The decision by Perth
Magistrate Barbara Lane on Wednesday to allow the extradition of
Karoly (Charles) Zentai to Hungary to stand trial for the murder
of Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest on November 8, 1944,
paves the way for an unprecedented, historic victory for Holocaust
justice in Australia.
Assuming, as expected, that Zentai's appeals against the decision
will be rejected, all that will be missing will be the signature
of Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus for Australia to succeed for the
first time ever in taking successful legal action against a Holocaust
perpetrator living in the country.
This long and difficult process began 22 years ago when the Australian
government initiated the Menzies Review to investigate allegations
that numerous East European Nazi collaborators had gained entry to
the country posing as innocent refugees from Communism. The Review
confirmed these claims and recommended that legal action be taken
against these criminals. In 1989 parliament passed an amendment allowing
the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators in Australian courts. But
for variety of reasons, all three prosecutions mounted by Australia's "Special
Investigations Unit" failed and the prosecution effort for all
practical purposes was shut down on June 30, 1992.
This was particularly unfortunate since the prospects of successes
at this point had become much better due to the breakup of the Soviet
Union and the greater access to witnesses and documents regarding
the crimes committed by the suspects living in Australia, all of
whom hailed from Eastern Europe. But the initial outlay of A$19 million
for the operations of the unit and its initial failures evoked considerable
political opposition and led to its premature closure.
Since that fateful decision, Australia has had two concrete opportunities
to act against Nazi war criminals residing in the country. In both
cases, the initiative came from the country in which the suspect
committed his crimes. The first was that of Konrad Kalejs, who served
as an officer in the infamous Arajs Kommando, a Latvian murder squad
that killed at least 30,000 Jews in Latvia alone. (It was later sent
to Belarus to assist in the murder of Jews there.)
At the end of World War II Kalejs moved to Denmark, and he emigrated
to Australia in 1950, where he initially served as an immigration
screening officer. He later moved to the United States, Canada and
Great Britain, all of which expelled him when his wartime activities
in the Arajs Kommando were revealed, only to return to Australia
each time.
When Latvia finally was convinced to ask for his extradition, which
was approved in an Australian court, it appeared that justice would
be achieved. But Kalejs died in Melbourne in 2001 before he could
be extradited, one of many Nazi killers who escaped to Australia
who were able to elude justice.
That leave the case of Karoly Zentai who was discovered in late
2004 living in Perth, after evidence of his crimes was sent to the
Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem by the brother of his victim. Zentai
served in a unit of the Hungarian army that was active in hunts for
Jews in Budapest in the fall of 1944 (when the fascist Arrow Cross
came to power) and played a major role in the murder of 18 year old
Peter Balazs whom he caught without the requisite yellow star on
a streetcar in Budapest on November 8, 1944. (He and Zentai grew
up in the suburb of Budafolk, so the latter knew that the former
was Jewish.)
Shortly after I submitted the evidence of Zentai's crimes to prosecutors
in Budapest, Hungary asked for his extradition to stand trial. But
Zentai has been able until today to postpone his extradition via
a variety of legal maneuvers that had absolutely nothing to do with
his case. Now that Magistrate Lane has ruled that the extradition
can proceed, the final moment of truth has arrived, not only for
Zentai but also for Australia.
jpost.com
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