazs, an 18 year-old Jewish boy whom he caught in Budapest without the yellow star required by the local fascist authorities. In a statement issued by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the insufferable delays of the legal process in the wake of bogus technical challenges mounted by Zentai’s lawyers and noted that the failure to extradite Zentai means that Australia is the only major Western democracy, to which at least hundreds of Nazi war criminals emigrated after World War II, which has failed to take successful legal action against a single one of them.

According to Zuroff:
“Today is a very sad day for Australia, Australian justice, and especially for the Balazs family and for people seeking justice for the victims of the Holocaust. If anything, the Zentai case shows a lack of understanding by the Australian judicial system of the urgency and importance of bringing suspected Holocaust criminals to justice. Contrary to today’s decision, Zentai’s age is totally irrelevant (no country in the world limits prosecution based solely on age) and the notion that he would be treated harshly in Hungary, a member in good standing of the European Union and NATO is ludicrous. We urge the Hungarian and Australian authorities to take all possible measures to overturn today’s unfortunate decision.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center praised the public criticism by Latvian leaders of the march of extremist Latvian nationalists held today in Riga, but warned that the unprecedented celebration of the Nazi occupation of the city, held today in the middle of the Latvian capital, would have dire consequences unless a legal means were found to prevent such events in the future. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian and chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the unequivocal denunciation of the march by President Valdis Zatlers, as well as the criticism voiced by Prime Minister Dombrovskis and Foreign Minister Ronis, and urged the Latvian leaders to find legal means to prevent such demonstrations in the future. He emphasized, however, that such events did not occur in a vacuum and that Latvia’s failure since independence to prosecute Nazi war criminals, its attempts to glorify the members of the Latvian SS battalions which fought for a victory of the Nazi Germany, and its reluctance to fully acknowledge the scope and role of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews explain why such an unprecedented event was taking place in Latvia.

According to Zuroff:
“Unfortunately, there is far too much local sympathy for Latvians who committed the crimes of the Holocaust as long as they fought against the Soviets. The only way to eradicate this distorted perception of Latvian history is to tell the whole truth about the critical role played by Latvians in the mass murder of Jews and other victims of the Nazis, and to stop trying to create false historical symmetries between Nazism and Communism. Legal measures to stop the glorification of Nazi Germany are important, but the best long-term solution is truth in history education.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed its outrage at today's decision by a district court in Riga, Latvia to allow an event to "celebrate" the sixty-ninth anniversary of the Nazi occupation of the city at its famous Freedom Monument in the center of town this coming Thursday, July 1, 2010.

In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center strongly protested the decision which it categorized as "incomprehensible and totally outrageous," and an insult to all the victims of Nazism and those who fought to save the world from Nazi totalitarianism.

According to Zuroff:
" It is inconceivable that a member in good standing in NATO and the European Union will allow such an event to take place. To celebrate the anniversary of Nazi invasion of Riga on July 1 is to celebrate the mass murder of all those victimized by the Nazis in Latvia-primarily Jews but also Communists, Gypsies, and the mentally-ill. To hold such an event at the Freedom Monument is an insult to all those who fought for a democratic Latvia and the exact opposite of what that site is supposed to represent.

" We urge saner minds to prevail in Riga to stop this outrage from taking place and send a clear and unequivocal message that Latvia will not tolerate a glorification of Nazism, the scourge of the 20th century."

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a strongly-worded protest against the decision yesterday by a Lithuanian court in the port city of Klaipeda to regard swastikas as symbols of Lithuania’s historical heritage rather than of Nazi Germany. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the decision “outrageous” and likely to lead to a tremendous increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania’s ultra-nationalist fascists.

According to Zuroff:

“Such a decision is certain to encourage Lithuania’s fascists to increase their activity throughout the country. Allowing the use of swastikas sends a clear message to those local residents harshly victimized by the Nazis, that they are no longer welcome in their country of birth. Once again, Lithuanian judges show their obvious bias in favor of the perpetrators of Holocaust crimes rather then their victims. We urge the Lithuanian courts to overturn this outrageous and contemptible decision as quickly as possible.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed deep satisfaction in the wake of the conviction today of Dutch Nazi war criminal Heinrich Boere in a court in Aachen, Germany. Boere, who served in the Dutch “Silbertanne” SS murder squad, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three Dutch civilians suspected by the Nazis of hiding Jews and/or helping the resistance. In a statement issued in Jerusalem, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, praised the efforts of prosecutor Ulrich Maas and noted the significance of the trial which proved that Holocaust perpetrators could still be held accountable for their crimes.

According to Zuroff:

“The conviction of Boere, who volunteered to join the SS and openly admitted the crimes he committed is an important reminder that the overwhelming majority of the murderers of the Holocaust did so willingly and without any coercion whatsoever. Despite the passage of decades, this trial clearly shows that Nazi war criminals can still be brought to justice if there is political will to do so, which unfortunately is not the case in most European countries.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
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Jerusalem-The chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Holocaust historian
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, responded today to the attack leveled by recently-resigned Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Reikstins against his comments denouncing the march of Latvian-SS Legion veterans held last week in the Latvian capital. In a statement issued here, Zuroff categorized Reikstins’ comments in which he asserted that all the victims of World War II suffered equally as “an outrageous revisionist rewriting of history which erases all distinctions between perpetrator criminals and innocent victims.”

