Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today released the full text
of its seventh Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation
and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period
from April 1, 2007 until March 31, 2008 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 |
For the first time ever, Hungary, which in 2005 was the country which received
the best grade in Europe [B], was given a failing grade [F-2]
this year, due to its failure to prosecute former gendarmerie
officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro, who played an active role in the
mass murder of at least hundreds of civilians in the city
of Novi Sad, Serbia on January 23, 1942. |
2 |
For the second consecutive year, Lithuania which had previously received relatively
good marks, was given a failing grade [F-2] for its refusal
to implement the jail sentence meted out to Algimantas Dailide
who was convicted in Vilnius in March 2006 for his role in
the persecution of Jews and Poles. |
3 |
For the second consecutive year, Australia was given the worst grade [F-2] for
its continued failure to extradite suspected Nazi collaborator
Charles Zentai who is wanted for Holocaust crimes in his
native Hungary. |
4 |
For the second consecutive year, Croatia was given the worst grade [F-2] for
its continued failure to bring to justice Ivo Rojnica, the
former Ustasha governor of Dubrovnik, who died in Buenos
Aires in late November 2007 unprosecuted for his crimes. |
5 |
A relatively steep decrease in the number of convictions during the past year
was at least partially offset by an increase in the number
of new indictments filed. |
6 |
The continued and consistent success of the American “Office of Special Investigations”
to denaturalize and deport Nazi war criminals from the United
States. |
Zuroff noted that the statistics in the report clearly show that a significant
measure of justice can still be achieved against Nazi
war criminals. “Since January 2001, seventy-six convictions
against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least
fifty-two new indictments have been filed, and dozens
of 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 it is clear that numerous cases
of such criminals will continue to come 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, and especially by the US Office of Special Investigations, 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 explained 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 by countries like the United States and Italy,
as well as the abject failures of countries like Austria,
Hungary, Lithuania and others which have failed to
bring any of them to justice during the period under
review, as well as Sweden and Norway which in principle
refuse to investigate, let alone prosecute (due to
a statue of limitations), and others who have either
chosen to ignore the issue (Syria) or which have consistently
failed to deal with it effectively primarily due to
a lack of the requisite political will.”
The entire text of the
2008 report is available at: www.operationlastchance.org
Also please visit our website: www.wiesenthal.com
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