Slightly
more than a year ago, the Simon Wiesenthal Center launched “Operation:
Last Chance” in
Romania at a press conference hosted by the Federation of
Romanian
Jewish Communities in Bucharest. Romania was the fifth
country in which the project was initiated. It was started
in July 2002 in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and was
expanded in the fall of 2003 to Poland, Romania and Austria.
This year it has already been launched in Croatia and Hungary.
They were chosen because the local population in these
countries actively participated in the mass murder of European
Jewry and have done practically nothing to bring these
murderers to justice.
The basic motivation for the project was the understanding
that time was running out in terms of bringing Nazi war
criminals to justice. Although many thousands
of those who actively participated in the persecution and murder of Jews in
the Holocaust have never been prosecuted for their crimes, fifty-seven years
had already passed since the end of World War II when “Operation: Last
Chance” was launched. Thus Aryeh Rubin, the founder of the “Targum
Shlishi” charitable foundation, which is funding “Operation: Last
Chance” and myself realized that in order to maximize justice we would
have to find more innovative and effective ways of tracking down Nazi war criminals
and finding evidence. We decided to offer a financial reward for information
which would lead to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals and
thus “Operation: Last Chance” was born.
Where do we currently stand two years after “Operation:
Last Chance” was launched and a year after it started
in Romania? In the Baltics we received the names of 247
suspects, mostly from Lithuania (198) and Latvia (43),
of which fifty-nine were submitted to local prosecutors.
About twenty murder investigations have already been initiated,
involving approximately fifty suspects, but to date no
indictments have been filed. We are hopeful that at least
a few of those currently under investigation will ultimately
be brought to trial, most probably in Lithuania. In Austria
and Poland the number of suspects is considerably lower
but the campaign in the latter had not yet been fully launched,
so it is too early to assess the Polish results. In Austria,
we received far less information than we anticipated and
the project was the subject of numerous anti-Semitic attacks.
In Romania, “Operation: Last Chance” has had
several stages. The first was our September 10, 2003 press
conference. That was followed by the launching of our toll-free
info line (0800-800-125), in December 2003, our poster
and newspaper ad campaign in Iasi in March 2004, and a
nationwide poster and ad campaign in the summer of 2004,
which is being followed by television ads. Each of these
elements, the last three of which have been prepared by
Tempo Advertising, has helped inform and educate the public
about “Operation: Last Chance” and, more important,
about the events of the Final Solution in Romania and the
role of Romanians in the crimes of the Holocaust, both
in Romania and in other countries.
The figures speak for themselves. To date, more than four
dozen individuals have contacted us by phone, letter and
email. Almost two dozen of the callers submitted information
regarding crimes committed in Romania and its annexed territories
during the Holocaust and/or the identities of specific
criminals, of whom fifteen men have already been named.
The ages of the informants ranged from under forty to over
ninety. They represented a geographic cross-section of
the entire country, although quite a few came from Bucharest
and Iasi. Some were eyewitnesses to crimes, others had
heard about them, either from the killers themselves or
from friends and/or relatives. The crimes they described
took place in different parts of Romania and Bessarabia
such as Botosani, Caraciunesti (Maramures district), Cernauti,
Popricani village, Oradea, Dorohoi, Bucharest and Iasi.
It is important to note that not all the callers had information
regarding the killers. Some, for example, related how they
or others had saved Jews during the Holocaust, while others
sent books or manuscripts on Holocaust crimes. One of the
most touching letters came from a woman named Cornelia
Nistor in Iasi who wrote a poem dedicated to Mira Greenberg,
the four year old girl killed in the Iasi pogrom whose
photo appeared on our “Operation: Last Chance” poster.
Other callers had strange requests such as the women who
sought help in finding a Jewish husband like “the
Biblical Joseph” or a family which sought help to
emigrate to Israel, but there were also a few obvious provocations
and anti-Semitic responses. For some of the informants,
the motive for contacting us was clearly financial, but
in many cases the people said that they did not want the
reward.
We are currently investigating all the leads we received
in order to decide which to submit to the Romanian judicial
authorities for possible prosecution. Only those names
of individuals against whom there is solid evidence and
who have not previously been prosecuted for their crimes
will be submitted, with our demand that these cases be
thoroughly and expeditiously handled. So far “Operation:
Last Chance” had been fairly successful in Romania,
but we will only be able to fully assess its impact upon
its completion. Obviously, a lot will depend on whether
any trials of Holocaust perpetrators will take place. Having
said that, a large measure of its relative success to date
can be attributed to the excellent cooperation and assistance
of the Jewish community and especially of the Association
of Holocaust Survivors, headed by Otto Adler. In terms
of its public impact, we are indebted to Tempo Advertising,
which has provided expertise and services at the highest
possible level to produce the most intensive “Operation:
Last Chance” campaign of its kind anywhere in the
world.
The main principle behind “Operation: Last Chance” is
that the passage of time in no way diminishes the culpability
of the criminals and the fact that Nazi murderers eluded
justice for fifty years does not make them innocent. To
ignore them, moreover, would be tantamount to excusing
genocide, a message which would only encourage such crimes
in the future.
In addition, I believe that this project helps fulfill
our obligation to the victims to try and bring their murderers
to justice, an obligation always emphasized by Simon Wiesenthal
himself. In addition, we must also note the educational
dimension of such a campaign and its importance in the
current fight against anti-Semitism, which in recent years
is again raising its ugly head in Europe.
In conclusion, I would like to share a letter which we
recently received form Letitia Demusca of Onesti in the
Bacau district. She had seen a television program on the
Holocaust in which a professor had claimed that none of
the Romanians who had rescued Jews during the Holocaust
were still alive. Letitia Demusca was writing to inform
us that not only was she still alive but that she vividly
recalls how her family rescued David Candel and his family
in Fundoaie, near Bistrita by hiding them in a hay stack
for five months. Yad Vashem, the Israeli national Holocaust
memorial, honored Ms. Demusca and her sister the late Ana
Craciun, but her letter is an important reminder and lesson.
Just as she is still alive and has clear memories of deeds
of courage and kindness which took place sixty years ago,
numerous people are still alive who can testify about the
crimes of the Holocaust. It is to encourage such people
to come forward to reveal the truth and identify those
who committed the murders, that “Operation: Last
Chance” was created. Let us all hope and pray for
its success.
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