According to Zuroff:
“It is countries like Latvia, which attempt to cover up the complicity of their nationals in the crimes of the Holocaust, which are seeking to rewrite European history by creating false symmetries between Communist and Nazi crimes. The time has come for Latvia and its Baltic neighbors to stop trying to deflect and/or minimize local participation in the mass murder of the Jews during World War II and to desist from trying to equate Communist crimes with the Holocaust. Such efforts are not only an insult to the Nazis’ victims but dishonor those who suffered under Communism as well.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the critical comments made by Norwegian ambassador to Lithuania Steiner Gil regarding the failure of Lithuanian leaders and members of parliament to denounce a neo-Nazi march held earlier this month in the center of Vilnius. Ambassador Gil spoke at a seminar on “European and Lithuanian Values: Identical or Different?” held late last week in the Lithuanian Parliament. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center labeled the march “a horrifying spectacle of hatred, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism which brings back memories of dark days in Vilnius.”

According to Zuroff:
“Such neo-Nazi demonstrations have no place in European society, which suffered unprecedented losses at the hands of the Nazis and their local collaborators. The fact that no public figure had the courage to speak out against this manifestation of lack of tolerance is a strong indication of the weak foundations of Lithuanian democracy. Ambassador Gil’s criticism should serve as a dire warning to Lithuanian society.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Riga, Latvia – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the march of Latvian Waffen-SS veterans held this morning in the center of Riga to honor the Latvian SS legion which fought with the forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

In a statement issues in Riga by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who joined the anti-Fascist demonstrators against the march, the Center protested “the glorification of those who fought for a victory of the Third Reich, a regime directly responsible for the murder of tens of millions of innocent civilians.”

According to Zuroff:

“Today is a very sad day for Latvia and for the memory of the Holocaust. It is unthinkable that those who bore arms to help Nazi Germany subjugate Europe, among them numerous individuals, who actively participated in the mass murder of tens of thousand of Jews in Latvia and other countries, should be honored as if they are Latvia’s greatest heroes. Latvia’s true heroes are people like Janis Lipka and his wife who risk their life to save Jews from the German, Austrian, and Latvian Nazi murderers who sought to kill them.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156

Jerusalem. Das Simon Wiesenthal Center hat heute die Untersuchungen zur Aufklärung der Ermordung von 200 Menschen im April 1945 auf dem Gelände der SS-Kaserne in Graz-Wetzelsdorf begrüßt. Gleichzeitig fragte Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Leiter des Wiesenthal-Büros in Jerusalem, warum die Aufarbeitung erst so spät beginnt.

„Schon 1945 wurden Massengräber gefunden und Leichen exhumiert. Täter waren bekannt, aber die österreichischen Behörden haben es 65 Jahre lang versäumt, nach ihnen zu fahnden. Natürlich ist es gut dass jetzt endlich ermittelt wird“, so Efraim Zuroff, „aber warum hat man so lange gewartet?“ Jetzt dränge die Zeit. Efraim Zuroff fordert die Behörden dazu auf, keine weitere Zeit zu verschwenden: „Die Täter müssen gefunden und, falls möglich, vor Gericht gestellt werden.“

Zagreb – The Simon Wiesenthal Center has announced that its Chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, has been awarded an official Croatian state decoration by President Mesić in a ceremony held here today at the presidential residence. According to the official announcement made by the office of the president, the Order of Trpimir with Ribbon and Star was conferred on Zuroff for:

“his outstanding contribution to the fight against historical revisionism and [the] re-assertion of the anti-fascist foundation of the modern-day Republic of Croatia and for the establishment of good relations between the Republic of Croatia and State of Israel.”

In his acceptance remarks, Zuroff thanked President Mesić for this courageous leadership in combating neo-fascism and Ustasha nostalgia in Croatia and noted the significance of the trial of former Jasenovac commandant Dinko Sakić, which he referred to as “the most important trial of a local Nazi collaborator ever conducted in Post-Communist Europe.” more...

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
www.operationlastchance.org www.wiesenthal.com

Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed a sense of outrage and deep frustration in the wake of the death yesterday in Costa Rica of Harry Mannil, who served with the infamous Estonian Political Police in Tallinn during the initial year of the Nazi occupation and actively participated in the arrest and interrogation of Jews and Communists who were subsequently murdered by local Nazi collaborators, but was never prosecuted for his Holocaust crimes.

In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center emphasized the failure of the Estonian authorities to prosecute Mannil (who was listed as Number 10 on its “Most Wanted List” of Nazi war criminals and as a result of the Center’s efforts was barred from entering the United States) despite the findings of their own investigators regarding his activities in the framework of the dreaded Estonian Political Police, who were responsible for the arrest and murder of numerous Jews and Communists.

According to Zuroff:
“The failure of the Estonian authorities to bring Harry Mannil to trial is a reflection of the lack of political will in Tallinn to deal with the collaboration of Estonians in Holocaust crimes and a sad commentary on how an individual who was an embarrassment to his country bought immunity and respectability with financial payments.”

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
www.operationlastchance.org www.wiesenthal.com