The Simon Wiesenthal
Center’s fifth Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation
and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals for the period from April
1, 2004 – March 31, 2005 points to the continuing success
of the United States in prosecuting Holocaust perpetrators during
the past year and the surprising potential for future prosecutions
as the number of new investigations initiated (in at least eleven
countries) during the past twelve months reached the figure of
six hundred and fifty-nine (an increase of 97% over the previous
year) and the number of cases currently under investigation (in
fifteen countries) reached at least one thousand two hundred and
eighteen (an increase of almost 30% over the figure for the period
from April 1, 2003 – March 31, 2004).
The report singles out Ukraine as the country which has done the
least in recent years to bring Nazis to justice in comparison to
the efforts which it should have invested to deal with former Holocaust
perpetrators, and highlights the failure of Croatia and Austria
to prosecute Milivoj Asner, the notorious police chief of Pozega,
Croatia who played an important role in the persecution and murder
of hundreds of innocent civilians, and who following his exposure
by the Wiesenthal Center’s “Operation: Last Chance” project
in June 2004 escaped to Klagenfurt Austria, where he presently
resides.
The report praised the Nazi-hunting activities of the Office of
Special Investigations of the US Justice Department as the most
successful agency of its kind in the world, and awarded grades
ranging from A (highest) to F to more than three dozen countries
which were either the site of Nazi crimes or admitted Holocaust
perpetrators after World War II.
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. “Since
January 2001, thirty-two convictions against Holocaust perpetrators
have been obtained, thirty-five new indictments have been filed,
and hundreds 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 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 by countries
like the United States, as well as the abject failures of countries
like Ukraine, which has so many potential suspects but has not
taken the necessary measures to bring them to justice, 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 (Estonia and many others).”
For more information call: 972-51-214156
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